From: Hannah Woody <HWoody@freecongress.org>
To: "'freematt@coil.com'" <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Protecting Privacy, SIGN THIS LETTER
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 10:48:31 -0400
Matt,
I am the coordinator of the Coalition for Constitutional Liberties and
we are currently circulating a letter to organizations about the privacy
violations involved in the drug war. This letter does not call for
legalization at all, it simply brings forth important privacy related
issues. With this letter, we are calling for the Senate Judiciary Committee
to ask the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy nominee,
John Walters, if he will protect privacy. Please consider signing on and
perhaps sending it to your list.
Thanks! Email Hannah Woody at hwoody@freecongress.org
<mailto:hwoody@freecongress.org> with your name and
business/organization.
Coalition for Constitutional Liberties
A project of the Free Congress Foundation's Center for Technology Policy
717 Second Street NE * Washington, DC 20002 * (202) 546-3000 * Fax
(202) 543-5605
September 3, 2001
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee
United States Senate
224 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Re: Nomination of John Walters
Dear Chairman Leahy, Senator Hatch and
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:
We are part of a broad coalition of groups concerned that the War on Drugs
has degraded our privacy and civil liberties. We respectfully ask that the
members of Committee consider raising the following privacy and civil
liberties issues in connection with the nomination of John Walters to be the
Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Office of the White
House). We intend by issuing this letter to signal neither support nor
opposition to Mr. Walters' nomination. Rather, we hope are issuing the
letter to urge members of the Committee to explore these issues in
connection with Mr. Walters' nomination. As we set forth below, these
issues include the use of new surveillance and investigative technologies,
including the Carnivore/DCS1000 and Echelon systems, the "Know Your
Customer" proposal of the Financial Action Task Force, asset forfeiture
abuses, wiretaps and the drug war's sometimes corrupting influence on law
enforcement itself.
Rapid advances in technology have unfortunately brought with them new
opportunities for the invasion of privacy in the form of programs like
Carnivore, a system designed to allow the FBI to sift through vast
quantities of Internet communications, or "Know Your Customer," -a proposed
regulation requiring banks to collect personal financial information about
their customers, "profile" them, and report "suspicious activities" to the
Government. The misguided drug war is often a driving force behind these
initiatives. "Know Your Customer" was prompted largely to further the drug
war by combating drug-related money laundering. The FBI claims that
Carnivore helps in narcotic investigations.
We are concerned that "profiling," including racial profiling, appears to be
an accepted component of the federal government's war on drugs. As noted by
Georgetown University Law professor David Cole, characteristics of "drug
courier profiles" used by U.S. Customs at airports have included:
* Arrived late at night.
* Arrived early in the morning.
* Arrived in afternoon ...
* One of first to deplane.
* One of last to deplane.
* Deplaned in the middle ...
* Bought coach ticket.
* Bought first class ticket ...
* Used one-way ticket.
* Used round-trip ticket ...
* Traveled alone.
* Traveled with a companion ...
* Wore expensive clothing.
* Dressed casually ...
* Suspect was Hispanic.
* Suspect was black female.
In short, everyone anywhere at any time could fit the profile of a drug
courier according to U.S. Customs officials. Court records confirm that
highway patrol officers both in California and in New Jersey were taught to
profile automobile drivers using minority status as an excuse to stop them,
search their car, and in some cases, find drugs, a process known as racial
profiling. In fact, civil rights organizations have charged that the DEA's
own Operation Pipeline actually trains state and local law enforcement
agents to engage in racial profiling.
The extent to which our drug policy drives government surveillance and
invasion of privacy is especially clear in the case of wiretaps. Three
quarters of all wiretaps are authorized for narcotics investigations. The
Administrative Office of the United States Courts reports that annually
approximately 80 percent of conversations intercepted on wiretaps are
innocent communications.
In addition to government surveillance, there has been an increasing effort
to have private businesses monitor their customers in order to fight the
drug war. In the case of the "Know Your Customer" proposal now being
resurrected by the FATF, the government attempts to force customer
monitoring through regulation. More and more often, the DEA is using
financial incentives to induce businesses to report personal information
about their customers to the government. This undermines both consumer
privacy and businesses' relationships with their customers. In April, the
Albuquerque Journal reported that Amtrak was providing access to its
ticketing database to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Amtrak provided
agents with information such as passengers' last names, their destinations,
their method of payment, and whether they were going on a round trip or only
one-way. In return, Amtrak was given 10% of anything the government seized.
Although controversy led Amtrak to discontinue the DEA's computer access,
the company still provides information gleaned from the ticketing system to
law enforcement officers and continues to receive a portion of assets seized
on trains by agents. Several airlines reportedly have similar "cash for
snooping and snitching" programs.
The Amtrak case demonstrates the degree to which forfeiture laws are giving
an incentive for law enforcement and private businesses to focus on seizing
property supposedly related to drug crimes. The system is still very
susceptible to abuse and one does not have to be convicted of a crime before
their property is taken. Before the passage of the Civil Asset Forfeiture
Act of 2000, which addressed some of the more egregious abuses, eighty
percent of people who had property forfeited were never charged with a
crime. While this number will likely become lower because of the reforms,
the abuse of forfeiture laws continues.
As reports (some of which were initiated by members of this Committee), have
shown, the war on drugs has had a corrupting influence on the
professionalism of law enforcement; one March 1999 GAO report described the
problem as a "serious and continuing threat."
We urge you to raise these issues with Mr. Walters and ask for assurances
that he will reform the conduct of the drug war in order to address these
problems and ensure that drug policies respect the privacy and other civil
liberties of all Americans.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss these issues further,
please contact J. Bradley Jansen of the Free Congress Foundation at
202-204-5324 or by email at bjansen@freecongress.org
<mailto:bjansen@freecongress.org> .
Respectfully,
Paul M. Weyrich
Founder and President
Free Congress Foundation
Lisa S. Dean Vice
President for Technology Policy
Free Congress Foundation
Grover Norquist
Karen Kerrigan
President
Chairman
Americans for Tax Reform
Small Business Survival Committee
Tom DeWeese
David Banisar
President
Deputy Director
American Policy Center
Privacy International, London
Amy Ridenour
Chuck Muth, Chairman
President
Michael D. Ostrolenk, Capital Hill Liason
The National Center for Public Policy Research
Republican Liberty Caucus
Gordon S. Jones
Eric E. Sterling
President
Association of Concerned Taxpayers
The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
Dr. Jane Orient, M.D.
Carol W. LaGrasse
Executive Director
President
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.
Larry Cirignano
Joseph Eldred
President
President and Founder
CatholicVote.org
God Bless America
Dr. Alexander Tabarrok,Vice
James Landrith
Vice President and Director of Research
Editor and Publisher
The Independent Institute
The Multiracial Activist & Abolitionist Examiner
Benjamin Crocker Works
Hank Whitmore
Executive Director
Chairman
The Strategic Issues Research Institute of the United States
People Against Church Taxation
Eric Johnson
Audrey Mullen
Chairman
Consultant
Young Americans for Freedom
Advocacy Ink
Dottie Feder
Miriam Archer
Vice President
Director of Operations
Eagle Forum of Wisconsin
Christian Coalition of California
Ronald D. Bain
Robert D. Lonn
Former Chairman
Consultant/Planner
Libertarian Party of Colorado
NW Council of Government & Associates
Patricia J. Owens
Peter J. LaGrasse
Executive Director
Chairman
Wisconsin State Sovereignty Coalition
Board of Assessors (New York)
Duane Royal
Galen E. Alexander
Sampson County Republican Executive Committee (North Carolina)
Founder & Chairman Ohio Conservative Alliance
Victoria T. DeLacy
Prince William & Manassas Family Alliance (Virginia)
Warren Nelson Founder & Commander
Helen E. Farson
Ector County Volunteers (Tennessee)
Phonetic Bible Printing Committee
Roy S. Gillinson, M.D.
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