Secret U.S. court OKs electronic spying (By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, November 18, 2002) WASHINGTON--A secretive federal court on Monday granted police broad authority to monitor Internet use, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects...
Perspective: Say hello to Big Brother (By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, November 18, 2002) ... Like it or not, the proposed Department of Homeland Security firmly establishes Washington's central role in computer and network security....
Appeals court OKs fax intercepts (By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, October 14, 2002) FBI agents were not overzealous when conducting electronic surveillance against members of anti-government group the Montana Freemen, a federal appeals court has ruled.
In what appears to be the first decision dealing with fax interception, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said on Friday that police did not violate federal wiretap laws when spying on the group, whose key members were convicted in 1998 of bank fraud.
Legal experts said the 3-0 ruling, a considerable victory for the government, reaffirms police abilities to seek court approval to snare e-mail--with little worries about running afoul of federal law. ...
US Code, Chapter 36, provided by Cornell Law school CHAPTER 36 - FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE
[US Court Ruling] http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/common/newsroom/02-001.pdf Said to be: The 56-page ruling removes procedural barriers for federal agents conducting surveillance under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The law, enacted as part of post-Watergate reforms, permits sweeping electronic surveillance, telephone eavesdropping and surreptitious searches of residences and offices. Earlier ruling http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/fisa_opinion.pdf said to be: The lower court's decision, written in May, went so far as to say that changes to the Justice Department's procedures were necessary "to protect the privacy of Americans in these highly intrusive surveillances and searches."
