IP: Proposed US military budget will fund domestic wiretapping

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

>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34164,00.html
>
>                        Clinton's Wiretap-Heavy Budget
>                        by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
>
>                        1:25 p.m. 7.Feb.2000 PST
>                        WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's
>                        proposed $1.84 trillion budget includes
>                        millions of dollars in new spending on
>                        technology and law enforcement
>                        programs.
>
>                        The record budget request for the 2001
>                        fiscal year, which begins 1 October, asks
>                        Congress for more money for wiretapping,
>                        police databases, antitrust enforcement,
>                        and computer crime forensics.
>
>                        One of the heftiest increases, from $15
>                        million to $240 million, will pay telephone
>                        companies to rewire their networks to
>                        facilitate federal and state wiretapping.
>                        Under the 1994 Communications
>                        Assistance to Law Enforcement Act
>                        (CALEA), Congress may "reimburse" phone
>                        companies for their efforts, but the
>                        controversial process is the subject of a
>                        lawsuit currently before a federal appeals
>                        court.
>
>                        Half of that money, $120 million, will come
>                        from the Department of Defense's
>                        "national security" budget -- a move that
>                        alarms privacy groups.
>
>                        "The proposal to use thinly disguised
>                        intelligence agency money to fund CALEA
>                        confirms what we have suspected all
>                        along: the National Security Agency is a
>                        silent partner in the government's
>                        campaign to make our entire
>                        telecommunications system, including the
>                        Net, wiretap ready," says Barry
>                        Steinhardt, associate director of the
>                        American Civil Liberties Union.
>
>                        [...]