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[FYI] (Fwd) [europe] CNN: Euro civil liberty campaigners urge restraint




------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Mon, 24 Sep 2001 21:55:52 +0200
To:             	europe-l@xs4all.nl
From:           	Maurice Wessling <maurice@bof.nl>
Subject:        	[europe] CNN: Euro civil liberty campaigners urge restraint
Send reply to:  	europe-l@xs4all.nl


http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/09/24/civil.liberties.idg/index.
html


Euro civil liberty campaigners urge restraint

By Joris Evers

(IDG) -- Police and intelligence services should not get new or
extended communication interception powers or increased access to
information, say seven European privacy and civil liberties
organizations in an open letter to the European Council.

In the letter, sent Friday, the organizations from Austria, Denmark,
Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. urge the European Council to
defend citizens' freedom and rights in the wake of the terrorist
attacks on the U.S.

"There is a climate now where it is possible to get measures into
place fast. Measures that would otherwise not be allowed," said
Maurice Wessling of Bits of Freedom in Amsterdam.

"Privacy and civil liberties must be part of the debate. They are very
important subjects that can't be shoved aside. Privacy and civil
liberties are always on the agenda in the U.S. In Europe, that's much
less the case," he said.

The European Council, convening Friday in Brussels, is made up of the
heads of state or government of the 15 member states of the European
Union and the president of the European Commission. The groups in
their letter acknowledge that European leaders wish to enhance the
security of their countries, but question the effectiveness and
proportionality of extended powers for law enforcement and warn
against the "grave loss of privacy" that would lead to.

"The existence of the Echelon system did not provide intelligence
services with information about the attacks in the U.S. We are
concerned that Echelon and similar systems threaten the rights of all
European citizens without achieving their stated goals," the letter
states.

Echelon is the code name for a global electronic-surveillance network
believed to be run in part by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
U.S. officials have never officially confirmed the existence of
Echelon, but an investigative committee of the European Parliament
recently concluded that the spy network is real.

In addition, the civil liberty and privacy groups ask the European
leaders to promote encryption as a way to guarantee privacy of
electronic communications and not to implement legislation that would
force Internet and telecommunication service providers to retain
traffic data for use by law enforcement.

"Retention of traffic data will in effect transform our communications
infrastructure into a surveillance system that records intimate
details of the personal life of all citizens," the groups state in the
letter.

The European Justice and Home Affairs ministers met on Thursday to
discuss which measures to take to maintain "the highest level of
security" and to combat terrorism. Issues such as wiretapping were
discussed, according to the meeting conclusions. However, No concrete
plans to extend the powers of law enforcement are in place, according
to Wessling.

The organizations that signed the open letter are Bits of Freedom in
the Netherlands; Chaos Computer Club and Fitug in Germany; Digital
Rights, Denmark; Foundation for Information Policy Research and
Privacy International, both in the U.K., and Quintessenz in Austria.

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