Help Kill the Carnivore!

Kill the Carnivore!
Stop the FBI's scheme to spy on your e-mail

Dr. Donald Kerr, Director of the Laboratory Division of the FBI, shows his love for Big Brother before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution on Capitol Hill, July 24, in Washington. Kerr spoke about the FBBI's new Carnivore System.
(AP Photo)

Press release from the Libertarian Party. July 26, 2000

In response to a growing public backlash against Carnivore, an FBI cyber-snooping device that can scan millions of e-mails per second, Congress was forced to hold a hearing on Monday, July 24th. Predictably, the government used the hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution to defend the program. The FBI's assistant director, Donald Kerr, insisted that the FBI had never used the program illegally or tracked e-mail that the agency was not authorized to track. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin DiGregory claimed that e-mail monitoring is a way to "make the Internet safe."

At this point Congress has no plans to even put a leash on the Carnivore, much less kill it outright. But with your help, we can change that.

If you agree with us that the best way to make the Internet "safe" is to halt the government's e-mail spy scheme, please read this information -- then take the action. Help us kill the Carnivore, before it devours your privacy!

Other sites on this topic:

www.stopcarnivore.org - This site has a wealth of information concerning carnivore, and has started an e-petition that will be sent to Janet Reno, Bill Clinton, FBI Director Freeh, and the Members and Members-Elect of Congress, on Election Day - November 7, 2000

Echelon Watch - ACLU site devoted to monitoring Carnivore and its international brother, Echelon.

Articles:

Meet Eater - By: Robert X. Cringely

Probing Carnivore - ABC News

'Carnivore' review - CNN News - Aug 25, 2000

Background:
Carnivore is a hardware-software device that the FBI secretly developed at its lab in Quantico, Va. Almost immediately after the existence of this project was disclosed in a July 11 Wall Street Journal article, public outrage began to mount.

Dubbed Carnivore because of its ability to find "the meat" among millions of e-mails, Carnivore scans every incoming and outgoing e-mail message on a network looking for telltale words or names, and saves those messages for later retrieval by law enforcement. Carnivore can also track instant messages, visits to websites, and Internet relay chat sessions.

The FBI admits that Carnivore will scan millions of e-mail messages from innocent people to find a tiny number of messages from people suspected of crimes. That's no different than if the FBI opened everyone's mail hoping to find a letter from a criminal, or listened in on everyone's phone calls just in case a crime was being discussed.

Though Carnivore's existence was just publicly revealed, the FBI has already installed the device at dozens of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the country, and claims it has used it "fewer than 50 times" so far. In many cases, the FBI keeps the device in a locked cage on the ISP's premises, with agents making daily visits to retrieve the captured data.

Many ISPs have refused to allow the FBI to install Carnivore, citing concerns that the privacy of all their customers could be violated. But earlier this year, a federal judge ruled against one such ISP, leaving it no choice but to allow the FBI access to its system.

Predictably, the FBI promises to limit surveillance to messages from suspected hackers, terrorists, or drug dealers. But considering that this is the same agency that quietly inserted "roving telephone tap" authority into federal law and illegally turned over confidential personnel files to the Clinton White House, you shouldn't be expected to trust it with your confidential e-mails.

But Carnivore is more than a threat to your ordinary e-mail correspondence -- it also gives government bureaucrats the ability to spy on your online banking transactions, because it has the ability to monitor all digital communications. The bottom line is that your privacy won't be protected as long as Carnivore is on the loose.

At this point, no legislation to eliminate Carnivore has been proposed -- but with your help we can change that. Keep in mind that the Libertarian Party kicked off its campaign to kill the FDIC's "Know Your Customer" bank spy scheme last year before any legislation existed. But once we informed the public about this threat to their financial privacy, they swung into action and demanded an immediate end to the program. Americans flooded Capitol Hill with over 300,000 angry e-mails and phone calls, and within weeks, Know Your Customer was withdrawn.

We believe that once Americans learn about Carnivore's outrageous assault on their electronic privacy, they will demand legislation to abolish it as well.

That's why we're asking you to join the "Kill the Carnivore" campaign!

What to do:
Call the Congressional switchboard, toll free, at 1-888-449- 3511. If that number is busy try 202-225-3121 or 202-224-3121. Then ask to speak to the office of your Congressional representative. The switchboard is open 24 hours, and most House offices have voice mail, so please make the call as soon as you get this message.

What to say:

Identify yourself and let them know you are a voter in their district. Leave your name, address, complete with ZIP code, and phone number. Please be brief, especially if you are leaving a message.

Let them know that you're calling in response to Monday's hearing on the FBI's Carnivore e-mail spy scheme. (The hearing was held by the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution.) Tell them it's clear that Carnivore poses an immediate threat to your e-mail privacy and that you want it abolished. Specifically, ask your representative to personally sponsor or co-sponsor legislation to abolish the FBI's Carnivore program now! Insist that you do *not* want an investigation, or Congressional hearings, or a "blue ribbon" commission -- you want to Kill the Carnivore now!

Ask them to write you a letter spelling out their position on Carnivore, and detailing what they intend to do.

One more thing: Please forward this [information] to friends, and ask them to call their representative, too.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,

Steve Dasbach
National Director
Libertarian Party

Source: The Libertarian Party