IP: you should be outraged that a few members [I know I am djf]

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 09:11:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Gillmor <dgillmor@sjmercury.com>
To: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: http://www.mercurycenter.com/columnists/gillmor/docs/dg101398.htm

IT was, to paraphrase one commentator's apt reaction, a sneak attack on
liberty. Late last week, in the legislative dead of night, Congress gave
law enforcement unprecedented new power to wiretap your communications.

You can argue whether this particular expansion of wiretapping authority,
called the ''roving wiretap'' in law-enforcement circles, is a good or bad
idea. However you feel about it, you should be outraged that a few members
of Congress, cowed by the FBI and indifferent to your privacy, sneaked
this provision into law without any debate or voting on its merits.