FBI Investigating Lamo Via Patriot Act Provision

umm qasr writes "Mark Rasch, a columnist for SecurityFocus wrote in his Register-reprinted column that the FBI has sent a letter, invoking provisions of the Patriot Act, to journalists reporting on the Adrian Lamo case: 'The letters warn them to expect subpoenas for all documents relating to the hacker, including, apparently, their own notes, e-mails, impressions, interviews with third parties, independent investigations, privileged conversations and communications, off the record statements, and expense and travel reports related to stories about Lamo.' Good to see that our First Amendment rights are being upheld by the FBI."

Comments

Hmm

[Sir Haxalot]

Good to see that our First Amendment rights are being upheld by the FBI.
I'm from England, therefore don't have any rights :/

FBI == Federal Bureau of Intimidation

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never spoken to Adrian Lamo, but I am sure that by writing this article, I am making myself a target for subpoenas, search warrants (government, take note that the law prohibits search warrants for reporter's notes) and demands to preserve evidence. All I have to say is, quoting President George W. Bush, "Bring it on."

Mark Rasch has got some balls!

Jeopardy

[happyfrogcow]

I'll take "Documents You'll Never See Again", for $500, Alex.

Great journalist acid test

[drinkypoo]

The result of this of course is that every journalist sued for not turning documents over as a result of the unconstitutional subpoena can be considered to have integrity, and is someone that you will want to watch in the future.

Anyone who hands over their documentation is obviously a ratfink and every time a paper carries one of their articles, it should be deluged with letters to the editor letting them know just what kind of asshole wrote the stories.

Re:Great journalist acid test

[Trurl's Machine]

If you're going to be a journalist, be a journalist, not a stoolie for the feds. If you can't handle that, find another job.

I'm afraid you still don't see where the true danger lies. A journalist facing this sort of dilemma will rather find another topic. If computers are your speciality you don't have to write about Lamo. Why not choose something safer, like what Steve Jobs said in his keynote or what will be implemented in the next Windows release. And this could be what FBI really is after - they are sending a message to the journalist community "guys, stay clear from this or you we will turn you into our informers". And this makes sense - they want to have more "what Steve said in keynote" articles and less "how to bypass security measures in computer network" features.

Patriotism?

[ivanmarsh]

I'm feeling better and better about being an American every day. $^(

When do we fire up the ovens?

Re:Patriotism?

[citabjockey]

I heard that Jay Leno had a response to Colin Powell's deadline for composition of a new Iraq constitution:

They can take ours, after all we arn't using it...

Get the EPIC newsletter...

[Dave21212]

They have a good overview of the USA PATRIOT ACT on their site and in the most recent EPIC Alert newsletter, there is this interesting paragraph (item 4):

The White House's push for greater Patriot Act powers follows in the wake of allegations that law enforcement agencies increasingly use Patriot Act tools to capture and punish run-of-the-mill criminals rather than terrorists. The Justice Department concedes that it has applied its expanded powers to smugglers, defrauders, bookies, con artists, and drug dealers.

What real use has this act been?

[BrynM]

Other than holding a bunch of foreign nationals in Cuba without being charged with crimes, investigate Paypal and prosecute one domestic terrorist, has the USA PATRIOT Act (goddawful acronym) been used for anti-terrorism efforts at all? How has this helped us track down Osama? How about Saddam? How about busting up just one real terrorist cell? It would seem that it's abused more than it is properly used. Another Act to illustrate how we Americans deal with a problem by applying our ideas to other problems instead.

All of those so called represntatives up on capitol hill that pushed this thing through should be ashamed of this abomination they have helped create. The only thing it's done to my patriotism is weaken it.

Re:but wait

[blueskies]

uh, yeah...when you get a subpoena you are allowed to consult your lawyer. Under the patriot act you are not allowed to tell anyone that you were subpoened. They are threatening reporters to not tell anyone, not even their lawyers, that they are being subpeoned. there is more to it but i don't have time to post.

Re:Scum

[Trurl's Machine]

Remember who supported these fascist laws when you vote.

The problem is that virtually anybody supported them. The PATRIOT Act passed with overwhelming majority - the Senate accepted it almost unanimously (with Sen. Russ Feingold as the only but notable exception), the House okay'd it with 357 to 66. Welcome to the hell of American politics - you can vote either Democrat or Republican which makes no noticeable difference. Or you can vote independent and then you might as well stay home, they probably won't even count your vote. And even if they'll count, it will make no difference whatsoever.

And don't think it was any better in 1980's, 1940's, 1920's or in XIX century. It wasn't, even if Eugene Debbs and guys like him sometimes managed to get the whopping 10 per cent, it still changed exactly nada point zero.

Irrelevant

[TamMan2000]

Lamo commited crimes. He broke the law and cost businesses considerable damages. In that light, I have no problem if a journalist turns over his or her personal notes to the FBI if it will help them in their prosecution.

Lamo's guilt or innocence has no bearing on the legality or morality of the tactics being employed by the FBI.

The USA PATRIOT ACT has a Scary Similarity...

[canfirman]

...to a movie I once saw.

A while back, one of the US T.V. Stations (ABC, CBS, NBC...don't remember which) ran a movie called "Hitler: Rise of Evil" (or something like that). The movie focused on Hitler's rise to power in Germany just before WW2.

The scary similarity comes from this: in the movie, a prominent Germain government building came "under attack" from a "terrorist" group (unknown if this was true or not). So, in order to stem any future "terrorist" attacks, Hitler drafted an act that proposed drastic measures, effectively limiting the freedoms people in Germany enjoyed. The act included (among other things) a ban on demonstrations, limited freedom of the press, and the right to be arrested without a warrant or evidence to support a crime being committed. Even "Hitler" himself said that they "would only be temporoary", and that anybody who was opposed to these new measures was "against Germany".

We all know what came out of that. The abuse of this power led to Hitler's WW2 and the attrocities he committed.

I saw this in the movie and immediately thought of the Patriot Act. I am not suggesting we would see a WW2 type atrocity happening in America. What I am suggesting (and seeing) is a slow erosion of our fundamental rights and freedoms. Should we be concerned? I would say yes.

Re:How about "Great citizen acid test"

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Civil disobedience only works if you're dealing with essentially rational people; the assumption is that even if the law itself makes no sense, the people enforcing it can eventally be made to see reason. Otherwise, it's hopeless.

When Hitler was coming to power in Germany, lots of German journalists thought that if they made enough noise, their fellow citizens would come to their aid and stop the Nazis before things got really bad. Those journalists died in the camps. Ditto for those Russians who believed the Revolution's promises of equality and freedom, and protested when Lenin started breaking those promises in rather dramatic fashion.

Civil disobedience is an American tradition because, for most of American history, the assumption of rationality has been true. I'm not at all sure that's still the case.