HOUSE LEADER WANTS INVESTIGATION OF CARNIVORE

A powerful house lawmaker asked the FBI to re-examine the extent to which
its e-mail sniffing tool, Carnivore, infringes on privacy.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey in a letter asked Attorney General John
Ashcroft to take a look at Carnivore in light of a recent Supreme Court
case involving privacy and police technology.

The nation's highest court on Monday ruled that thermal imaging devices
"erode the privacy guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment," according to the
case "Kyllo v. United States."

"It is reasonable, then, to ask whether the Internet surveillance system
formerly known as Carnivore similarly undermines the minimum expectation
that individuals have that their personal electronic communications will
not be examined by law enforcement devices unless specific court warrant
has been issued," Armey wrote.

The FBI has sought to distance its e-mail sniffing capabilities from the
term "Carnivore" and has informally changed the system's name to DCS 1000.
The acronym "DCS" does not stand for anything, according to an FBI spokesman.

The FBI in congressional testimony last year stressed that it intercepts
communications traveling over the Internet only when it has court orders
permitting it to do so.

FBI representatives added that there are rare "emergency" cases where the
system was used without such orders.

However, Armey's letter Thursday argues that there are now "serious
constitutional questions" surrounding Carnivore.

The nation's founding fathers "quite clearly decided to sacrifice [some]
efficiency for the sake of protecting citizens from overly intrusive
government," Armey wrote.

Armey also indicated in his letter that he is unsatisfied with the review
of Carnivore conducted by an Illinois university under the Clinton
Administration.

Privacy groups also unhappy with the earlier review of Carnivore asked
Ashcroft in early May to revisit privacy concerns surrounding the use of
the system.

EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, and others co-signed the
May 2 letter.

EPIC and others advocate a scenario in which the FBI turns over its
Carnivore sniffing capabilities to participating ISPs to conduct e-mail
searches prescribed by court orders.

The FBI is currently awaiting a report due out of the Department of Justice
on Carnivore, the spokesman said.