FBI wants widespread monitoring of 'illegal' Internet activity

[babsbunny]

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9926899-7.html

Posted by Anne Broache | 43 comments WASHINGTON--The FBI on Wednesday called for new legislation that would allow federal police to monitor the Internet for "illegal activity."

The suggestion from FBI Director Robert Mueller, which came during a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, appears to go beyond a current plan to monitor traffic on federal-government networks. Mueller seemed to suggest that the bureau should have a broad "omnibus" authority to conduct monitoring and surveillance of private-sector networks as well.

The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, Mueller said, "whether it be .mil, .gov, .com--whichever network you're talking about." (See the transcript of the hearing.)

In response to questions from Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, Mueller said his idea "balances on one hand, the privacy rights of the individual who are receiving the information, but on the other hand, given the technology, the necessity of having some omnibus search capability utilizing filters that would identify the illegal activity as it comes through and give us the ability to preempt that illegal activity where it comes through a choke point."

[Echo In Light]

1. "Illegal activity?" I'm sure that definition will be intentionally broad, loose, vague, rigged

[Breeze54]

2. Fuck them!!

:grr:

[bushmeister0]

3. "Where it comes through a choke point;" DU, perhaps? I'm watching you Skinner!

[hootinholler]

5. Not DU, but a main hub, like the one in Ca that has an NSA slurping machine sitting on it.

The NSA is already doing this, now the FBI wants a piece of the action.

-Hoot

[L. Coyote]

12. Choke point is the phone company office where they have splitters installed already to route all

traffic to who knows where (I do).

This is about authority to do what they have been doing all along.
They just want to make it legal inside the USA too now,
instead of routing the traffic outside the USA to read it!

VIDEO (18:02): Interview: AT&T Whistleblower Mark Klein on Bush's Illegal Surveillance
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x68900

Are ALL COMMUNICATIONS routed overseas to circumvent US law and the Constitution?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2935817&mesg_id=2935967

I was told years ago that ALL fiber optic communication traffic was routed overseas so that "everything" was moved outside the protections of the law and Constitution and ANYTHING could be monitored. I thought the idea quite fantastic even though it came from a very reliable source that would know exactly such things. Then, the story of the fiber optic splitters hit my radar. I now see now how easily exactly that, routing ALL COMMUNICATIONS overseas, was accomplished.

Is this Bush's and the Telecom's HUGE crime hidden and covered-up behind this story?
If the telecoms get immunity, will it aid in covering up Bush's crime.
ABSOLUTELY! That is why it is so important to the Rs!

Supporting telecom immunity = obstruction of justice.

Have we arrived at the point in the history of the Bushco junta where
laws passed and people nominated are part of crimes of obstructing justice?

AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up
By Spencer Ackerman - Nov 7, 2007
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004662.php

...............


From: TELECOM COVER-UP? Nacchio and Qwest: Another Political Prosecution?
Feb-28-08 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2935817

[formercia]

16. Just another ploy for telecoms immunity via the back door.

They won't give up, will they?

[L. Coyote]

20. Exactly what I thought. They want to slip one by, to make the past crime legal now!

Transparent, and it draws more attention to their crimes!!

[Preston120]

23. Have those suits moved forward yet?

[formercia]

14. Gigaswitch Routers on backbones

I used to work on them at DEC. It's quite simple to route the data to a supercomputer. It's all fiber-optic connections. Internally, you can monitor the data for quality, so it's just a matter of software to filter the packets and resend them on their way with very little delay.

[L. Coyote]

21. Optical splitters turn feed into duplicate streams. Like at AT&T in San Fran

as already testified to before Congress!!

[RC]

4. Illegal activity - Saying bad things about the government?

No matter how true they are?

[alfredo]

6. They define "illegal" any way they want, Herr bush has their backs.

[Kali]

7. Um, who thinks they aren't already doing it?

[williesgirl]

8. So...guilty until proved innocent one more time. Get these fascists out of our Government and do it

now. rec'd

[Lint Head]

9. 'Freedom of Speech' will soon be "illegal activity."

The internets core is communication. Free speech is not just the spoken or written word. It is music, art, video, movies, graphics, cartoons, animation. It is anything that conveys an idea between human beings. An idea can be educational, entertaining, profitable esoteric or dangerous. Fascism wants to limit the concepts behind what is use to define an acceptable idea.

Corporations run the internet. The last ingredient in fascism is corporatism. :dem:

[Bluzmann57]

10. I have respect for law and order

Hear that FBI? I think anything law enforcement does is peachy keen. Except for illegal wiretapping, waterboarding, shooting unarmed civilians, raiding wrong houses, convicting innocent people...But other than that, I am 100 pct. in favor of law enforcement. My name is John Jones and I live at 1234 Nowhere Lane at the end of Lonely Street USA. In case you're interested.

[1776Forever]

11. Excellent! Right behind you!

:thumbsup:

[scarletwoman]

13. So what will this newest monitoring system be called, "Carnivore v.09"? (nt)

[L. Coyote]

15. Good idea. They could have intercepted my e-mail to THEM reporting voting

irregularities and evidence of election fraud.

Maybe, that way I would have gotten a response!! :rofl:

And, they can monitor the USA offices in Alabama for political crimes!

[Solly Mack]

17. Nuttin but thugs

[formercia]

18. Herr Mueller

Ein guter Soldat.

[crimsonblue]

19. I must be honest... I'm really an undercover FBI agent..

and you all are under arrest, mutherfuckers.

[L. Coyote]

22. Is that why you can't spell? LOL Hey, I got some vote fraud evidence....

[formercia]

26. I used to work in liaison with an FBI agent

His name was Robert Hanssen. He was an asshole too. I told him to turn in his CIA pass and he went and complained to daddy.

He went to prison. I'm still here.

That's what you get when you don't do a full background check on people and then put a suspected member of Opus Dei in charge of the FBI.

Fuck You.

[crimsonblue]

27. seriously, or are you just joking?

If so, then wow. I've read up quite a bit about Mr Hanssen, and it is a fascinating case study (except for the whole "I sell secrets to the Russians" and "I like to secretly videotape my sexcapades with my wife").

[formercia]

28. Dead serious.

Even went on a couple of TDY's with him.

If you have access to the FBI database, look up MONOPOLY and watch how many alarms go off.

[bluesmail]

24. see DU's greatest thread on US accepts ICC

retroactive immunity may set a precedent and be used to throw out charges of torture in the ICC. I put Nothing past these Nazis.

[Rex]

25. Hey Robert Mueller you can go fuck yourself silly.

I hope you step on a crack and break your mother's back, fascist asshole. How can you be so stupid and ignore wholesale criminal activity in your OWN FUCKING DEPARTMENT, oh I see...big man. Can't stop crime in front of you so you need to pick on us little people that pay your salary.

Once again, Rob...go fuck yourself and hard.

[tbyg52]

29. >>balances on one hand, the privacy rights of the individual

That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Any plan that sniffs *all* traffic and tells the citizens "trust us" not to mess with *yours* if you are not doing anything illegal is a joke.

Just let those bits fly by unmonitored, gentlemen. If you suspect crime, GET A WARRANT!

[warren pease]

30. Remember when the entire country was a free speech zone?

Now, as former white house spokesdork Ari Fleischer said following "the events of 9/1(tm)," "...all Americans ... need to watch what they say, watch what they do..."

And watch what they type and download and google and which groups they join and... Oh fuck it. I'm so goddamned tired of this infestation of fascist voyeurs. Almost as tired as I am of the sanctimonious assholes in the majority party who spend most of their time fabricating excuses for how abysmally pathetic and obviously corrupt they've turned out to be.

Also, I assume at least half of the 16 separate federal snooping agencies are already doing some version of this anyway. We all know the NSA has been at it since February 2001, with the willing cooperation of those telecoms that now want forgiveness and amnesty for spying on their own customers.

The FBI recently said something to the effect that they would just ignore any judicial constraints against unauthorized communications monitoring and continue do it anyway, demonstrating once again their reverence for Constitutional law.

According to this David Swanson article earlier this month, it seems they were doing the DoD's dirty work for them after the DoD had been busted for being a little too heavy handed in obtaining US citizens' personal and confidential property.

... newly unredacted documents released today as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit reveal that the Department of Defense (DoD) is using the FBI to circumvent legal limits on its own NSL power and may have overstepped its authority to obtain private and sensitive records of people within the United States without court approval. The previously withheld records also reveal that the military is secretly accessing these private records without providing training, guidance, or any real record keeping.

“It looks like the Defense Department is evading the legal limits placed on the military’s surveillance powers by simply getting the FBI to do its bidding,” said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project.

When HR 1955 / S 1959 -- The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007, or "Endgame" as the DHS likes to call it -- hits Bushie's desk and, breathing heavily and about to experience his own personal rapture, he signs it quickly and leaves the room before the cameras catch the semen stains on his pants.

So while all this is offensive in the extreme -- as is virtually everything the Bushies have said and done since the right wing coup stole the white house for them in 2000 (and again in 2004, if you're keeping score at home) -- it's hardly surprising. And I doubt I'm going to alter my life because of this latest piece of fascist bullshit.

And with that bit of bravado, I'll plan on seeing the more outspoken of you in the FEMA camps.


wp