<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV> <P>DOJ's Already Monitoring Modems <BR>By Declan McCullagh and Ben Polen <BR>4:42 p.m. Nov. 28, 2001 PST </P> <P><BR>WASHINGTON -- The Department of Justice already is using its new anti-terrorism powers to monitor cable modem users without obtaining a judge's permission first. </P> <P>A top Bush administration official lauded the controversial USA Patriot Act at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying that the new abilities have let police obtain information in investigations that was previously unavailable. </P> <P>"We would not have been able to do (this) under prior law without a specific court order," said Michael Chertoff, assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's criminal division. <snip></P> <P><A href="http://216.33.148.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=9f21be852997aa1d3706e3d8051bf69a&lat=1007071418&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ewired%2ecom%2fnews%2fprint%2f0%2c1294%2c48711%2c00%2ehtml" target=_blank>http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,48711,00.html</A><BR><BR><BR></P></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at <a href='http://go.msn.com/bql/hmtag_itl_EN.asp'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></html>