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Aviation companies blame FBI, CIA and terrorists for 9/11 Aviation companies sued by the families of Sept. 11 victims for failing to safeguard air travel are in turn blaming federal investigators — arguing the Federal Aviation Administration was not alerted that al-Qaida was poised to launch terrorist attacks. In court documents filed this week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, aviation companies are seeking to force five FBI employees to provide testimony that may help defend against claims the companies share blame in the attacks. "The aviation parties anticipate that the FBI witnesses' testimony will demonstrate that the FBI had information before Sept. 11 indicating that al-Qaida may have been about to launch terrorist attacks on civil aviation, which it did not timely pass along to the Federal Aviation Administration," lawyers wrote. The airlines and aviation companies are defending themselves against lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for injuries, fatalities, property damage and business losses related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. The latest documents filed by the airlines, airport authorities, security companies and an aircraft manufacturer argue that if the FAA had known about an FBI investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, it could have amended security measures to guard against the type of terrorist attack Moussaoui was planning. The aviation defendants said the FBI has refused to permit even a single deposition, although the agency does not deny that five potential witnesses in the case have already testified and made other public statements before the 9/11 Commission, the Moussaoui trial jury and the media. In the lawsuit against the CIA, companies including American Airlines Inc., United Airlines Inc., US Airways Group Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Continental Airlines Inc. and The Boeing Co. are seeking to interview the deputy chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit in 2001, and an FBI special agent assigned to the unit at that time. The names of both are secret....
FBI, politicos renew push for ISP data retention laws The FBI and multiple members of Congress said on Wednesday that Internet service providers must be legally required to keep records of their users' activities for later review by police. Their suggestions for mandatory data retention revive a push for potentially sweeping federal laws--which civil libertarians oppose--that flagged last year after the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the idea's most prominent proponent. FBI Director Robert Mueller told a House of Representatives committee that Internet service providers should be required to keep records of users' activities for two years. Also lending their support for data retention were Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., who said that Internet chat rooms were crammed with sexual predators, and Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the House Judiciary committee and a previous data retention enthusiast. Rep. John Conyers, the senior Democrat and chairman, added that any proposed data retention legislation submitted by the FBI "would be most welcome." It could mean forcing companies to store data for two years about what Internet addresses are assigned to which customers (Comcast said in 2006 that it would be retaining those records for six months). Or it could be far more intrusive. It could mean keeping track of e-mail and instant-messaging correspondence and what Web pages users visit. Some Democratic politicians have called for data retention laws to extend to domain name registries and Web hosting companies and even social-networking sites. During private meetings with industry officials, FBI and Justice Department representatives have said it would be desirable to force search engines to keep logs--a proposal that could gain additional law enforcement support, but raise additional privacy concerns and potentially conflict with European laws....
Heat-Seeking Missives There’s a move afoot on Capitol Hill to rein in some of the vast powers conferred upon government investigators by the PATRIOT Act, the infamous, hastily crafted law written in response to the September 11th attacks. New legislation has been introduced in both Houses of Congress intended to curb the FBI’s ability to collect private data on virtually anybody using a tool called a national security letter (NSL). The bills come in the wake of yet another damaging FBI inspector general report on the bureau’s abuse of its expanded authorities. And addressing that issue may start with a bill, sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), which would both drastically limit the circumstances under which these secretive orders are issued and strictly regulate how the information obtained is handled by the FBI. NSLs function, in some superficial ways, as traditional subpoenas. Like subpoenas, they require recipients to turn over information that might be relevant to criminal investigators. Unlike subpoenas, however, NSLs aren’t subject to judicial oversight, making them ripe for abuse. An NSL authorizes the acquisition of what’s known as metadata; information—like phone records, and financial statements—that reveal a suspect’s behavioral modes only. An NSL can’t, for instance, serve as a warrant for a wiretap, but it can be used to obtain reams of data about an individual’s calling patterns. It is often used to collect a person’s business (or “transactional”) information as well—with an NSL, the FBI can ask for a person’s insurance information, but not his medical records. NSLs aren’t subject to the approval of any court or judge, they can be issued under extremely broad circumstances, and, by way of a sweeping gag order, they forbid the recipient from discussing the information request under almost any circumstances. And their use has exploded since the passage of the PATRIOT Act, which removed almost all legal restrictions on the FBI’s authority to issue them....
Senators slam ID cards Republican and Democratic senators alike railed Thursday against the cost and potential privacy problems of the Real ID Act, but a Homeland Security official insisted that the department has borne much of the expense for new driver's license standards. "It is, as I see it, the worst kind of Washington, D.C., boondoggle," Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said at a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs oversight subcommittee. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who chairs the subcommittee, said the Real ID program could increase the problem of identity theft and pose significant challenges to the economy and the travel industry. "We cannot spend billions of dollars to erode Americans' privacy protections," Akaka said. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, the top Republican on the subcommittee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, both criticized the significant costs to states and other potential flaws of the program. The government has estimated that the Real ID program will cost $10 billion to implement, with states picking up $4 billion of that tab. But Stewart Baker, an assistant secretary at the Homeland Security Department, said those figures were based on rough estimates from the states and that the actual amounts may be lower. Akaka, Tester, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and two Republicans together sponsored legislation that would repeal the Real ID requirements and establish a negotiated rule-making process before the Homeland Security Department could create standards for driver's licenses....
15,000 want off the U.S. terror watch list More than 15,000 people have appealed to the government since February to have their names removed from the terrorist watch list that delayed their travel at U.S. airports and border crossings, the Homeland Security Department says. The complaints have created such a backlog that members of Congress are calling for a speedier appeal system that would help innocent people clear their names so they won't fall under future suspicion. Among those who have been flagged at checkpoints: toddlers and senior citizens with the same names as suspected terrorists on the watch list. The Homeland Security Department says it gets about 2,000 requests a month from people who want to have their names cleared. That number is so high that the department has been unable to meet its goal of resolving cases in 30 days, says Christopher White, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which handles the appeals. He says the TSA takes about 44 days to process a complaint. In February, the TSA launched the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, a one-stop shop for people to appeal links to the watch list, which flags anyone with potential ties to terrorism. The list has more than 750,000 names....
Appeals court tosses out NYC lawsuit against gun industry A federal appeals court Wednesday tossed out New York City's lawsuit accusing the gun industry of selling firearms with the knowledge they can be diverted into illegal markets. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal law provides the gun industry with broad immunity from lawsuits brought by crime victims and violence-plagued cities. A federal judge had allowed the lawsuit to proceed, though it had not yet reached trial. New York is one of several cities that had sued gun makers. It said the industry violated public nuisance law by failing to take reasonable steps to stop widespread access to illegal firearms. The lawsuit asked for no monetary damages. It had sought a court order for gun makers to more closely monitor those dealers who frequently sell guns later used to commit crimes....
Bill Would Preserve Gun Background Check Records Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, has introduced a bill that would allow the FBI to keep background check information on approved gun buyers for 180 days. Since 2004, records of firearm transactions must be destroyed within 24 hours after those transactions are approved. (Prior to 2004, the FBI retained the records for 90 days.) Second Amendment supporters strongly oppose the retention of lawful gun sale records, seeing it as a step toward creating a national gun registration list. When the National Instant Criminal Background Check System began running at the end of 1998, the FBI said it would "not be used to establish a federal firearm registry" and that all information resulting in legal firearm transfers would be destroyed. Sen. Lautenberg's bill, the Preserving Records of Terrorist & Criminal Transactions (PROTECT) Act of 2008, also would require the FBI to retain for 10 years all background check records in cases where a would-be gun buyer's name is matched to a federal terrorist watch list. (Lautenberg tried to close the "terrorist loophole" in 2005, but the bill was never passed.)....
Satellite Base Damaged in Anti-US Protest In an embarrassing security breach, anti-war activists in New Zealand early Wednesday broke into a communications facility they say is part of a global surveillance system that benefits the U.S. anti-terrorist campaign. Three men were arrested after members of a group calling itself ANZAC Ploughshares said they cut through fences and slashed one of two giant white radomes covering satellite dishes, deflating the ball-shaped structure. Groups that have been protesting against the site for years claim it is part of a global eavesdropping network providing intelligence to the U.S. National Security Agency, and involving listening stations in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The alleged system, dubbed Echelon, was investigated by the European Parliament in 2001, following claims that it had been abused to benefit U.S. firms bidding for international contracts. The inquiry concluded that the system did exist, tracked mostly satellite-based messages, but also had the capacity to monitor telephone calls, faxes and emails....
Microsoft Helps Law Enforcement Get Around Encryption The growing use of encryption software -- like Microsoft's own BitLocker -- by cyber criminals has led Microsoft to develop a set of tools that law enforcement agents can use to get around the software, executives at the company said. Microsoft first released the toolset, called the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE), to law enforcement last June and it's now being used by about 2,000 agents around the world, said Anthony Fung, senior regional manager for Asia Pacific in Microsoft's Internet Safety and Anti-Counterfeiting group. Microsoft gives the software to agents for free. While Microsoft can point to wide usage of COFEE, some experts are skeptical about using that type of tool to recover data, and even the developer of the product at Microsoft acknowledges that it's not accepted by some users....