Carnivore *Was* Omnivore, So We Threw Out the Data

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

[When "Carnivore" turned out to be a technical dud, and an omnivorous
snoop program, the pigs became "upset" (read: worried it would become
public knowledge that privacy advocates' warnings were accurate.)
So... they CLAIM.... they "threw all the data away" -- both the
"target's" e-mail along with everyone else's.  What's worse? That
they're still lying, or that they're still incompetent? Apparently
they've chosen to pretend to be ethical but inept. Better for the
image, figures their PR & Damage Control Division, which needs to
heavily boost the IQs of its personnel. With the current levels of
intelligence and education, how did Fabulous But Incompetent expect
read or understand any of the intercepted intelligence take, anyway?
Even if it was in English? pResident Smirk should just take the whole
bunch of lameos back home with him when he slinks back to Texas...
which should be soon. Maybe they can help him run the jackalo ranch
management software from their AOL accounts.]

Reuters via Yahoo - May 28, 2002

FBI 'Carnivore' Glitch Hurt Al Qaeda Probe 

By Andy Sullivan 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Glitches in a controversial FBI system to
monitor the e-mail of suspected criminals likely hampered an
investigation of al Qaeda two years ago, according to internal FBI
documents released on Tuesday.

 According to memos obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, FBI investigators threw out the results of an e-mail wiretap
in March 2000 because the system, commonly known as "Carnivore,"
collected electronic messages of regular Internet users as well as
the target of the probe.

While the target was blacked out in the memo, the FBI unit in
question was charged with monitoring Osama bin Laden, said David
Sobel, the EPIC lawyer who obtained the documents under the Freedom
of Information Act. Washington blames bin Laden and his al Qaeda
network for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people.

"The FBI software not only picked up the e-mails under the electronic
surveillance of the FBI's target ... but also picked up e-mails on
non-covered targets. The FBI technical person was apparently so upset
that he destroyed all the e-mail take," said an unidentified
supervisor in an April 5, 2000, memo to M.E. "Spike" Bowman, the
FBI's associate general counsel for national security issues.

The documents do not imply the FBI could have prevented the Sept. 11
attacks, but they do highlight problems with the implementation of
Carnivore, Sobel said.

"This shows that the FBI has been misleading Congress and the public
about the extent to which Carnivore is capable of collecting only
authorized information," he said.

An FBI official declined to comment.

Developed to intercept the e-mail and other online activities of
suspected criminals, Carnivore has come under fire from lawmakers and
civil liberties groups who say it is too invasive.

FBI officials have told Congress the system captures only a narrow
field of information for which interception is authorized by a court
order.

The documents showed Carnivore had occasionally grabbed the e-mail
messages of other Internet users, especially when set up to work on
unusual e-mail systems.

"Encountering nonstandard implementation has led to inadvertently
capturing and processing data outside the Order of Consent," says one
memo from an FBI field officer.

 
=================================================================
  NY Transfer News Collective   *   A Service of Blythe Systems 
           Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us          
              339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012             
  http://www.blythe.org                  e-mail: nyt@blythe.org 
=================================================================
 
nytjus-05.29.02-08:51:51-4152