This sounds like what Spook Herson admitted in his interview. See http://jya.com/herson.htm. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 28 February 1997 Thanks to CM. The Guardian Weekly, Volume 156, Issue 9 Week ending March 2, 1997, Page 4: UK to join FBI phone taps Richard Norton-Taylor and Alison Daniels BRITAIN has secretly agreed with its European Union partners to set up an international telecommunications tapping system in co-operation with the FBI, it was revealed on Monday. The agreement covers telephones and written communications -- telexes, faxes and e-mail. To make tapping easier, telecommunications companies will be obliged to give security and intelligence agencies the key to codes installed in equipment sold to private customers. Detailed plans are being drawn up by officials in a secret network of EU committees established under the "third pillar" of the Maastricht Treaty, covering co-operation on law and order issues. Civil liberties groups, while agreeing that there was a need for such an agreement to fight against serious crime, said the plans raised a number of privacy and data protection issues and must be the subject of a full public debate. Britain is an enthusiastic supporter of joint action in this area, which is conducted on an inter-governmental basis with no role for the European Commission, the European Parliament or the European Court of Justice. It is an area where the EU's "democratic deficit" is most evident. Key points of the plan are outlined in a memorandum of understanding signed by EU states in 1995, which is still classified. It reflects increasing concern among European intelligence agencies that modern technology will prevent them from tapping private communications. EU governments agreed to co-operate closely with the FBI in Washington as they work out detailed plans. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to CA. Date sent: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 16:44:26 -0500 Subject: EPIC Alert 4.03 From: "EPIC-News" To: EPIC-News@epic.org Send reply to: epic-news@epic.org ============================================================= @@@@ @@@@ @@@ @@@@ @ @ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@ @ @@@ @@@@ @ @ @@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ ============================================================== Volume 4.03 February 27, 1997 -------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/ ======================================================================= Table of Contents ======================================================================= [1] New Report Details FBI/European Tapping Agreements [2] Airline Security Report Released [3] Briefs Filed in Reno v. ACLU Internet "Indecency" Challenge [4] Crypto Legislation Introduced [5] Clipper Upgrade at DOD/Litigation Update [6] State Department Reports Widespread Illegal Wiretapping Worldwide [7] New Medical Privacy Survey [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events ======================================================================= [1] New Report Details FBI/European Tapping Agreements ======================================================================= A report issued on Feb. 24 by Statewatch, a London-based advocacy organization, shows that the FBI has been working with its counterparts in the European Union for five years to create a "global tapping system." The report reveals the existence of a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that surveillance of all existing and new technologies is compatible and coordinated with the FBI's efforts to advance its "digital telephony" agenda within the United States. The FBI's plan is to facilitate wiretapping worldwide by pressuring countries to harmonize national laws on interception; increase cooperation of telecommunications providers; ensure equipment has interception standards incorporated; and create de facto global standards by persuading as many countries as possible to cooperate and by providing compatible equipment to non-participating countries. To achieve these goals, the FBI and its EU counterparts wrote a resolution adopted by the Council of the European Union on "the lawful interception of telecommunications." The Council issued the resolution on Jan 17, 1995 (unpublished until November 1996) and a Memorandum of Understanding on the requirements that need to be adopted into all laws. The MOU has been signed by the 15 member countries of the EU, and the US. There have also been "expressions of support" from Australia, Canada, and Norway. The FBI and EU have also pushed the requirements as standards before the international telecommunications standards bodies such as the ITU and pressured other countries to adopt them. The requirements are almost exactly the same as the FBI demands for digital telephony. They include "real-time access" to the "entire telecommunication transmitted" sent to a "law enforcement monitoring facility", access to all associated call data, geographic location information for mobile phone users, decrypted information for all operator-provided encryption, and response times "in urgent cases within hours or minutes." The report notes that even countries that do not agree will be affected: The strategy appears to be to first get the "Western world" (EU, US plus allies) to agree to "norms" and "procedures" and then to sell these products to Third World countries -- who even if they do not agree to "interception orders" will find their telecommunications monitored ... the minute it hits the airwaves. The digital telephony proposal has received significant criticism in the United States since its adoption in 1994. The FBI originally claimed that law provided a mandate to simultaneously monitor a significantly higher percentage of phone lines that is current practice in the US. That interpretation was withdrawn after public protect. The FBI then claimed that the law would require the development of a global locator system based on the nation's telephone system. That interpretation was also withdrawn after public protect. Several members of Congress have said that they will oppose future funding of the plan. A copy of the Statewatch report, the Council of Europe Resolution and more information is available at: http://www.privacy.org/pi/activities/tapping/ [See the Statewatch report at: http://jya.com/eftap.htm] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to D. February 25, 1997 Report: Europe OKs Wiretap Rules London (AP) -- Europe has agreed to establish international standards with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations to enable authorities to tap telephones and messages sent by fax, telex and e-mail, a London newspaper reported Tuesday. The Guardian newspaper said it obtained a preliminary agreement signed by European Union nations in 1995 that calls for telecommunications companies to provide security agencies with the key to codes installed in equipment sold to customers. The newspaper report could not be confirmed independently.[See below] The aim of the alliance between U.S. and EU agencies was to set a common standard for "international interception,'' the newspaper reported. Full details on the agreement are being drawn up by officials working in European Union committees, it said. The report said European officials drafted a memorandum of understanding after Britain warned that mobile telephone systems in the hands of organized criminals posed an international threat. ---------------------------------------------------------------------