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Friday, May 2, 2003

'24' is a Documentary

According to the article, the Bush administration is now attempting to deploy the US Military and the CIA on American soil. The language authorizing this groundbreaking expansion of powers was attached, unannounced, to a broader intelligence bill now before Congress. The provision was apparently added by Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kansas and chairman of the intelligence committee, at the request of the Bush Administration.

I never, ever thought I would look back on the Clinton Administration with longing...

New York Times - free registration required Broad Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon.

The Bush administration and leading Senate Republicans sought today to give the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon far-reaching new powers to demand personal and financial records on people in the United States as part of foreign intelligence and terrorism operations, officials said.

The proposal, which was beaten back, would have given the C.I.A. and the military the authority to issue administrative subpoenas -- known as "national security letters" -- requiring Internet providers, credit card companies, libraries and a range of other organizations to produce materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs. That authority now rests largely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the subpoenas do not require court approval.

The surprise proposal was tucked into a broader intelligence authorization bill now pending before Congress. It set off fierce debate today in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, officials said. Democrats on the panel said they were stunned by the proposal because it appeared to expand significantly the role of the C.I.A. and the Pentagon in conducting domestic operations, despite a long history of tight restrictions, officials said.

After raising objections, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and other Democrats succeeded in getting the provision pulled from the authorization bill, at least temporarily, Congressional officials said.

In a closed vote, the committee passed the bill unanimously without the proposal. But Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the intelligence committee, indicated to panel members that he wanted to hold further hearings on the idea, officials said.

There was some disagreement over exactly how the provision originated. Several Senate aides active in the debate said that Senator Roberts had included it in the authorization bill. But a senior Congressional official said the Bush administration had initiated the proposal and that Senator Roberts had not objected.

A C.I.A. official said the provision had come from the Bush administration, after the White House's Office of Management and Budget signed off on it.

The official said that Congressional leaders had asked the Bush administration whether there were any additional powers needed to help combat terrorism. The administration responded with the proposal to give the C.I.A. and military the power to use the national security letters, the official said. Another Congressional official said the move came at the urging of the C.I.A. The White House had no comment last night.

[ ... ]

They said that while the F.B.I. was subject to guidelines controlling what agents are allowed to do in the course of an investigation, the C.I.A. and the military appeared to have much freer reign. The F.B.I. also faces additional scrutiny if it tries to use such records in court, but officials said the proposal could give the C.I.A. and the military the power to gather such material without ever being subject to judicial oversight.

Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the proposal "dangerous and un-American."

Mr. Edgar said that "even in the most frigid periods of the Cold War, we never gave the C.I.A. such sweeping and secret policing powers over American citizens."

[ ... ]

New figures released today also showed that the Justice Department is relying with increasing frequency on secret warrants that allow the officials to go to a secret court to get approval for surveillance and bugging warrants in terrorism and espionage investigations without notifying the target.

[Privacy Digest]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 11:28 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Policy & Regulation, Security, Homeland Security

US Trade Rep Creates Copyright Confusion

U.S. may add to copyright confusion. ZDNet May 2 2003 7:58AM ET [Moreover - IP and patents news]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 12:30 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Copyright, Globalization, Policy & Regulation

US Trade Rep Copyright Watch List

Text: U.S. Releases Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property. Washington File May 2 2003 0:17AM ET

[...] USTR placed 36 trading partners on the watch list for IPR violations: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Another 11 trading partners, including the European Union (EU), were placed on the priority watch list, which entails a greater level of scrutiny. The 11 trading partners are Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, EU, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, and Taiwan. [...] [Moreover - IP and patents news]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 12:25 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Copyright, Policy & Regulation, Globalization

Cell Phone Life Gets Interesting

Let's Make a Cell-Phone Deal. Facing an increasingly competitive market and legislation that will let customers keep their phone numbers even when they switch carriers, cell-phone companies are upping the ante in their bid to attract and retain customers. By Elisa Batista.

[...] "After some mild haggling with a low-level rep who wasn't going to budge -- he insisted that he couldn't give me a plan other than those offered to new subscribers -- I asked to speak to a supervisor, who immediately offered me 500 anytime minutes, unlimited night and weekend calling, free long distance and $100 toward a new phone, all for $35 a month. [...] [Wired News]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 9:40 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Policy & Regulation, UnWired

Big Losers File for Refunds

After Inflating Their Income, Companies Want IRS Refunds

By REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN, DENNIS K. BERMAN and EVAN PEREZ
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

A parade of big companies is under investigation for inflating their earnings during the stock-market boom of the 1990s. Now some of them see an unusual silver lining: They want back the taxes they overpaid along the way.

In the latest wrinkle in the unfolding series of corporate scandals, MCI and Enron Corp. are in the process of collecting or filing for tax refunds or credits from the Internal Revenue Service because of tax payments on billions of dollars they falsely claimed to have earned. Qwest Communications International Inc., which plans to restate $2.2 billion in revenue, also is likely to seek a refund. Embattled HealthSouth Corp., accused of overstating its earnings by more than $2 billion, said that it hasn't made a final decision to file for a refund but is considering it. [...] [Wall Street Journal Online (subscription required)]

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 9:15 AM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Business & Finance, Policy & Regulation

Thursday, May 1, 2003

Anti-RAVE Act Becomes Law

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) attached his Anti-RAVE bill as a rider to Amber Alert, pushing it through Congress when it failed to survive on its own last year. Anti-RAVE makes business owners criminally liable for the personal behavior of their customers and is a significant expansion of the 'War on Drugs'. The rider underwent no public review, open debate, or Congressional hearings this year.

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft hailed the law, calling it a "comprehensive effort to protect our children."

Make up your own mind.

Posted by:  Terry Frazier at 1:00 PM  | Permanent Link  | Trackback URL | 
Categories: Policy & Regulation, War on Drugs

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