Why DT Passed - Reality [this is US centric, Normally I would not pass this on,

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: KDAGUIO () aba com


Cyberspace activists,


I have been watching the debate about why DT passed, and watched
a number of people jumping on Stanton and Jerry repeatedly and I
believe undeservedly.  I hope I don't recieve the same treatment
for speaking up now.


I am a lobbyist for the banking industry.  I was there for the
meetings and negotiations between the Hill staff, the FBI, EFF,
and the Telcos.  I was the only representative of telephony users
other than EFF consistently at the meetings.  We made suggestions
which were adopted which resulted in significant improvement of
the bill for everyone of us.  No one liked the fact that we had
to be there, or compromise at all.


As some of you may remember, if you have been around for awhile,
the original drafts of the bill were expansive, and their impact
horrible to contemplate.  I found the bill as originally written,
impossible to accept.  However, we recognized that the disgusting
original version of the bill would easily pass, no matter what
anyone of us said, because of the political environment on
Capitol Hill.  We work up there physically, and have humint not
available to some not on the ground.  I hate the hill and have
not gotten beltway fever.  I refuse to compromise unless I know
that there is literally no hope.  We literally were the
beneficiaries of charity.  We could have lost much worse, had
Edwards not been giving up his seat and been willing to work on
our behalf.  We owe Edwards & Leahy and their good staffs a debt
of gratitude.


If Edwards, Leahy and others had not sought/helped us out, Biden
would have gotton Congress to pass the original bill in a second,
and the FBI would have gotten everything it thought it wanted.
Imagine _anyone_ having remote wiretapping capability on every
data and voice network in the US.  From a privacy and security
standpoint, we found that unacceptable and acted by getting
involved in the process.  I believe that by getting involved we
helped everyone.


I urge you in further fights not to underestimate the clout of
the law enforcement agencies.  They can get anything they want,
especially if the Members of Congress do not understand the
issue.   If they say the magic phrases, "lives lost, lives saved,
criminals caught" they can count on members to salute.


Based on the politics of the issue (I disagree with the concept
of compromise - however I am not a crypto-anarchist i.e. death
before dishonor) I think that the best approach for the community
was to have EFF at the table making improvements and
communicating with everyone on our side.


Regarding the meetings-


Jerry stood up for us.  He knew that we could not win a
knock-down, drag out fight.  The rules on the Hill, the makeup of
the committees, and the mood of the country on crime meant that
we didn't have a chance of killing it forever.  If it was stopped
this year, it would have been worse for everyone next year, and
may have contained encryption restrictions and then passed
easily.  If you thought it went fast this time, you have not seen
anything.


The Telcos were willing to put all networks on the table, their
primary concern was "who was going to pay, how were they going to
be paid, and how much?"  Don't expect help from them or their
friends on these issues - they felt that if their networks were
covered, everyones should be.


I worked hard to get private networks taken off the table, and to
get language in the record justifying their removal.  In addition
to the privacy implications for everyone, remote wiretap
capability opens up our networks to sabotage, hacking, and other
bad things which tend to bother the people I represent.


Jerry worked hard to get the privacy provisions included & to
ensure that sunshine procedures apply to the law enforcement
agencies exercise of their access.


I hope that you all can appreciate now more of what happened and
can learn from it because the writing on the wall is clear


JUST BECAUSE WE ARE RIGHT DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE WILL WIN.


This truth has implications for those of us involved in the
Clipper & EES fight.  Please note the last days emergence of HR
5199.  Again, even if a million signatures are on petitions, and
everyone faxes their Congresscritters, we can still lose, if the
enforcement guys want their bill bad enough.


Good luck & keep fighting the good fight...kawika...