FBI USING NET-SNOOPING SYSTEMS AGAINST WIDE VARIETY OF CRIMINALS

WASHINGTON -- The FBI has used Internet eavesdropping tools to track
fugitives, drug dealers, extortionists, computer hackers and suspected
foreign intelligence agents, documents show.

The documents, obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of
Information Act, also detail how the FBI scurried last year to prove it
wasn't "randomly looking at everyone's e-mail" once its Web surveillance
practices came under attack.

The FBI records show the agency used its controversial Carnivore system 13
times between October 1999 and August 2000 to monitor Internet
communications, and a similar device, Etherpeek, 11 times.

Carnivore is a set of software programs for monitoring Internet traffic --
e-mails, Web pages, chat-room conversations and other signals -- going to
or from a suspect under investigation. Etherpeek is a commercially
available network-monitoring program that is far less precise in filtering
the information collected.

Civil liberties groups contend that Carnivore can collect too much
information and put ordinary citizens at risk. Some Internet service
providers have raised concerns that since Carnivore's inner workings are
secret, it may damage or slow their networks while it's capturing e-mails.

While large portions of the FBI documents are blacked out to protect
national security and investigative secrets, they reveal new details about
the agency's Internet surveillance program.

In January 2000, for example, FBI agents got a wide-ranging order to use a
computer wiretap in a gambling and money-laundering investigation. The
wiretap was successful, according to an e-mail to Marcus Thomas, head of
the FBI's cybertechnology lab.

"We got bank accounts, where money was hidden and other information," reads
the e-mail from an unknown agent. "Some of the data sent . . . was
instrumental in tying several of the conspirators to the crime. One of the
conspirators is offering to pay . . . as part of a plea bargain."

The following month, FBI investigators used Carnivore to catch a fugitive
for the U.S. Marshals Service. The Internet provider involved protested in
court, but was ordered to cooperate.

The 24 instances of Internet surveillance also included four investigations
of computer hacking, three drug probes, one extortion investigation and an
intellectual-property case. The nature of the other cases was not
disclosed. The FBI has said that Carnivore has been used in investigations
involving national security and attempted domestic terrorism.

E-mails between FBI agents show how determined the bureau was to justify
Carnivore's existence.

In July, the Tampa, Fla., field office sent an e-mail to other agents,
including Thomas at the FBI lab, offering a slide show explaining how a
militia group used the Internet to communicate.

The group's leader pleaded guilty and was sentenced last year for planning
to break into military facilities to steal explosives and blow up energy
facilities in Southeastern states.

"This might be used to show why Carnivore is necessary and essential for
law enforcement to combat terrorism," reads the e-mail from an unspecified
Tampa agent.