http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50529,00.html Beefed-Up Global Surveillance? By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 2:00 a.m. Feb. 20, 2002 PST WASHINGTON -- An addition to an international treaty could permit police to cooperate more closely on intercepting and decrypting the communications of suspected terrorists. The Council of Europe, which includes nearly all European nations, is meeting this week to prepare additions to a controversial "cybercrime" treaty that would cover decoding terrorist messages. The United States, Canada and Japan are non-voting members of the council. Peter Csonka, the head of the Council of Europe's economic crime division, said when the drafting process for the so-called Second Protocol is complete, the document will address "how to identify, how to filter, and how to trace communications between terrorists." Details are scarce, and the Council of Europe has repeatedly refused to elaborate. Csonka would not confirm or deny whether the Second Protocol will advance limits on encryption technology, coordinate code-breaking efforts among member nations, or increase electronic surveillance performed against people linked to terrorism. This week's closed-door meeting, reportedly taking place at the council's headquarters in Strasbourg, France, includes representatives from the U.S. Justice Department, which was one of the most enthusiastic backers of the original treaty. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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