[TriLUG] WTF?? The Senate has ALREADY passed new civil liberty violating laws, in response to the attack!!!

[prhodes at vdsinc.com]

This Wired story contains more info:

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46852,00.html


This is crazy.

In part:

WASHINGTON -- FBI agents soon may be able to spy on Internet users legally
without a court order.
On Thursday evening, two days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S.
history, the Senate approved
the "Combating Terrorism Act of 2001," which enhances police wiretap powers
and permits monitoring in
more situations.


<snip>



Under the Combating Terrorism Act, prosecutors could authorize surveillance
for 48-hour periods without a judge's approval.

Warrantless surveillance appears to be limited to the addresses of websites
visited, the names and addresses of e-mail correspondents, and so on, and
is not intended to include the contents of communications. But the
legislation would cover URLs, which include information such as what Web
pages you're visiting and what terms you type in when visiting search
engines.

Circumstances that don't require court orders include an "immediate threat
to the national security interests of the United States, (an) immediate
threat to public health or safety or an attack on the integrity or
availability of a protected computer." That covers most computer hacking
offenses.



Phillip Rhodes
Application Designer
Voice Data Solutions
919-571-4300 x225
prhodes at vdsinc.com

Those who are willing to sacrifice essential liberties for a little order,
will lose both and deserve neither. - Benjamin Franklin

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.
Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can
exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their
revolutionary right to overthrow it.  - Abraham Lincoln

No citizen shall be denied the right to bear arms, if as a last resort, to
protect themselves from tyranny in Government. - Thomas Jefferson