OK, this is how it breaks out according to the Intelligence Oversight Program, which is a DoD policy and also followed by the NSA: It's illegal to collect intelligence information on any US person, a US person being defined as a citizen, a person who claims to be a citizen, or a corporation with the majority of interests in the US. The following are exceptions: -The US Attorney General can authorize collection on any US person similar to a search warrant (ie, there has to be evidence to warrant collection) -Material collected has a 90-day grace period for evaluation if it is unclear whether the source is a US person or not. If at any time it is discovered that the source is a US person, then the material has to be destroyed. -"Accidental" collection (ie, during routine spectrum scanning) of a terrorist act, assassination, or other similar acts is reportable, as long as it isn't the result of a long-term collection effort. The intent of the law is to protect the privacy of the US persons, so sometimes the following happens: Alice (US person) calls Bob (foreign national) Bob tells Alice that he's ordering 54 RPG's and 120 anti-tank mines Eve (working for an intelligence agency) reports that Bob told " a US person" that he ordered 54 RPG's and 120 anti-tank mines. At no time does Eve mention Alice's name, location, or anything else that would violate her privacy. And yes, at one time I was Eve (anybody looking to hire a former intelligence operative who knows Unix? ;^) ). Violations of the Intelligence Oversight Program are immediate career-stoppers in the intelligence organizations because at one time (1960's and before) we did conduct active collection efforts on US persons and there was a Congressional Commission on intelligence (can't remember the name of it off the top of my head) brought these abuses to the public forefront. Shortly thereafter, legislation was passed to prevent this collection. The policy that reflects the legislation is in the form of the Intelligence Oversight Program. The rules for the FBI probably are different since they aren't officially an intelligence organ, but a law enforcement organization. I think that gives them the same status as the local cops wrt search and seizure laws. Cheers --Mike Shaun Savage wrote: > The last few months has seen an avalanche of new laws concerning > govermental spying ( inteligence gathering) on "terrorist". > ~ What are the new laws concerning carnivore and echlon, (personal > private data interception)? > ~ What are the different types of information gathering and what legal > requirment are needed for the different types. > Who has juristdiction to do what? > > I understand the tech side but the legal aspect is dificult to filter > out to get to the heart what really can be done, legally. > > Shaun -- "Ask a Soviet engineer to design a pair of shoes and he'll come up with something that looks like the boxes that the shoes came in; ask him to make something that will massacre Germans, and he turns into Thomas *Fscking* Edison." --Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon
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