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EFF Sues the Dept. of Defense Over Surveillance

An anonymous reader writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a lawsuit against the US government, demanding the publication of information about FBI cyber surveillance operations. The EFF launched its action after the authorities failed to disclose information requested under the Freedom of Information act. The EFF wants to find out more about two electronic surveillance systems used by the government agency to monitor electronic communications." From the article: "A Justice Department Inspector General report in March said the FBI had spent about $10 million on DCS-3000 to intercept communications over emerging digital technologies used by wireless carriers before next year's federal deadline for them to deploy their own wiretap capabilities. The same report said the FBI spent more than $1.5 million to develop Red Hook, 'a system to collect voice and data calls and then process and display the intercepted information' before those wiretap capabilities are in place."

18 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. DOD? by BobandMax · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Since when is the FBI a DOD component? The article referred to DOJ.
    Are you guys so eager to discredit the US government that you cannot read?

    --

    "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
    -- Pablo Picasso
  2. How effective can this be? by DarkBlackFox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IANAL, but how effective can any sort of lawsuit against the government be these days? Isn't it the same government that runs the courts? If the FBI feels national security is at stake by releasing the information the EFF is looking for, wouldn't they just say to the courts "oh, it's national security.. terrorists and the like, it's best if you leave us be." And the court answer would be "oh well, if it's in the name of national security, you guys are all set. Case dismissed."

    Or is there any integrity left in the government at this point.

    1. Re:How effective can this be? by jfengel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is, at least in theory, a bright line between the courts and the executive branch. Supposedly it's why judges are appointed for life: it lets them base their decisions on their own judgment, not what will get them re-elected. (In practice that just makes the nominations more partisan, and the fights over them more bitter.)

      It just so happens that the Supreme Court at the moment is as closely divided as the rest of the country. The last presidential election was 51-48, and even the heavily lopsided Senate is 55-45 (technically 55-44-1). The Supreme Court has four reliably conservative justices (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito), four reliably liberal ones (Ginsburg, Souter, Breyer, Stevens) and one swing (Kennedy).

      That last is generally counted among the conservatives, havign been appointed by Reagan, but he has voted to curtail the President on various issues, e.g. Hamdan (the one that forced Bush to change his plan on tribunals for the Guantanamo inmates).

      So the answer to your question is that yes, there is a vague chance of the lawsuit being effective, though it's a close call, and it's probably up to one guy.

      (Though just to get political for a second, the most reliable liberal is 86 year old Justice Stevens. If he retires or dies before January, a Republican Senate will probably replace him with a young conservative, and that would make the court 5-3-1 for the next several decades. Should the Democrats win the Senate in November, and he retires/dies in the next two years, the President will send over conservative candidates until he either sends over a moderate the Democrats can't oppose without looking stupid, or they crack under the pressure of having an empty seat for too long. The upshot is that my "yes" above may be temporary.)

  3. Allow me to correct that for you. by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The tree comment is not about the falling but whether "sound" exists without someone to hear it. The disturbance of the air exists, that is easy. But is that disturbance "sound" if no one can hear it?

    So, if someone taps your phone, your phone has been tapped.

    The question you are asking should be "if no one requests that tap be used, have your Rights been violated".

    Once that tap has been used, and data collected, whether any person sees that data is irrelevant. The tap has been used, the information has been collected. The tree has fallen, the sound has been heard.

  4. Can you say.... by zenhkim · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ....tip of the iceberg?

    This is like trying to dig up a small tree or a bush [pun intended] -- you think there isn't much to dig up, but as you excavate you keep finding more and more roots entwined under the ground.

    So to recap: we have the telco industry handing over *all* our phone call logs to the NSA, and the FBI is involved in a wireless LAN snooping program. You have to wonder what the hell we're going to find out next about the US government intelligence / law enforcement community.

    "Come on, man -- I mean, *look* at this shit! It isn't a question of whether or not you're paranoid; it's a question of whether or not you're paranoid ENOUGH." -- from the movie _Strange_Days_

    --
    "All hands, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
  5. Re:FBI is DOJ not DOD by merreborn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Funny that trying to keep the government out of your business is now a 'leftist' concern.

    Once upon a time, trying to keep the government from expanding, and maintaining privacy were right-wing issues.

  6. probability states by Phantom+of+the+Opera · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That we are unlikely to catch the one important call out of the millions per minute.
    The nature of people in power states : they will gather all the dirty laundry of opponents (and "friends") they want to and use it to increase their power.

  7. Re:Inbound call from Bin Laden? by kfg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The liars pretend that our Military is looking for people smoking bong hits in their basement.

    Or that the FBI is part of the military.

    KFG

  8. This is the reason by gillbates · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why we support the EFF. The EFF helps citizens keep the government in check. This is just one of the many scandals the EFF has brought to the public's attention.

    Instead of whining about the erosion of our civil liberties, do something about it - support the EFF.

    --
    The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
  9. Re:Donate to the EFF by everphilski · · Score: 2, Insightful

    yourself, yes, but are you worth sponsoring in a boxing match?

  10. Re:If a slashdotter makes a lame reference.... by megaditto · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You are refering to a QM paradox of Schrödinger's cat

    The short answer to GPP is that under SCP paradigm, a computer wiretapping you becomes identical to a human wiretapping you the moment such wiretap begins.

    --
    Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
  11. Re:Liberal hysteria!! by DM9290 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Liberated Iraq."

    HAHAHA.. you do understand that only right wing evangelical neoconservatives think that "liberty" means the same thing as "bombed into the stone age with no sustainable government/security/industry or future (except a civil war) or merger into a some mega theocratic union with our friends in Iran".

    The rest of us see your use of the word "Liberated" for what it is: stupid and empty repetition of Republican talking points.

    The mission is already "Accomplished". The mission to create instability in the middle east in an attempt to slow down Europe from becoming the dominant superpower on earth. A mission to create world animosity against the US so that dumb neocon (even a camel can get through the eye of a needle if he's a born again camel) authoritarian followers have even more reasons to go to sleep each night wondering if perhaps the rapture will finally save them from this hell on earth we've created, and in the meantime to support every single right wing neofascist measure to transfer yet more funds from the public coffers into the bank accounts of our loving and benign "business leaders".

    Bush and friends didn't give a rats ass about the iraqi people in 1991 through to 2003 and certainly don't give a flying fuck now. And if you think that they give a rats ass about the American people either, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

    America has been royally screwed by the neocon movement and she is still taking it like a 2 cent whore. WAKE THE FUCK UP!

    --
    No one has a right to their *own* opinion. They have a right to the TRUTH.
  12. Re:If only they would just use a proxy / encryptio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How do you know that blastproxy.com isn't actually being run by the FBI as a honeypot to entrap people who need anonymous access to acheive their nefarious ends on the web? Come on now, instead of sifting through ALL the traffic on the web, isn't it a lot easier to just create a service that criminals will naturally gravitate towards, while at the same time floating rumours that you are actually sifting through all the traffic, thus driving those who don't want to be traced to the service you created?

  13. Re:Information by element-o.p. · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Vote for the little guy in the next election. I intend to, anyway. And if enough people are upset enough to vote for the little guy instead of the Dem/Rep candidate, then yes, there is something that can be done.

    Or at least, I hope so....

    --
    MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
  14. Re:Liberal hysteria!! by demigod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And who kills the innocent Americans, exactly? I'd really like to know.

    You ask.

    My guess it primarly one of two groups.

    • People who are unhappy being invaded and occupied.
    • People who are taking revenge for the significally larger number of innocent iraqies killed.
    --
    "The last thing I want to do is deal with a bunch of people who want something."
    Major Major
  15. Re:Liberal hysteria!! by demigod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I only hope that in the 2008 elections, we have a return to moderates and realistic people like John McCain or Joe Biden or perhaps, gasp, some votes for Independent around the country in different positions.

    I'll be happy if my vote even gets counted and added to the tally of the candidate I intended.

    At this point I consider that unlikely.

    --
    "The last thing I want to do is deal with a bunch of people who want something."
    Major Major
  16. Re:Donate to the EFF by enrevanche · · Score: 2, Insightful
    They may not be able to win this one, but they keep up the fight and they make the populace more aware of what's going on. They also let the administration know that they must fight each time something like this happens. Just by fighting for our rights, they slow down those who will take them away and the awaken the American public as to what their government and industry is doing. They may even make some of those involved question what they are doing.

    This is not about a single lawsuit but about how we will live in the future and what our rights will be.

    This about preventing the creation of a police state in a time where technology can (or will be able to) make life a living hell.

  17. Re:Liberal hysteria!! by rolfwind · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What you describe in number 1 is conservatism, not necessarily the true ideals of the Repblican Party (besides election time propraganda) even though they might have genuinely held those values at one time.

    If you look at the history of political parties, you will see that the values of longstanding parties change over time. This might be simply because of a changing of the guard, change in key individuals themselves as they grow older, but more often than not, they change to cater to and attract a new potential group of voters to join their ranks, which, once it happens, in turn reinforces the change.

    President Kennedy, afterall, once espoused tax cuts as a way to stimulate the economy among a larger program that sounded remarkably like "trickle down" economics. This later term was made famous by President Reagan once a democrat. President Reagan mentioned of his switch that it wasn't his priorities that changed, but that of the party that he previously belonged to.

    I humbly suggest you abstain looking at parties and start looking toward candidates that espouse similiar values as yourself, independent of their party membership, and have the voting/public record to prove it their words.