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CRIME IN FORESTS AND ON PUBLIC LANDS A GROWING CONCERN As the summer travel season hits full swing, new studies suggest that recreational users of national forests in the United States should be aware of increased levels of theft, violent crime, drug production and even gang activity - and take necessary precautions. About 35 percent of law enforcement officers in the Forest Service have been assaulted, experts say. There is a perception among enforcement officials that crimes such as property theft, indiscriminate shootings, criminal damage and production of methamphetamine is significantly increased in many areas. And the number of crimes and related incidents on national forests and grasslands doubled in one recent five-year period, while the number of law enforcement officers was the same or lower. Those findings are from a study concluded last month by researchers from Oregon State University and the Pacific Southwest Research Station of the U.S.D.A. Forest Service. The study will be released first to the Forest Service, which provided the funding. And another paper to be published in the Journal of Forestry, called "Crime in National Forests: A Call for Research," summarizes previous findings and suggests that more research on crime in national forests is necessary and long overdue....
Wiretap the Internet? Not So Fast, Say Some The federal courts may soon face the first round in a battle over the U.S. Department of Justice's demand that federal wiretapping requirements be extended to certain Internet services for the first time. The Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others said last week that they are considering legal challenges to an Aug. 5 decision by the Federal Communications Commission to require providers of certain broadband and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol services to accommodate law enforcement wiretaps in their designs and applications. Those groups and some legal scholars said that the FCC decision --sought more than a year ago by the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration -- is based on a seriously flawed interpretation of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act....
Prosecutors ask judge to seal some evidence in FBI murder case Prosecutors asked a judge Thursday to shield from public view sensitive U.S. government evidence in the case of a former FBI agent accused in the 1982 murder of a Miami gambling executive. The ex-agent, 64-year-old John J. Connolly Jr., is already serving a 10-year prison sentence for his conviction on federal racketeering charges for his role in protecting top members of Boston's Winter Hill Gang, including fugitive mob leader James "Whitey" Bulger. Connolly, who was not present in court Thursday, is charged along with Bulger and two other men with the killing of former World Jai Alai president John Callahan, whose body was found stuffed in the trunk of his Cadillac in the parking lot at Miami International Airport. He had been shot twice in the head....
Soldier Pleads Guilty to Cocaine Smuggling A Fort Bliss soldier has pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine into the United States from Colombia using military aircraft, a post spokeswoman said Saturday. Specialist Francisco Rosa, 25, pleaded guilty Wednesday to using, possessing and distributing cocaine and making a false official statement, said the spokeswoman, Jean Offutt. Military investigators have said that Specialist Rosa and Staff Sgts. Daniel Rosas, Victor Portales and Kevin G. Irizarry-Melendez played roles in a plot to smuggle the drugs from a United States base in Colombia, where they had been stationed. All four are being held in a military jail at Fort Bliss....
Kennedy Letting Personal History Dictate Gun Policy, Group Says A gun rights group has issued a controversial challenge to one of the Democratic Party's most prominent figures - Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts - on the issue of safety for America's police officers. The challenge, issued by the Second Amendment Foundation, references the number of police officers who were killed last year in the line of duty as a result of gunfire and the number killed in automobile crashes. Kennedy, whose two brothers - John and Robert - were assassinated by gunmen, is a staunch supporter of gun control and wants the so-called "cop-killer" bullets banned. "Where's Ted Kennedy, and why isn't he demanding that automakers be sued into financial oblivion the same way he wants America's gun industry to be devastated?" asked Alan Gottlieb, president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). Gottlieb points out that one-third of the police officers killed last year in the line of duty were shot, while one-half died in car crashes....
TSA ready for private screening, but airports aren't biting The government is ready to let private contractors take over passenger and baggage screening at the nation's airports, but most air facilities intend to keep federal screeners unless they are given better incentives to switch, according to government and industry officials. The Transportation Security Administration has designated 34 companies as qualified to provide security screening at airports. But only seven out of about 430 airports across the country have applied to have private companies take over. "We have a significant number of airports that want no part of it, no way, under no circumstances," said Stephen Van Beek, vice president of policy for Airports Council International-North America, which represents the nation's commercial airports. Airports are worried about what kind of liability they might have if they opt out, he said, and they also would like greater control over screening operations....
Complaints Signal Tension Between F.B.I. and Congress Disputes between the Justice Department and some of its Congressional allies over the Federal Bureau of Investigation's performance, leadership vacancies and management issues are spurring tensions at a time when the department is seeking to remake its antiterrorism operations. Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, the influential chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an interview on Friday that he was deeply dissatisfied with the pace of reforms at the F.B.I. and that he hoped the national intelligence director's new role in overseeing its terrorism operations would spur greater accountability at the Justice Department. Among the issues that have divided them are the failure of the bureau's $170 million software overhaul, after repeated assertions by Mr. Mueller that it was on track, as well as F.B.I. turf battles with immigration agents, questions about the training and experience of bureau counterterrorism supervisors, and complaints from lawmakers who learned that Mr. Mueller had not been writing or reviewing written Congressional responses that bore his name....
Hurdles for High-Tech Efforts to Track Who Crosses Borders The federal government has been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the once-obscure science called biometrics, producing some successes but also fumbles in a campaign intended to track foreigners visiting the country and the activities of some Americans. Hoping to block the entry of criminals and terrorists into the United States and to improve the enforcement of immigration laws, government officials have in the past several years created enormous new repositories of digitally recorded biometric data - including fingerprints and facial characteristics - that can be used to identify more than 45 million foreigners. Federal agencies have also assembled data on more than 70 million Americans in an effort to speed law-abiding travelers through checkpoints and to search for domestic terrorists. The immigration control and antiterrorism campaign was spurred by the Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent Congressional mandates to improve the nation's security. But the effort has fallen far short of its goals, provoking criticism that the government is committed to a technological solution so ambitious that it will either never work or be achieved only at an unacceptably high price....
The State Of Surveillance Lost in the recent London bombings, along with innocent lives, was any illusion that today's surveillance technology can save us from evildoers. Britain has 4 million video cameras monitoring streets, parks, and government buildings, more than any other country. London alone has 500,000 cameras watching for signs of illicit activity. Studying camera footage helped link the July 7 bombings with four men -- but only after the fact. The disaster drove home some painful reminders: Fanatics bent on suicide aren't fazed by cameras. And even if they are known terrorists, most video surveillance software won't pick them out anyway. Tomorrow's surveillance technology may be considerably more effective. But each uptick in protection will typically come at the cost of more intrusion into the privacy of ordinary people. For now, the public seems to find that trade-off acceptable, so scientists around the world have intensified efforts to perfect the art of surveillance, hoping to catch villains before they strike. Research laboratories envision tools that could identify and track just about every person, anywhere -- and sound alarms when the systems encounter hazardous objects or chemical compounds. Many such ideas seem to leap from the pages of science fiction: An artificial nose in doorways and corridors sniffs out faint traces of explosives on someone's hair. Tiny sensors floating in reservoirs detect a deadly microbe and radio a warning. Smart cameras ID people at a distance by the way they walk or the shape of their ears. And a little chemical lab analyzes the sweat, body odor, and skin flakes in the human thermal plume -- the halo of heat that surrounds each person....
Creepy Cams Abound in NYC Six could be seen peering out from a chain drug store on Broadway. One protruded awkwardly from the awning of a fast-food restaurant. A supersized, domed version hovered like a flying saucer outside Columbia University. All were surveillance cameras and -- to the dismay of civil libertarians and with the approval of law enforcement -- they've been multiplying at a dizzying rate all over Manhattan. At last count in 1998, the organization found 2,397 cameras used by a wide variety of private businesses and government agencies throughout Manhattan. This time, after canvassing less than a quarter of the borough, the interns so far have spotted more than 4,000. The preliminary total "only provides a glimpse of the magnitude of the problem," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "Nobody has a clue how many there really are." But aside from sheer numbers, the NYCLU says it's concerned about the increasing use of newer, more powerful digital cameras that -- unlike boxy older models -- can be controlled remotely and store more images....
Biometric IDs could see massive growth But now, the government's small, 13-month-old test program known as Registered Traveler is provoking an intense and increasingly complicated debate about privacy and the proper roles of government and business. The resolution could have far-reaching implications not only for how Americans travel by air, but how they conduct their daily lives and commerce. Government background checks conducted for the Registered Traveler program, and the biometric ID cards issued to those who enroll, could in the future determine how someone makes a purchase on credit, enters an office building or arena, turns on a cell phone or boards a train. Frank Fitzsimmons, CEO of iris-scan developer Iridian Technologies, says millions of travelers using biometrics at airport security "will have dramatic effect on their acceptance in other markets" - activation of cash machines, cell phones and computers, for example....
Wireless World: Chips track license plates A controversial plan to embed radio frequency identification chips in license plates in the United Kingdom also may be coming to the United States, experts told UPI's Wireless World. The so-called e-Plate, developed by the British firm Hills Numberplates, is a license plate that also transmits a vehicle's unique identification via encryption that can be read by a small detector, whose output can be used locally or communicated to a distant host. "RFID is all the rage these days," said Bradley Gross, chairman of Becker & Poliakoff, a law firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., "but my fear is that this use of the technology is tracking at its worst." The reason for the concern in the legal and privacy-rights communities is that e-plates may expand the ability of police to track individuals by the movement of their vehicles. A single RFID reader can identify dozens of vehicles fitted with e-plates moving at any speed at a distance of about 100 yards. The e-plate looks just like a standard plate, but it contains an embedded chip that cannot be seen or removed. It is self-powered with a battery life of up to 10 years....

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