[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Senator seeks .sex; commission wants give more $$$ t

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 09 Jun 2000 15:59:51 -0400
To:             	politech@vorlon.mit.edu
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Senator seeks .sex; commission wants give more $$$ to the NSA
Copies to:      	saftergood@igc.org
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com



http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36868,00.html

Feds Urged to Beef Up Spying
by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)

10:50 a.m. Jun. 9, 2000 PDT
WASHINGTON -- Congress must give federal police more
eavesdropping abilities and increase the budgets of spy
agencies, members of a federal commission are recommending.

The Justice Department is "overly cautious" when forwarding
requests for wiretaps and electronic surveillance to a secret
court established in 1978 for that purpose, Paul Bremer, the
National Commission on Terrorism chairman, said Thursday.

Bremer also told the Senate Intelligence committee that
technologies such as encryption and fiber optics are making it
tough for the once-super-secret National Security Agency to
eavesdrop on the world's communications -- and such
surveillance is more vital than ever.

"How much more important a role the NSA can play in this field
than when I left in 1989," said Bremer, who until 11 years ago
was the U.S. ambassador-at-large for counter-terrorism.

Bremer's testimony was designed to summarize the group's
recent recommendations, contained in an 80KB report, and
deflect criticism of some of the more controversial suggestions
such as using the military to respond to terrorist or suspected
terrorist acts.

The commission has 11 members, including senior officials such
as retired U.S. Army General Wayne Downing; John Lewis, a
former assistant director of the FBI's national security division; and
former CIA director James Woolsey. No civil libertarians or privacy
advocates were included.

[...]




http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36867,00.html

Senator Seeks .Sex
by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)

3:00 a.m. Jun. 9, 2000 PDT
Senator Joseph Lieberman wants to segregate Internet smut.

The Connecticut Democrat said Thursday that the U.S.
government should consider alternative ways of shielding
children from sexually explicit material, such as creating a new
top-level domain such as ".sex" or ".xxx."

"This idea, which would in effect establish a virtual red-light
district ... has a lot of merit, for rather than constricting the
Net's open architecture it would capitalize on it to effectively
shield children from pornography, and it would do so without
encroaching on the rights of adults to have access to protected
speech," Lieberman said at the third meeting of the federal Commission
on Child Online Protection.

Lieberman stressed that he voted against the Communications
Decency Act, which later was found to be unconstitutional,
when it was a stand-alone bill, but neglected to mention that
he voted for it when it was part of the larger
Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Lieberman characterized his support for a sex-domain as a
"suggestion" to the commission, which under federal law is
tasked with making "making legislative recommendations to the
Congress."

The idea of new domains has surfaced before, including during
testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, but
persuading non-U.S. smutrepreneurs to make the switch might
be a problem. Another hitch: Congress no longer has explicit
authority over top-level domains after the Clinton administration
ceded control to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers.

[...]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
---- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----
------- End of forwarded message -------