>>>>> "Adam" == Adam Maloney <adamm at sihope.com> writes: >> > Sorry, that's no longer necessarily true. All they have to do is claim that >> > it is in some way related to terrorism and they can do whatever they want. >> > >> > Welcome to the land of the free. >> > >> > -- >> > Matthew S. Hallacy FUBAR, LART, BOFH Certified >> >> >> They still need a warrant. The real concern would be >> rubberstamp judges. Actually, that's only partly true now. See the EFF on the Patriot Act: <blockquote> Section 217: It used to be that in order to intercept your private electronic communications in a computer-crime investigation, the FBI had to seek permission from a court. No more. Now, so long as a computer service provider merely claims you are "trespassing" on its network, the FBI is free to intercept your private communications as it so chooses. </blockquote> Plus there's Homeland Security Act, Section 225: <blockquote> Communications providers now need only a "good faith" belief that there is a life-threatening emergency to justify the disclosure of your communications and records. This belief could be based solely on the representations of a government agent claiming that there is such an emergency -- whether or not that is actually the case. This kind of abuse has already occurred: one Department of Justice attorney said he needed information to investigate a terror threat when he actually was investigating a bank robbery, while another agent cited a bio-terrorism threat in what turned out to be a drug sting. </blockquote> AND there's Patriot Act Section 215: <blockquote> What PATRIOT 215 Does Section 215 allows the FBI secretly to order anyone to turn over business records or any other "tangible things," so long as the FBI tells the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court that the information sought is "for an authorized investigation...to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." These demands for records come with a "gag order" prohibiting the recipient from telling anyone, ever, that they received a Section 215 order. How PATRIOT 215 Changed the Law Secret orders to turn over business records were available from the FISA court before the PATRIOT Act. However, this extreme power secretly to demand private records was checked by two key safeguards. First, the FBI could only get a few types of records that were of particular use in investigating terrorists and spies -- records belonging to hotels, motels, car and truck rental agencies, and storage rental facilities. Second, the FBI had to present to the FISA court "specific and articulable facts giving reason to believe that the person to whom the records pertain[ed]" was a spy or terrorist. Section 215 removed these safeguards. Now, the FBI can use a secret order to get anything, "including books, records, papers, documents, and other items." Nor does the FBI still need actual facts to show that you may be a spy or terrorist. Instead, these secret orders can now be used to investigate anyone, even a U.S. citizen not suspected of any crime, so long as the FBI certifies to the FISA court that the records are sought for a terrorism or espionage investigation. The FISA court must issue the order if the FBI so certifies, even when there are no facts to back it up. </blockquote> NOTE THAT Section 215 means NO SEARCH WARRANT NECESSARY. _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list