(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to members of the Joint Committee of Senators and members of the House of Representatives, RSF asked for the deletion of certain sections of a bill which the organisation believes to be a threat to privacy and confidentiality of information sent on the Internet. “The legitimate emotion aroused by the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to members of the Joint Committee of Senators and members of the House of Representatives, RSF asked for the deletion of certain sections of a bill which the organisation believes to be a threat to privacy and confidentiality of information sent on the Internet. “The legitimate emotion aroused by the September 11 attack should not lead you to limit individual liberties, which are guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution,” underlined RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. The organisation asked for the rejection of an amendment that would allow law enforcement officials to install e-mail monitoring systems with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), to monitor their subscribers’ e-mail messages. RSF also fears that, in the name of defence and national security, authorities may ban encryption software, which allows individuals to encrypt their e-mail messages.
According to information obtained by RSF, on 13 September 2001, the US Senate passed a law allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to install e-mail monitoring software on ISPs for forty-eight hours without requiring a court order. The Combating Terrorism Act was passed by the Senate after a half-hour debate.
During the debate on the Senate floor, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy expressed his opposition to the Combating Terrorism Act in defense of individual liberties. “We are going to [vote on this bill] with no hearings, no debate,” he said in anger, after pointing out the seriousness of the changes this law would bring about. On 17 September, Attorney General John Ashcroft asked that measures to reinforce the Justice Department’s powers in the fight against terrorism be taken as soon as possible.
The Combating Terrorism Act is actually an amendment to Bill H.R. 2500, dealing with budget allocations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State, which was approved by the House of Representatives in July. A joint committee comprised of senators and members of the House of Representatives was established to select the amendments to the final bill that will be presented for a vote in both houses. The committee will present the definitive bill to Congress at the end of this week or the beginning of next week.
RSF notes that, on 11 September, just a few hours after the terrorist attacks, FBI agents went to the offices of the ISPs America Online (AOL), Earthlink and Hotmail to install the Carnivore program on their servers. This program is used to intercept e-mail messages. The FBI’s objective was to search for any traces that might have been left by the perpetrators of the attacks.
Many American civil liberties organisations also fear that the fight against terrorism may lead the authorities to prohibit the use of encryption technologies, which allow Internet users to guarantee the confidentiality of their e-mail messages.
