8 May 1999

    Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 12:52:26 -0700 (PDT)
    From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
    To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
    Subject: FC: Stewart Baker replies to 1998 wiretap figures

    [Perhaps. But given that all you have to do to get a wiretap is fill in
    some blanks on a form, I can't imagine that the barrier is as high as Stu
    would have us believe. Or maybe the Justice Departemnt attorneys are very
    good at this type of bureaucratic pole-vaulting. --Declan]

    --------- Forwarded message ----------
    Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 08:28:09 -0400
    From: "Baker, Stewart" <SBaker@steptoe.com>
    To: "'declan@well.com'" <declan@well.com>, politech@vorlon.mit.edu
    Cc: "Albertazzie, Sally" <SAlbertazzie@steptoe.com>
    Subject: RE: US government releases 1998 wiretap figures

    Declan,

    I see you've circulated  the latest wiretap stats with the usual lifted
    eyebrow about how many taps have been approved and how few denied.  For
    years, of course, the government has insisted that few taps are denied
    because the Justice Department exercises such strict control over what taps
    it requests, especially for foreign intelligence.  That argument has been
    largely laughed off or ignored by folks with your views.

    But now I think it would only be fair for you to note that we now have
    (unfortunate) confirmation that the Justice Department does indeed erect a
    high barrier to such taps.  Despite very troubling information suggesting
    that DOE's Wen Ho Lee was a spy for China, the Justice Department refused to
    take that evidence to the FISA court or to authorize a search of his
    computer.

    We may have paid a very high price for the Department's vigilance in
    protecting Lee's rights and independently scrutinizing wiretap applications.
    In that context, your lifted eyebrow approach to the small number of denials
    is at best onesided.

    Stewart Baker

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Declan McCullagh [mailto:declan@well.com]
    Sent: Thursday, May 06, 1999 12:27 AM
    To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
    Subject: FC: US government releases 1998 wiretap figures

    [The figures are especially interesting if you take into account the mean
    number of conversations intercepted per wiretap -- thousands, if I recall
    properly. We ran the 1997 numbers in Time Magazine; you can probably find
    them in the Notebook archives at time.com/magazine. --Declan]

    >Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 22:57:40 -0400
    >To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
    >From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
    >Subject: Wiretap 98
    >
    >The US 1998 Wiretap Report is available:
    >
    >   http://jya.com/wiretap98.htm  (31K)
    >
    >Total federal and state is up to 1,329 from 1,186 in 1997. Two
    >requests were denied. That makes five denials in the last ten
    >years compared to 11,000 authorizations.
    >

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