Tag: terrorism

Security Mania and the Threat to Civic Life: Tom Brokaw, Edward Davis, and the West Stockbridge Zucchini Festival

Tom Brokaw, who in his long career has received every accolade a TV news journalist could receive, reacted on Monday to the Boston Marathon attack as follows:

Everyone has to understand tonight, however, beginning tomorrow morning early there’s going to be much tougher security considerations across the country. However exhausted we may be by them. We have to live with them and get along and go forward and not let them bring us to our knees.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis’s less panicky reaction was much better:

We’ve done as much as we can. Our aim is not to turn this into a police state. We have to allow commerce to occur.

It’s easy to call for more security after what happened on Monday. It’s much harder to recognize that in truth, we were already doing all that we reasonably could to thwart attacks and more.

Continue reading Security Mania and the Threat to Civic Life: Tom Brokaw, Edward Davis, and the West Stockbridge Zucchini Festival

The Boston Marathon: Generalized Surveillance Fails To Thwart Attack

Headline updated [x2].

Today, by the finish line of the Boston Marathon, on the same city block as the church I go to, two bombs went off. I feel shocked and sad beyond belief.

 

Photo credit: KVLY
Photo credit: KVLY.

My thoughts and prayers are with those who died or were hurt, with their families, and with all the people stranded in Boston on this cold night.

The former district attorney of Middlesex County, Gerry Leone, has taken to the airwaves to talk about how great the efforts have been before this attack to get a Joint Terrorism Task Force going, how well it has been working together, how smooth the state and federal collaboration has been, and how the appropriate response will be to increase random surveillance. Governor Patrick has also echoed his perspective, talking about the need for increased vigilance and random bag searches on the MBTA, which we have covered, and opposed, before.

It won’t surprise regular readers to know that my perspective on this is a little different and more skeptical. Even while massively and systematically abusing the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement wasn’t able to prevent this attack. The amount of data collected through warrantless electronic means by the centers Leone is talking about has been vast, and none of it, none of it, has thwarted a terrorist attack. Now, once again, they have failed us all.

Continue reading The Boston Marathon: Generalized Surveillance Fails To Thwart Attack

Microscope Monday: Analysis of Massachusetts’ proposed Liberty Preservation Act, H. 1428

steampunk_microscope

The newly formed Massachusetts chapter of PANDA is bringing forward legislation on Beacon Hill to prevent the indefinite detention of American citizens under the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

The notion that the President should be allowed to detain US citizens without trial and without limit in time of war is a horrifying idea, but not a new one. President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War. President Roosevelt interned Americans of Japanese descent during the Second World War. It had seemed by the early 1990s that we were recognizing that shameful past and leaving it behind. Then came 9/11.

In the aftermath of the attack, 1,200 Muslim Americans were detained on `material witness warrants’ and interrogated, often without any evidence beyond their religion. American citizen and civilian Jose Padilla was arrested in 2002, committed to a military brig for three and a half years, tortured and possibly driven insane, before being transferred to civilian court and sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2008, for conspiracy to conspire to commit terrorist acts abroad.

The US government in these cases was exceptionally anxious to preserve authority to detain anyone for any length of time, provided they could be vaguely associated with al-Qaeda. Many people expected that President Obama would abandon such arguments and restore the rule of law. In reality, he has allowed the power of indefinite detention to pass into law. In 2012, he issued a signing statement to that year’s NDAA (it’s an annual thing), claiming that he would never use the power of indefinite detention. That’s not even legally binding on him, let alone on his successors. In 2013’s bill, even that signing statement has disappeared from view. Hence, people in many states have been proposing bills like the Liberty Preservation Act.

Over the fold, for the details of what the Liberty Preservation Act would do!

[Previous Microscope Mondays covered: the Free Speech Act; the Electronic Privacy Bill; the Drone Privacy Bill; and the infamous Act Updating the Wire Interception Law.]

Continue reading Microscope Monday: Analysis of Massachusetts’ proposed Liberty Preservation Act, H. 1428

Time to Gut CFAA Like The Rotten Fish It Is: Protests and Reform Proposals for Computer Crime, with Added Matthew Broderick

It’s not usually our dealio here at Digital Fourth to weigh in on federal digital rights, because terrific organizations like EFF, Fight for the Future, Demand Progress and the ACLU generally do that heavy lifting for us. But so much has happened regarding prosecutions under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that it’s worth focusing on what this law is, why it’s in such a mess, and what can usefully be done about it.

When originally passed way back in 1986, the intent of the CFAA was to ban hacking. This kind of hacking:

Wait, Ally Sheedy was in this? I must watch it again.
Wait, Ally Sheedy was in this?

In other words, what they were concerned about was access to “Federal interest computers”, namely computers belonging to the government, or at certain designated utilities like nuclear power stations or financial institutions. Now, however, the law covers pretty much any computer held by anyone.

Why is that a problem? Read on!

Continue reading Time to Gut CFAA Like The Rotten Fish It Is: Protests and Reform Proposals for Computer Crime, with Added Matthew Broderick

Microscope Monday: Analysis of Massachusetts’ proposed Free Speech Act, S. 642 / H. 1357

steampunk_microscope

Have you ever wondered why your Mondays have become an unending bliss of delight, falling upon you like Zeus visiting Danae in a shower of gold? It must surely be because of Microscope Monday, your weekly look at notable surveillance-related bills on Beacon Hill.

This week’s bill, tying in with our new Campaign to Close the Fusion Centers, is “An Act to protect freedom of speech and association”, more conveniently referred to as the “Free Speech Act”. The bill updates last legislative session’s “Act to protect privacy and personal data”, covered in October 2012 on this blog here. It was proposed by Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Harriette Chandler (D-Worcester) and Rep. Jason Lewis (D-Winchester). Its basic purpose is to deal with the fallout from the Policing Dissent scandal, where the Boston Police Department, in concert with the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, was found to have been spying on peaceful groups like Veterans for Peace and defining them as “extremists.” Protesters, including one person I knew, were hauled in and interrogated about their associates, without any actual crime having been committed.

We’re glad to see some action being taken to deal with these problems. But, what does the bill actually say?

[Previous Microscope Mondays covered: the Electronic Privacy Bill; the Drone Privacy Bill; and the infamous Act Updating the Wire Interception Law.]

Continue reading Microscope Monday: Analysis of Massachusetts’ proposed Free Speech Act, S. 642 / H. 1357

Close the Fusion Centers, Free the American People

leo_reynolds_spy_modified

[Artwork adapted slightly from Leo Reynolds on Flickr]

After the 9/11 attacks, a traumatized nation considered whether the attacks could have been thwarted by coordinating intelligence-gathering better between the FBI and CIA. From that impulse grew the fusion centers, of which there are now at least 72 77 86 across the country. Us lucky SOBs here in Massachusetts get two, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center at One Schroeder Plaza, Roxbury, MA 02120 and the Commonwealth Fusion Center at 124 Acton Street, Maynard, MA 01754. The idea was that they would be able to thwart terrorist attacks before they occur, by gathering representatives from different agencies, and in some cases the military and the private sector, together to report on “suspicious activity”. In practice, it has not worked.

Thing is, actual terrorists are relatively thin on the ground. A network of 72 77 86 fusion centers might handle three genuine cases of terrorism between them in any given year. That’s not enough to enable each fusion center to show that it’s doing anything at all. What’s a good bureaucrat to do?

Continue reading Close the Fusion Centers, Free the American People

The God of Vengeance is Still Thirsty: Feds Charge Reuters Social Media Editor Matthew Keys with Aiding Anonymous, Threaten 25 Years in Jail & $750,000 Fine

Prosecutorial discretion has a long history on the American continent.
Prosecutorial discretion has a long history on the American continent.

Just in case you thought that the federal government would be satisfied with massively overcharging Aaron Swartz and Barrett Brown, we now have the case of Reuters social media editor Matthew Keys (@TheMatthewKeys).

Seems that a grand jury indictment has been filed in Sacramento, alleging that Keys participated in an online chat where he gave Anonymous hackers login credentials for his former employer, the Tribune Company, possibly in exchange for access to the IRC channel where Anonymous hackers were discussing future exploits, and possibly out of disapproval of the Tribune Company using paywalls. The indictment alleges that he told the channel to “go f*** some sh** up”. A hacker then used those credentials to alter, for about half an hour, a story on the Tribune website, so that it claimed that a hacker called “Chippy 1337” was about to be “elected head of the [U.S.] Senate”, to which Keys apparently responded “Nice”.

Enemy of the state #957,141
Enemy of the state #957,141

May I take a moment? [Sips glass of water] Thank you. [Deep breath]

Continue reading The God of Vengeance is Still Thirsty: Feds Charge Reuters Social Media Editor Matthew Keys with Aiding Anonymous, Threaten 25 Years in Jail & $750,000 Fine

By 2020, Stingray Will Be Launched! New Doohickey Allows Police To Get Everybody’s Cellphone Locations Without Going Through the Telcos

stingray_stamp_cropped
Yes, since you ask, that is a “Terror Fish”.

We continue our series updating you on the exciting new world of mass surveillance you should expect in a few short years (previous posts include discussions of real-time life recording, terahertz surveillance and indoor cellphone tracking), by bringing you the Stingray.

The Stingray: essentially a cellphone tower that can move around.
The Stingray (image courtesy of the Wall Street Journal)

Continue reading By 2020, Stingray Will Be Launched! New Doohickey Allows Police To Get Everybody’s Cellphone Locations Without Going Through the Telcos

That Didn’t Take Long: Fugitive Accused Cop-Killer Christopher Dorner Accused of “Domestic Terrorism”, Will Become First US Citizen on US Soil Targeted By Drones

If you needed any further evidence that it’s unwise to permit electronic surveillance to catch “terrorists”, USA Today has just provided it:

Dorner has been accused by police of the shooting deaths of three people, one of them a police officer and another the daughter of a former officer. […LAPD Police Chief Charlie] Beck said. “This is an act, and make no mistake about it, of domestic terrorism. This is a man who has targeted those who we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered.”

Dorner certainly seems to be guilty of multiple murders, and to have a beef with the LAPD over racist practices he witnessed as a serving police officer. But it seems that the chief of the nation’s second-largest police force has no goddamn clue what terrorism is.

Continue reading That Didn’t Take Long: Fugitive Accused Cop-Killer Christopher Dorner Accused of “Domestic Terrorism”, Will Become First US Citizen on US Soil Targeted By Drones

Alex Marthews, Digital Fourth President, and Jamie O’Keefe of the Mass Pirates, on Two Hotheads Radio discussing the Mass. electronic wiretapping bill

Transcript runs from around 11-20 minutes:

HEATHER MACK (host): We have some guests in the studio. We have Jamie from the Mass Pirates Party, whom we’ve had on before. We also have a new guest, Alex Marthews, from the Campaign for [Digital] Fourth Amendment Rights, also from the Pirate Party [sic], here to talk a little bit about Massachusetts and the new Coakley bill, “An Act Updating the Electronic Wiretapping Laws”, and generally about Fourth Amendment rights, particularly online. So tell us a little about that, about this new Coakley bill, and why we should be very afraid!

ALEX: The main thing to understand about this bill is that this is not a new thing. This is something that the Attorney-General’s office in Massachusetts and law enforcement in Massachusetts tries to do very regularly. Every two-year session, they try to what they call “update” the electronic wiretapping law. And, by “update”, they mean, “remove all reasonable constraints on” electronic wiretapping in Massachusetts. They’ve been trying to do this for a long time. Every time it comes back, it comes back a little different. Last session, it was all about financial crime. This time, because of the terrible tragedy in Newtown, it’s all about gun crime…

HEATHER: Oh, yep.

ALEX: …and keeping us safe from school shootings. It’s exactly the same ideas. So what they want is removal of all constraints on electronic wiretapping, but they’ll hang it on whatever the controversy of the day is, in order to get it done.

HEATHER: Absolutely.

ALEX: So what the law involves, what they’re proposing, is that it won’t just be that they can do electronic wiretapping when it’s in connection with organized crime or other very serious crimes. It could be in connection to things that are not really terribly serious. Simple marijuana possession is one. Manufacturing…

HEATHER: You know how much of a threat that is. [laughs]

ALEX: It’s an incredible threat, and anyone who possesses marijuana is a terrorist by definition.

HEATHER: [Laughs] We all know that.

ALEX: I know, I know.

HEATHER: It’s quite the terrorist bunker we’re operating out of here.

ALEX: I, for one, welcome our new attorney-general overlords, and I hope they’ll be doing something about that. The…if you manufacture arrowheads in the Commonwealth, then that will count as a weapon, and therefore make you subject to an electronic wiretapping warrant…

HEATHER: What is the point? What is the point? [Laughs]

ALEX: The point? Well, they like to say…

MIKE CANN [host]: Unlimited government power.

ALEX: Yeah, that is exactly it. It is not about reducing crime. Crime is about as low in the Commonwealth as it has ever been.

MIKE: Record lows.

ALEX: It’s lower than at any time since before 1968. And so, you gotta ask yourself, it’s gotta be about the power. It’s not the case – they try to argue that criminals have “got the upper hand” here in Massachusetts. Well first, if they have the upper hand, doesn’t that reflect poorly on them? Isn’t that their job?

JAMIE: But they don’t have the tools, is what they’ll say.

ALEX: Ach. But they do not need these tools!

HEATHER: Where’s the evidence of these far-reaching underground criminal syndicates that are…

MIKE: Well, now it’s about the guns. Now they’re saying that because of the school shootings and the gun violence…

HEATHER: Oh, because Adam Lanza needed the Internet…

ALEX: Adam Lanza basically didn’t use the Internet.

HEATHER, MIKE: No.

ALEX: He didn’t even have a Facebook profile. Electronic wiretapping would not have done a thing.

HEATHER: Exactly.

ALEX: But let me tell you one thing that is in this law that is very interesting that I’ve come across. They’ve introduced specific language trying to legalize electronic wiretaps in “switching stations”. Switching stations are phone company facilities.

MIKE: Wow.

ALEX: What they wanna do, it appears, is to be able to put a wiretap in your local AT&T facility which will then tap everything coming through that facility. We are a long way here from the protections of the Constitution.

HEATHER: Yeah, it’s true.

MIKE: And that means no oversight by a judge, right? You see, that’s what –

ALEX: Well –

MIKE: – a warrant is, having a judge having some reasoned suspicion to look through your papers, right?

ALEX: Well, let me be clear about this. The electronic wiretapping warrants would be reviewed by a judge. They’ve backed off from the stuff they were doing in previous sessions, where they were saying, no, no, it doesn’t really need to be done by a judge. But this is the first time they’ve introduced this idea of mass surveillance at phone company facilities, and I am very disturbed by this.

MIKE: And what rules would they have about how long they would keep those files, and the record-keeping, I mean…

ALEX: Well, I’m sure they will have rules…

MIKE: Right.

ALEX: but they’re not telling you what they are yet.

MIKE: I know.

JAMIE: Neither does the NSA, and they already do that.

MIKE: I know. Isn’t that a problem with a lot of this stuff, that there’s no…you know, to back into the TSA thing we’re doing today, it’s about the oversight. I mean, the fact that we had this protest, we found out more information on what they’re doing, because now they have to answer to the press, ’cause they’re being asked about it, and I think a lot of this activism is all about that – is to get them to give us information, ’cause we never – when the Feds do stuff, and now the states wanna be like the Feds, I mean, this is what it comes down to in a lot of respects, is these federal laws have been around for awhile now, and now states are doing civil practices, no warrant needed. They’re gonna be able to spy on us, on anyone they want. I mean, look at the marijuana movement that we – Heather and I have been, you know, championing and part of. You have medical marijuana in Massachusetts. How easy is it for them to claim that anyone involved in medical marijuana – supplying cannabis to patients – now I’m a money-launderer – they’re gonna trace all your phone calls, they’re gonna read all your emails, they’re gonna document everything about you with no warrant needed, in the State of Massachusetts. Is that what we want?

JAMIE: Well, it’s not what we want, but one of the things you have to remember of course is that the Attorney-General now, or even…

MIKE: Right now…

JAMIE: …can go, in different counties even, can go to Twitter, and say, “Give us all of your direct messages”, can go to Facebook and say, “Give us all this information”, and they don’t even – Facebook, or Google, or Twitter, doesn’t even need to tell you that all of this information is being gotten.

MIKE: Yeah, this is what’s so…you know, I’m glad you brought that up, Jamie, ’cause it seems like in so many of these cases, not only should we be saying no to the government, allowing them more of a reach, allowing them more power in this situation. We should be hassling them to help us and protect us, and come up with some laws to actually protect our privacy, protect our rights, from a lot of the – like, there’s no oversight on any of this, anywhere, and it’s just getting out of control.

JAMIE: But that makes their job harder, and they certainly don’t want their job to be harder.

MIKE: I know, it’s a Catch-22, isn’t it? [crosstalk]

ALEX: But we’ve gotta get…we’ve gotta develop the discussion. We gotta make it a more mature discussion. It can’t be simply the discussion that we’ve been having here in Massachusetts, where law enforcement comes up with something that will make their life easier, and we all go, oh, it makes life easier for law enforcement, therefore we must do it. No. The Fourth Amendment would not exist, and the Fifth and Sixth and Eighth Amendments would not exist, if all that mattered was making life easy for law enforcement. If…There are plenty of things that law enforcement wants to be able to do, there are plenty of things that would make life easier for them to do, that are not allowed because of the Constitution. And I’m sorry guys, it takes you longer, it costs you more money, but them’s the breaks. You’re in America, you’re not in North Korea, you have to put up with it.

HEATHER: [laughs] Not yet.