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NSA Spies Running Dry?
From: mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 11:20:24 -0700
From: Magical Zombie Cow <waste () zor hut fi> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32770,00.html NSA Spies Running Dry? Wired News Report 2:15 p.m. 29.Nov.1999 PST Spies at the US National Security Agency may be having trouble eavesdropping on information transmitted through the Internet and fiber optic cables. NSA officials also cannot readily decipher encrypted communications exchanged by North Korean officials, according to an article in the 6 December issue of The New Yorker. Advances in computer technology -- some helped along by the US government -- have made the once-secret spy agency's job much more difficult, according to the article written by Seymour Hersh. The NSA failed, for instance, to uncover information about India's 1998 nuclear tests, which took Washington by surprise. "The NSA's party line to Congress is 'We're fine. We don't need to change,'" one source told Hersh. "It's like a real Communist organization. Free thought is not encouraged." But some critics believe the NSA is trying to use the media to downplay its broad intelligence-gathering capabilities before planned congressional oversight hearings next year. CNN's David Ensor last week aired a very similar report that also said new technologies "threaten to make the NSA's big ears go increasingly deaf." "The worldwide move to digital, rather than analog, phones and other equipment is making eavesdropping more difficult. So are fax machines and the move to fiber optic cables, which are much harder to tap into. So is the increasing availability of good encryption software," Ensor said. Widespread rumors that the NSA regularly engages in illegal surveillance of US citizens -- aided by such techno-thrillers as Enemy of the State -- gained more credibility this year when the agency refused to turn over important information to Congress. Citing attorney-client privilege, the NSA declined to reveal information about its internal operating procedures. In an angry response, the House Select Committee on Intelligence drafted a requirement forcing the NSA and the attorney general to prepare a report by the end of January "providing a detailed analysis of the legal standards employed by elements of the intelligence community in conducting signals intelligence activities, including electronic surveillance." Signals intelligence refers to the collection of intelligence data from sources that include electronic or radio communications. The legislation is part of the large spending bill that President Clinton signed on Monday. (Just to make their point absolutely clear, House appropriators also sliced the NSA's legal budget by 33 percent.) "The information we get back in that report will shape how any hearings turn out," said an aide to Rep. Bob Barr (R-Georgia), a frequent NSA critic. The aide said one focus of the hearings, which will happen no earlier than February, will be "how well do 1970s laws governing surveillance work in the 1990s?" The ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center recently launched Echelon Watch, a site designed to prompt governmental investigation into the reality -- and the legalities -- of a global electronic surveillance system code-named Echelon. "The solution is oversight, accountability, and reform," says Marc Rotenberg, director of EPIC. ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM
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