Left to chance

Today, EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act appeal,
seeking disclosure of NPSD 54, the classified Directive that
describes a National Security Agency program to monitor American
computer networks. EPIC submitted the original request to shed light
on the extent of the federal government’s surveillance of civilian
computer systems, but the agency refused to disclose the document.
EPIC’s appeal warns that the NSA’s improper withholding of the
Directive “flatly contravenes” the President’s policy on open
government and “explicit FOIA guidance promulgated by the
Attorney General.” EPIC further stated, without public disclosure
of the Directive, “the government cannot meaningfully make assurances about
the adequacy of privacy and civil liberties safeguards.” For more
information, see EPIC Open Government.

The often-spoofed, color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System may get an overhaul – moving from five colors to three in a bid to win the public trust.

The nation has been at Yellow, “an elevated significant risk of terrorist attacks” for three years. International and domestic flights have been at an Orange “high risk of terrorist attacks” for the same period.

A proposal by the Homeland Security Advisory Council, unveiled late Tuesday, recommends removing two of the five colors, with a standard state of affairs being a “guarded” Yellow. The Green “low risk of terrorist attacks” might get removed altogether, meaning stay prepared for your morning subway commute to turn deadly at any moment.

The Threat Level advisory system was set up in 2002 in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks and has changed 17 times — the last in 2006. It has never been lowered to Green “low risk of terrorist attacks” or the Blue “general risk of terrorist attacks.”

“There is currently indifference to the public Homeland Security Advisory System and, at worst, there is a disturbing lack of public confidence in the system,” the council wrote Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary.

The 19-member panel’s recommendations are not binding. Panel membership ranges from Miami Mayor Manny Diaz to Joe Shirley, president of the Navajo Nation. Some members supported scrapping the color-coded system.

But the group said the public should feel confident in a new three-color rating system because, “for reasons of public credibility,” the scale won’t be politicized and instead the government “should elevate the threat status only when compelled to do so in the interest of public safety and security.”

That statement comes two weeks after Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security secretary, wrote in a new book, the Test of Our Times, that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former Attorney General John Ashcroft unsuccessfully lobbied him to raise the threat level days before the 2004 elections, in a bid to seal President George W. Bush’s re-election.

“Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level, and was supported by Rumsfeld,” Ridge writes. “There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’”

The new system, if approved by the agency, would consist solely of Yellow, Orange and Red.

Here are the new meanings:

Don’t forget to stock up on duct tape.

See Also:

• Color-Coded Threat Level System In New Colors for Spring!
• Homeland Security Threat Level Raised to Chicago Dog With …
• Congress to Tweak DHS Color-Warning System
• Air Force Cyber Command’s New Weapon: DMCA Notices
• Report: FBI Mishandles Terror Watch List
• Ready (To Wear) Homeland Security
• 860000 Name Long Terror Watch List Scrutinizes Americans Most …

Original article at Threat Level

The Obama administration has told Congress it supports renewing three provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at year’s end, measures making it easier for the government to spy within the United States.

In a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said the administration might consider “modifications” to the act in order to protect civil liberties.

“The administration is willing to consider such ideas, provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important authorities,” Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general, wrote to Leahy, (.pdf) whose committee is expected to consider renewing the three expiring Patriot Act provisions next week. The government disclosed the letter Tuesday.

It should come as no surprise that President Barack Obama supports renewing the provisions, which were part of the Patriot Act approved six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

As an Illinois senator in 2008, he voted to allow the warrantless monitoring of Americans’ electronic communications if they are communicating overseas with somebody the government believes is linked to terrorism. That legislative package, which President George W. Bush signed, also immunized the nation’s telecommunication companies from lawsuits charging them with being complicit with the Bush administration’s warrantless, wiretapping program. That program was also adopted in the wake of Sept. 11.

These are the three provisions due to expire:

*A secret court, known as the FISA court, may grant “roving wiretaps” without the government identifying the target. Generally, the authorities must assert that the target is an agent of a foreign power and/or a suspected terrorist. The government said Tuesday that 22 such warrants — which allow the monitoring of any communication device — have been granted annually.

*The FISA court may grant warrants for “business records,” from banking to library to medical records. Generally, the government must assert that the records are relevant to foreign intelligence gathering and/or a terrorism investigation. The government said Tuesday that 220 of these warrants had been granted between 2004 and 2007. It said 2004 was the first year those powers were used.

*A so-called “lone wolf” provision, enacted in 2004, allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of an individual even without showing that the person is an agent of a foreign power or a suspected terrorist. The government said Tuesday it has never invoked that provision, but said it wants to keep the authority to do so.

“The basic idea behind the authority was to cover situations in which information linking the target of an investigation to an international group was absent or insufficient, although the target’s engagement in ‘international terrorism’ was sufficiently established,” Weich wrote.

The American Civil Liberties opposes renewing all three provisions, especially the lone wolf measure.

Michelle Richardson, the ACLU’s legislative counsel, said in a telephone interview, “The justification for FISA and these lower standards and letting it operate in secret was all about terrorist groups and foreign governments, that they posed a unique threat other than the normal criminal element. This lone wolf provision undercuts that justification.”

The committee hearing is set for 10 a.m. Sept. 23 and will be webcast live.

See Also:

• FBI Use of Patriot Act Authority Increased Dramatically in 2008 …
• Bloggers, TV, Go Nuts Over Misleading ‘Patriot Act’ Arrest Claim …
• FBI Tried to Cover Patriot Act Abuses With Flawed, Retroactive …
• FBI Targets Internet Archive With Secret ‘National Security Letter …
• Judge Orders FBI to Turn Over Thousands of Patriot Act Abuse …
• FBI Misuses, Underreports Patriot Act Power: Audit
• Court Strikes Down Key Patriot Act Power Again

Original article at Threat Level

Sen. Charles Schumer asked the Justice Department’s antitrust division on Monday to investigate the recent sale of Diebold’s voting machines division to a competitor, saying the deal raises anti-competitiveness concerns and has “adverse implications on how our country votes.”

The letter comes just days after another voting machine company filed an anti-trust lawsuit in federal court in Delaware against Diebold and Election Systems & Software.

Earlier this month, Diebold announced the sale of its voting machine division, Premier Election Solutions, to top competitor ES&S for about $5 million.

The sale gives ES&S, already the largest voting machine maker in the country, a near monopoly on the voting machine industry. According to the company’s website, its systems, used in 43 states, counted “approximately 50 percent of the votes in the last four major U.S. elections.”

Hart InterCivic, a voting machine firm based in Texas, filed an antitrust suit (.pdf) on Friday, seeking a temporary and permanent injunction against the sale. According to the suit, the sale “poses a significant and imminent threat of irreparable antitrust injury to plaintiffs.”

The sale also threatens harm to election districts that purchase voting equipment in that it will likely increase the costs of equipment and result in a decrease in the quality of products, the suit alleges. It will also, ultimately, cause “harm to the voters of the United States, in the form of loss of confidence in the integrity and security of the means by which elections are performed.”

The suit alleges that Diebold and ES&S have long engaged in anti-competitive practices to win bids “through both legitimate and illegitimate acts and conduct.”

This behavior includes submitting low-ball bids to get contracts, after which the companies allegedly gouge customers with additional expenses for after-market service and upgrades. The suit alleges the companies also exaggerate the capabilities of their systems, misrepresent the status of their certification and exert improper and undue influence on government officials to win contracts.

The suit identifies ES&S as serving 45 percent of the country’s approximately 180,000 voting precincts. Premier serves approximately 23 percent; Sequoia Voting Systems serves 18 percent; Hart InterCivi serves 9 percent; and Dominion Voting Systems serves 5 percent.

Schumer, a New York Democrat, agreed with Hart InterCivic’s assessment of the sale.

“If this acquisition proceeds, one company could control over three-quarters of the U.S. market for voting systems,” Schumer wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. “Given other factors, including high barriers to entering the market, I am deeply concerned that local governments and taxpayers will not be getting a fair deal because too much market power will be held in too few hands.”

Schumer also noted that consolidating the election-machine market in fewer hands would make it easier for someone to commit fraud.

ES&S, or its precursor, American Information Systems, was the focus of previous Justice Department interference in 1997. At the time, AIS purchased Business Records Corporation and morphed into ES&S. The DoJ forced the company to relinquish its optical-scan voting equipment business to Sequoia Voting Systems, which became the third largest voting machine company in the country.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

Photo: A Diebold voting machine from Oct. 28, 2005. (AP/Kiichiro Sato)

See also:

• Diebold Unloads Beleaguered Voting Machine Division

Original article at Threat Level

An analyst at a Defense Department spy satellite agency faces federal hacking charges after allegedly poking around in a top-secret system used in a classified terrorism investigation involving the FBI and the U.S. Army.

Brian Keith Montgomery worked on a covert program for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — the spy agency in charge of satellite and aerial image collection. On April 9, he was carrying out his duties when he saw a message that “provided significant detail about a classified operation” that was unrelated to his job, according to an affidavit filed by a Pentagon investigator.

The operation is not detailed in the affidavit (.pdf), but there is a reference to the 902nd Military Intelligence Battalion, an Army counterintelligence unit based at Fort Meade in Maryland, with a presence at more than 50 other locations inside and outside the United States. The 902nd faced controversy in 2005, when NBC News published documents showing the the unit had been spying on American anti-war protesters. Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the group had filed intelligence reports on legal demonstrations, including a weekly protest at an Atlanta recruiting station, and a protest at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

According to the government, Montgomery ignored a security warning in the message he saw, and twice logged in to a classified system used in the terrorism investigation: first on April 9, when he stayed on for two hours, and then on April 14. He’d gotten the password from another classified message to which he also had legitimate access.

Curiously, just by accessing the system, Montgomery endangered the terrorism investigation, and “caused harm to the U.S. Army and the FBI,” according to the affidavit by Dexter Wells, an agent with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

Montgomery’s alleged motives are unclear, but he told DCIS that he was very interested in the information in the program, Wells wrote. Montgomery also told investigators that he thought he was allowed to log in to the system, and hadn’t noticed a warning saying that only officials participating in the operation were allowed to use the password.

“It was not until I was called on the carpet, that I went back and read the warning notice in the message traffic,” Montgomery allegedly told DCIS.

The nature of the system at issue is not clear, but it was used from all around the United States as part of the terrorism investigation, and was being monitored by the FBI at the time of his alleged access. That’s evidently what led to the probe of Montgomery, who worked at a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency facility at Fort Belvoir in northern Virginia.

There are no allegations that Montgomery did anything with the information he obtained.

He’s charged with a single count of gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer or exceeding authorized access, and obtaining classified information. Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Montgomery was charged Friday, did not return a phone call.

See Also:

• Inside Operation Highlander: the nsa’s Wiretapping of Americans Abroad
• Pentagon And CIA Involved In Domestic Spying

Original article at Threat Level

CDT told a congressional panel today that providing the public with direct, online access to complex government programs, such as TARP, would strengthen oversight. Media, watchdog groups, researchers and citizens could then better analyze the data for a wide variety of purposes. CDT asked the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee to ensure that legislation explicitly require that TARP resources be made available to the public on the Web. CDT also noted that more sophisticated data–such as location and mapping data–are being collected today by government agencies; however, aging federal privacy law needs to be updated to ensure these new types of information are protected as well.Original article at Center for Democracy and Technology