From: Rick Miller - former spook <rick@ee.uwm.edu>
Subject: Alternate *legal* wiretaps.
Organization: Just me.
Lines: 43
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.2.33
Summary: Nothing spooky, it's an Executive Order.

tuinstra@signal.ece.clarkson.edu.soe writes:
[...]
>  It would be a strong incentive, as Vesselin points out, for more
>police agencies to "go rogue" and try to get keys through more efficient
>(but less Constitutional) means.  Notice what the release said:
>
>   Q:   Suppose a law enforcement agency is conducting a wiretap on
>        a drug smuggling ring and intercepts a conversation
>        encrypted using the device.  What would they have to do to
>        decipher the message?
>
>   A:   They would have to obtain legal authorization, normally a
>                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^
>        court order, to do the wiretap in the first place.
>        ^^^^^^^^^^^

>The clear implication is that there are "legal" authorizations other
>than a court order.  Just how leaky are these?  (And who 
>knows what's in those 7 pages that authorized the NSA?).  There
[...]

I was a cryptologic tech in the US Navy (CTRSN, nothing big).  All 'spooks'
in the Navy are required to know the "gist" of "USSID 18", the Navy-way of
naming a particular Presidential "Executive Order".  It outlines what spooks
can and can't do with respect to the privacy of US nationals.

The following information is (of course) UNCLASSIFIED.

The whole issue hangs about what you mean by "wiretap".  If the signal can
be detected by "non-intrusive" means (like radio listening), then it may be
recorded and it may be "analyzed".  "Analyzed" means that it may be either
deciphered and/or radio-location may be used to locate the transmitter.

The catch is this:  Any and all record of the signal and its derivatives
may only be kept for a maximum of 90 days, after which they are destroyed
unless permission is obtained from the US Attorney General to keep them.

Didn't you ever wonder how Coast Guard cutters *find* those drug-runners
in all those tens of thousands of square miles of sea, even in the dark?!?

Rick Miller  <rick@ee.uwm.edu> | <ricxjo@discus.mil.wi.us>   Ricxjo Muelisto
Send a postcard, get one back! | Enposxtigu bildkarton kaj vi ricevos alion!
          RICK MILLER // 16203 WOODS // MUSKEGO, WIS. 53150 // USA
