[107906] in Cypherpunks
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daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Pallas Anonymous Remailer)
Thu Jan 28 00:35:22 1999
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 21:07:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Pallas Anonymous Remailer <athena@cyberpass.net>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Pallas Anonymous Remailer <athena@cyberpass.net>
ACLU Says Broad New Anti-Terrorism Measure
Could Encroach on Americans' Rights
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 25, 1999
WASHINGTON -- A broad counter-terrorism program being considered by the
Clinton administration could include measures that severely jeopardize
Americans' liberties, the American Civil Liberties Union charged today.
The measures include the creation of a domestic military "commandante"
responsible for fighting domestic crimes of terrorism and classifiying
information about our nation's infrastructure.
These proposals, now under consideration, were apparently not included
in the proposals unveiled on Friday by President Clinton.
"There is no need to further involve the military in civilian law
enforcement," said Gregory T. Nojeim, a legislative counsel for the
ACLU.
Illegal use of chemical or biological weapons, like illegal use of
explosives, is already a crime, Nojeim explained, and ought to be
investigated and interdicted in the same way. The FBI, flush with
hundreds of millions of new dollars to fight terrorism, is certainly
well-equipped to deal with these crimes, he said.
"Military tanks on city streets are a scene from Kosovo, not Cleveland,"
said Nojeim. "There is no need to create a new branch of the military --
under the commandante for the country -- whose business it could become
to do just that."
Since 1878, the Posse Comitatus Act has prohibited the military from
getting into the business of civilian law enforcement.
In the few instances when the military has gotten involved in law
enforcement efforts the result has been catastrophic, the ACLU said. A
year and a half ago, Marines patrolling the U.S. border near Redford,
Texas in search of drugs shot and killed an 18-year old goat-herder,
Esequiel Hernandez. The marines were subsequently withdrawn from the
border.
In Puerto Rico, when the National Guard took over public housing
projects, it detained residents without cause, searched their apartments
without warrants, and used excessive force -- including breaking down
doors. One youth was killed, allegedly without cause.
"We should keep scenes from movies like The Siege and Enemy of the State
in the theaters, not on the streets," Nojeim said.
The President is also considering proposals to make secret certain
publicly available information about pipelines, highways, mass transit,
water and other aspects of the nation's infrastructure, a move that was
also criticized by the ACLU. Classification of this information would
increase costs and actually decrease the ability of the private sector
to protect itself from computer attacks, the ACLU said.
"There is already too much classification of information, as the
President recognized less than two years ago when he received the report
of the Commission on Protection and Reduction of Government Secrecy,"
Nojeim said.
The commission, chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, recommended
a series of steps to control the overclassification of information and
to speed declassification of documents that should no longer be
classified.
"The private sector has incentive enough to protect our nation's
electronic infrastructure. Instead of forcing the acceptance of its own
plan, the government should develop and share ideas with the private
sector," Nojeim said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Mary had a crypto key,
she kept it in escrow,
and everything that Mary said,
the Feds were sure to know." -- Sam Simpson
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -0777-- -export-a-crypto-system-sig -RC4-3-lines-PERL
@k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_
]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256;
&S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}
