FC: FBI claims they're just misunderstood, from Freedom Forum

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Reminder to politechnicals: Next time the Feds call, make sure you're
recording the convo into a sound/video file. Duncan Frissell has it right:

> This is an example of why I always mention that people don't have to talk 
> to cops.  It has nothing to do with any privilege, you just don't have to 
> do it, period.  ISP, parent, witness, investigation target, passing 
> stranger.  You don't have to talk to cops.  It is not a crime and it's not 
> supposed to change the probable cause and reasonable suspicion standards 
> that justify further action by the cops.  Only judges and legislatures can 
> order you to speak and then only under controlled circumstances.
[...]
> These days, anyone approached by the Fibbies could get rid of them real 
> quick by saying, "I'm running audio (and/or video) on this and will be 
> posting it to the web within 15 minutes of the end of our 
> conversation.  Zap.  No more Fibbies.

*************

> From: Adam Powell <apowell () freedomforum org>
> To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
> Subject: FBI claims they're just misunderstood
> Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 15:42:36 -0500
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21)
>
> Misunderstood by both Wieger and Zieper, it turns out. Those guys must not
> hear well.
>
> http://www.freedomforum.org/speech/1999/11/29closing.asp
>
> ISP head, FBI differ on Web site closing 'order'
>
>                  By Adam Clayton Powell III
>                  World Center
>
>                  The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the president of a
> Michigan-based
>                  Internet service provider disagreed today on whether he
> was ordered on Nov. 19
>                  to remove a grainy satirical video from the Internet. 
>
>                  Mark Wieger said his company, BECamation, removed the
> video after being
>                  contacted by Dan Calemina of the FBI and by an assistant
> U.S. attorney, both
>                  based in Manhattan. Wieger said he was told "litigation is
> in progress," and he
>                  would lose his company if he did not comply with their
> order. The two officials
>                  "basically lied to us," Wieger said. 
>
>                  "'If you don't pull it down, we've contacted your
> provider, and we will make them
>                  pull it,' " Wieger quoted them as saying. Wieger told
> free! that he called them
>                  back to make certain they really were at federal offices
> in New York, then took
>                  down the site. 
>
>                  An FBI spokesman told free! today that he couldn't comment
> specifically on
>                  the conversation between Wieger and the agent. But he said
> Wieger either
>                  misunderstood or inaccurately described the exchange as an
> effort to force him
>                  to close the Web site. The U.S. attorney with whom Wieger
> said he spoke did
>                  not return a phone call today from free! 
>
>                  "I would say that our people would not characterize the
> conversation that way,"
>                  said James Margolin, a special agent with the FBI's New
> York office. "No
>                  specific request was made to discontinue the site or
> disable the site. The way
>                  our people were viewing the shutdown was that the people
> operating the site did
>                  so voluntarily." 
>
>                  However, the producer of the video, New York performance
> artist Mike Zieper,
>                  said last week that FBI agents visited him at home and
> left him with the clear
>                  impression that the video should be removed. 
>
>                  As it turned out, Wieger said, neither the FBI nor the
> U.S. attorney's office had
>                  obtained a court order, subpoena or other legal basis to
> make such a demand. 
>
>                  The disputed content was a grainy six-minute satirical
> video produced by
>                  Zieper, also known as Mike Z, and posted on Crowded
> Theater. Similar to "The
>                  Blair Witch Project," the video consists of video of Times
> Square while a
>                  narrator suggests the possibility federal agents might try
> to incite a riot on New
>                  Year's Eve. The FBI, Wieger said, told him that the video
> itself might incite a
>                  riot and therefore had to go. 
>
>                  "'We think it has racial slurs in it,' " Wieger quoted the
> agent as telling him. "'It's
>                  our job to make sure this kind of riot incitement doesn't
> happen.' " 
>
>                  Wieger said he was worried he did not have the resources
> to try to resist a
>                  federal lawsuit, describing his company as a small ISP
> with little money. 
>
>                  "I drive a six-year-old Ford, not a Lexus," he said in an
> interview with free!"I
>                  have a 16-year-old multiple-handicapped son. That's the
> only reason we started
>                  this business, to have something to pass on to him." 
>
>                  After unsuccessful attempts to reach Zieper, the artist,
> Wieger said, he
>                  removed the site and the video. It was only after removing
> crowdedtheater.com,
>                  Wieger said, that he learned from GTE, his service
> provider, that there was no
>                  legal authority for the federal request. 
>
>                  "They didn't have a leg to stand on," he said of the FBI.
> "We put the site back
>                  up as soon as we found out the FBI had lied to us." 
>
>                  Margolin of the FBI wouldn't confirm or deny whether the
> agency had secured a
>                  court order, adding that he couldn't comment extensively
> on a pending inquiry. 
>
>                  But he told free! that the agency began investigating the
> site only after the New
>                  York office received calls from people who viewed the site
> and found the content
>                  disturbing. 
>
>                  "We initiated an inquiry because it would have been
> negligent on our part not
>                  to," Margolin said. "Based on the reports we received it
> was described as
>                  something purported to be about paramilitary training and
> about inciting a race
>                  riot on New Year's Eve in Times Square. 
>
>                  "We don't as a matter of course routinely monitor the
> Web," Margolin said. "Our
>                  interest was not in content per se but whether it was a
> work of fiction or factual
>                  record of some activity that itself might constitute a
> federal violation." 
>
>                  Wieger said he called Calemina and Korologos again seeking
> clarification, but
>                  this time, according to Wieger, they would not talk to
> him. So he promptly put
>                  the site, and the video, back online. 
>
>                  But Wieger said he had lost "over a couple thousand
> dollars" as a result of the
>                  U.S. action, much of it from "hundreds" of irate calls to
> his 800 number and
>                  e-mails to his site from people who read the story on
> newsgroups or in the
>                  Village Voice and blamed BECamation for closing
> crowdedtheater.com. 
>
>                  "Someone even called my cell phone from California," he
> said. "That's going to
>                  cost me plenty." 
>
>                  "BECamation supports the First Amendment as well as the
> rights guaranteed in
>                  the constitution," Wieger said in a statement posted on
> the BECamation site.
>                  "We were lied to and correct information regarding this
> matter were purposely
>                  kept from us to serve the FBI. Now that the situation has
> been clarified by all
>                  parties we are happy to offer the site again on our
> servers." 
>
>                  And Zieper even posted a defense of the ISP. 
>
>                  "We do not hold BECamation responsible for what happened
> in any way," he
>                  said in a statement on the crowdedtheater.com home page.
> "They support Free
>                  Speech online and have graciously put the site back up." 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
To subscribe: send a message to majordomo () vorlon mit edu with this text:
subscribe politech
More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------