----- Original Message ----- From: <politech-request at politechbot.com> To: <politech at politechbot.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 10:31 AM Subject: Politech Digest, Vol 29, Issue 2
Send Politech mailing list submissions to politech at politechbot.com
To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://politechbot.com/mailman/listinfo/politech or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to politech-request at politechbot.com
You can reach the person managing the list at politech-owner at politechbot.com
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Politech digest..."
POLITECH DIGEST
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/) Digest subscription information is at the end. _______________________________________________________________
Today's Topics:
1. NSA acted on its own to broaden domestic spying after 9/11
[priv] (Declan McCullagh)
2. Feds begin "behavior monitoring" of air travelers this year
[econ] (Declan McCullagh)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1 Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2006 23:09:24 -0800 From: Declan McCullagh <declan.mccullagh at gmail.com> Subject: [Politech] NSA acted on its own to broaden domestic spying after 9/11 [priv] To: politech at politechbot.com Message-ID: <43BB74A4.9050701 at well.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
Here's a NYT article summarizing the letters, reproduced below: http://nytimes.com/2006/01/04/politics/04nsa.html
Previous Politech messages: http://www.politechbot.com/2005/12/24/more-revelations-about/ http://www.politechbot.com/2006/01/02/aclu-launches-nsawatchorg/
-Declan
---
Pelosi's Declassified Letter on NSA Activities
Washington, D.C. - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi today released the following letter, which she wrote four years ago when she was Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and was recently declassified at her request. The letter to Lieutenant General Michael Hayden, then National Security Agency (NSA) Director, expressed concerns about NSA electronic surveillance activities and the authority for those activities. Pelosi also released the response letter from Hayden. Both Pelosi's letter and Hayden's response were redacted when they were declassified.
The text of letters follow and copies of the declassified letters are in attached documents: October 11, 2001
Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden, USAF Director National Security Agency Fort George G. Mead, Maryland 20755 Washington, D.C. 20340-1001
Dear General Hayden:
During your appearance before the committee on October 1, you indicated that you had been operating since the September 11 attacks with an expansive view of your authorities with respect to the conduct of electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and related statutes, orders, regulations, and guidelines. You seemed to be inviting expressions of concern from us, if there were any, and, after the briefing was over and I had a chance to reflect on what you said, I instructed staff to get more information on this matter for me. For several reasons, including what I consider to be an overly broad interpretation of President Bush's directive of October 5 on sharing with Congress "classified or sensitive law enforcement information" it has not been possible to get answers to my questions.
Without those answers, the concerns I have about what you said on the 1st can not be resolved, and I wanted to bring them to your attention directly. You indicated that you were treating as a matter of first impression, [redacted ] being of foreign intelligence interest. As a result, you were forwarding the intercepts, and any information [redacted ] without first receiving a request for that identifying information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Although I may be persuaded by the strength of your analysis [redacted ] I believe you have a much more difficult case to make [redacted ] Therefore, I am concerned whether, and to what extent, the National Security Agency has received specific presidential authorization for the operations you are conducting. Until I understand better the legal analysis regarding the sufficiency of the authority which underlies your decision on the appropriate way to proceed on this matter, I will continue to be concerned.
Sincerely,
NANCY PELOSI Ranking Democrat
18 October 2001
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi Ranking Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence H-405, The Capitol Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Pelosi:
Thank you for the opportunity to clarify any ambiguity that may have arisen as a result of my briefing on October 1 to members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
In my briefing, I was attempting to emphasize that I used my authorities to adjust NSA's collection and reporting.
[redacted] ] Again, thank you for allowing me to clarify this matter.
MICHAEL V. HAYDEN Lieutenant General, USAF Director, NSA
------------------------------
Message: 2 Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2006 23:14:27 -0800 From: Declan McCullagh <declan.mccullagh at gmail.com> Subject: [Politech] Feds begin "behavior monitoring" of air travelers this year [econ] To: politech at politechbot.com Message-ID: <43BB75D3.2010809 at well.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
[Via the Independent Institute. Another reason to get your own pilot's license for shorter flights. It's not that expensive. See http://www.aopa.org/learntofly/ and, for a $59 introductory flight: http://www.beapilot.com/ --Declan]
---
AIRPORT SCREENING TO BECOME MORE INTRUSIVE, BUT NOT MORE EFFECTIVE
This year the U.S. Transportation Security Agency will begin behavior monitoring of airplane passengers at 40 major American airport, reports Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty. "The screeners," writes Eland in his latest op-ed, "will look for 'suspicious' signs that might indicate a passenger could be a terrorist: having dry lips or a throbbing carotid artery (I'm not kidding), failure to make eye contact with or say hello to the screener, or evasive or slow answers to casual questions asked by the screener."
Eland notes several flaws with this approach: It hasn't been field-tested for real-world effectiveness. It could easily transform into racial profiling. It fails to reduce the underlying causes of anti-U.S. terrorism. Terrorists who have practiced looking innocent could circumvent it easily. What, then, is the program good for?
"Since the behavior detection program is unlikely to catch many professional terrorists, perhaps its real goal is to improve the morale of the unloved screeners by giving the public some incentive to be nice to them," writes Eland. "So next time you travel by air, don't forget your fake smile and ChapStick."
Will it last? Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs suggests that the public probably will tolerate greater intrusions by TSA airport screeners. "Strange as it might seem, most people get used to being treated as criminals or inmates in a concentration camp," Higgs wrote last month. "Americans are no exception. Keep beating them down, and eventually you will produce a thoroughly cowed and compliant herd, a mass of pliant raw material in the hands of their political masters, perfectly willing to sacrifice their dignity rather than irritate an airport-security thug and be made to miss a flight. And heaven forbid that they write their congressional representative to complain. Such impudence might get them placed on some black list at the TSA or even at the FBI. Best to keep quiet, stay in line, act as they are ordered to act."
See "Chatting Up the TSA," by Ivan Eland (12/30/05) http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1644 SPANISH TRANSLATION: "Adulando a la Administración de la Seguridad del Transporte" http://www.elindependent.org/articulos/article.asp?id=1644
Also see "Traveling Sheep," by Robert Higgs (12/14/05) http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1636 "Oveja Viajera" http://www.elindependent.org/articulos/article.asp?id=1636
To purchase THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed, by Ivan Eland, see http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=54
To purchase PUTTING "DEFENSE" BACK IN U.S. DEFENSE POLICY, by Ivan Eland, see http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=19
Center on Peace & Liberty (Ivan Eland, director) http://www.independent.org/research/copal/
------------------------------
_______________________________________________________________
Politech is the oldest and most popular mailing list devoted to politics and technology. It is moderated by Declan McCullagh, and list archives and information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe can be found at:
Politech is available in both a daily digest and in the traditional individual-message format.
You may redistribute this digest freely if you include this notice. _______________________________________________________________
End of Politech Digest, Vol 29, Issue 2 ***************************************