Epic Gets First Set Of Fbi's "Carnivore" Documents - Industry Trend or Event

Online Newsletter, Nov, 2000

After lengthy delays, the Electronic Privacy Information Center [EPIC] has finally received the first set of Carnivore documents released by the FBI. The documents were released as a result of EPIC's Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] lawsuit against the FBI and Justice Department. (see 'Online Newsletter' September 2000 p.5 "FBI's Illegal Carnivore Runs Amuck with Congress & Public")

Of the 729 pages released, nearly 200 pages were withheld in full and another 400 were released with deletions. The document confirms the history of Carnivore and scanned images of selected documents are available from EPIC at:

http://www.epic.org/privacy/carnivore/foia_documents.html

The Carnivore source code was withheld.

However, the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], also pursuing Carnivore, sharply criticized the federal government's selection of academic experts to review Carnivore, saying that many of them [the reviewers] have ties to federal law enforcement agencies and the White House.

"By selecting people with extensive government ties for what is supposedly an independent review, the Executive Branch has shown once again that it cannot be trusted with carte blanche authority to conduct searches," said ACLU Associate Director Barry Steinhardt.

The review team chosen at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Research Institute includes a large number of White House insiders, including a former Clinton information policy advisor, and a former Justice Department official, the ACLU said. Other team members have backgrounds in the National Security Agency [NSA], the Department of Defense [DoD], and the Department of the Treasury.

"These moves reflect a 'trust us, we are the Government' approach that is the antithesis of the procedures required under our wiretapping laws," Steinhardt said.

ACLU also submitted its own FOIA request in July to obtain the Carnivore source code and other technical details. To date, the government has not turned over any of the requested documents to the ACLU.

The biased expert panel is part of what was to be an independent process to determine whether Carnivore violates the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Steinhardt also said that the "independent review" is little more than a dog-and-pony show and that there is still no effective oversight of how much information the FBI is capturing.

More information is available on ACLU's Website at: http://www.aclu.org