Clips April 10, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips April 10, 2003

ARTICLES

Internet Fraud Complaints Triple in 2002
Librarians Make Some Noise Over Patriot Act
Students put their own spin on downloading music 
IQ Test for Rebuilding Iraqi Net  
Internet via the Power Grid: New Interest in Obvious Idea
Davis seeks to shift reorg power to Bush
Delta named 'Big Brother'
Desktops add biometrics to their lineup 
Information sharing driving homeland projects 
CFO Council to roll out governmentwide performance metrics next month 
FEMA offers first responders instant messaging service 
Former, current Bush officials battle on cybersecurity 
Senators blast administration on agency science funding imbalance
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Associated Press
Internet Fraud Complaints Triple in 2002 
Wed Apr 9, 3:06 PM ET

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON - Fraud on the Internet rose sharply in 2002, with the FBI (news - web sites) reporting more than 48,000 complaints referred to prosecutors  triple the number of the year before. 

   

By far the most common complaint was auction fraud, followed by non-delivery of promised merchandise, credit card fraud and fake investments, according to the report Wednesday from Internet Fraud (news - web sites) Complaint Center, run by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center based in Richmond, Va. 


The total dollar loss of Internet fraud reported to the center in 2002 was $54 million, compared with $17 million the year before. The 48,252 complaints referred for prosecution were far more than the 16,755 such complaints referred in 2001, but they still represent only a fraction of the crimes authorities believe are occurring. 


The center also received almost 37,000 other complaints in 2002 that did not constitute fraud but involved such things as unsolicited e-mail or SPAM, illegal child pornography and computer intrusions. 


As more people do business on the Internet, fraud is expected to continue to increase, officials said. They also said the rise in complaints could stem from greater awareness of the Internet fraud center as a site for victims to fight back. 


The center "helps victims by putting fraud information into the hands of law enforcement ... so these complaints are responded to quickly," said Jana Monroe, assistant FBI director in charge of the Cyber Division. 


The report provides a glimpse into common types of fraud, its perpetrators and victims. For instance, almost 80 percent of known perpetrators are male and about 71 percent of those bringing complaints are also male. 


Fraud complaints came from all over the United States, with a third filed in highly-populated California, Florida, Texas and New York. Complaints also came from Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany and Japan. 


While online auction fraud accounted for 46 percent of complaints, the average amount lost in these cases was just $320. By comparison, victims of Internet identity theft averaged $2,000 in losses, with check fraud losses averaging $1,000. 


One persistent scam described in the report is the so-called "Nigerian letter," complaints for which rose from 2,600 in 2001 to 16,000 in 2002. Victims are presented with an opportunity to receive nonexistent government money, often from the "Government of Nigeria," as long as they pay an upfront fee often characterized as a bribe to that government. 


The report did not include statistics on how many complaints received by the Internet fraud center resulted in criminal convictions last year, but it did detail high-profile examples. 


One case involved $800,000 in losses by 300 people in a scheme to sell computers online and never deliver the merchandise. The perpetrator in this case, Teresa Smith of Worcester, Mass., used several identities to prevent authorities from catching her. 


Smith pleaded guilty in December to federal mail fraud and wire fraud charges and is awaiting sentencing. 


In California, Raj Trivedi of San Diego pleaded guilty in December to a 96-count federal indictment and was sentenced to three years in prison for using the Internet to peddle computers, camcorders and other electronic gear but delivering none of the goods. More than 700 people worldwide were swindled of some $922,000 in that case. 
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Washington Post
Librarians Make Some Noise Over Patriot Act 
Concerns About Privacy Prompt Some to Warn Patrons, Destroy Records of Book and Computer Use 
By Rene Sanchez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 10, 2003; Page A20 

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. -- Every public computer inside this city's library has a new warning taped to its screen. Beware, the message says, anything you read is now subject to secret scrutiny by federal agents.

"We felt strongly that this had to be done," said librarian Linda Wilson. "The government has never had this kind of power before. It feels like Big Brother."

Wilson is not accustomed to protest. Her days are spent quietly tending to aisles of books in this immigrant community near Los Angeles. But now she is at the forefront of an unusual rebellion.

Across the country, in a movement that belies their staid image, librarians are rising up in anger and rallying against a law the Justice Department calls one of its most important new tools to help catch terrorists before they strike.

The USA Patriot Act, swiftly approved by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, gives federal investigators greater authority to examine all book and computer records at libraries. The law requires investigators to get a search warrant from a federal court before seizing library records, but those proceedings are secret and not subject to appeal. It also forbids libraries from informing patrons that their reading or computer habits are being monitored by the government.

Federal officials say the new law is essential because prior statutes on obtaining library records imposed too many limits on fast-moving investigations. They also point out that several of the hijackers who rammed planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon had used library computers to communicate. But many libraries are expressing fears that the law tramples constitutional rights to privacy and thwarts intellectual freedom.

Earlier this year, the American Library Association, which has 64,000 members, formally denounced the Patriot Act provision and passed a resolution urging Congress to repeal it. Since then, about two dozen state library groups -- from California to Georgia -- have taken the same stand. And that is only the beginning of the backlash.

Along with posting warnings about the law, some libraries are rushing to destroy nearly all of the records they keep of what their patrons read, as well as sign-up logs of computer use. Others are scrapping plans they had to use new computer technology that can profile the reading habits of patrons and inform them when works they enjoy are published.

"This law is dangerous," said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the ALA's Washington office. "I read murder mysteries -- does that make me a murderer? I read spy stories -- does that mean I'm a spy? There's no clear link between a person's intellectual pursuits and their actions."

The growing campaign against the Patriot Act took a while to catch fire. Many libraries spent months last year either unaware of the obscure provision on library records or discreetly debating whether to oppose it.

Some libraries also say they see no harm in the new law. Since the terrorist attacks, a few branches nationwide have decided without government prodding to remove provocative reading material, such as books that contain instructions for making explosives, from their shelves. Others are reporting suspicious patrons to local police or the FBI. In some places, the law has not provoked alarm or even public notice.

"It's business as usual here," said Peter Persic, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Public Library. "We have not had complaints about it."

Federal officials say anxiety about the law is misinformed and overblown. It only targets suspected foreign spies and terrorists, they say, and is not being used to snoop recklessly on anyone reading or researching controversial subjects.

"We're not going after the average American," said Mark Corallo, a Justice Department spokesman. "We're only going after the bad guys. We respect the right to privacy. If you're not a terrorist or a spy, you have nothing to worry about."

Under previous laws, Corallo said, federal investigators at times had difficulty getting access to library records of people who had not committed a crime. "But terrorists had been exploiting that," he said.

Corallo declined to say how many or what kind of requests federal agents have made for library records through the Patriot Act. To do so, he said, could compromise national security.

But in a survey conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, about 550 libraries across the country reported receiving requests over the past year from federal and local investigators for records of patrons. More than 200 libraries also said that they had resisted such requests from authorities.

Many librarians say they want to cooperate with investigations, but only under the terms of the statutes that the Patriot Act replaced. They say those provisions had forced the government to show more evidence of a threat to a judge to obtain a search warrant and allowed libraries to have a role in court proceedings. That argument is winning new support in Congress.

Last month, Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced legislation to exempt library and bookstore records from the Patriot Act. Several dozen other lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, have endorsed the measure. It also has the backing of the American Library Association and the American Booksellers Association.

"Obviously, we're aware of the dangers of terrorism," Sanders said. "But we don't want to see September 11 being used as an opportunity to take away basic constitutional rights."

The uproar over how much access the government should have to library records is in some ways a new chapter in an old debate. Libraries felt similar pressures amid the anti-communist fervor that gripped the nation after World War II. This time, many are vowing not to be bullied into giving up records by what they call vague appeals to patriotism or national security.

The campaign against the Patriot Act is gaining support particularly in California, where some librarians say they will resist the measure at all costs.

Here in Monterey Park, Linda Wilson said she has not received any requests for records from government investigators, but that if she did, she would have a hard time staying quiet about it.

"I don't like how the new law even takes away our right to speak," she said. "If we take away these kind of freedoms, then we've let the terrorists win."

In Santa Cruz, Calif., all 10 branches of the library are destroying records daily and recently posted signs warning that the government has new authority to review whatever patrons read. Library officials also are distributing pamphlets that decry the secrecy provisions in the Patriot Act. "How can you tell when the FBI has been in your library?" the pamphlet asks. "You can't."

Librarian Anne Turner said that she and many library patrons are frightened more by the threat of losing constitutional rights than by terrorists. "People are angry that the government has this power," she said. "It can go fishing for anything under this legislation."

Other cities are expressing the same unease. In Maine, several libraries recently launched a campaign to get their entire communities to read the George Orwell novel "1984," which depicts a world in which an all-powerful government known as "Big Brother" meddles in citizens' private lives and punishes them even for thought crimes.

Librarians there say they did not choose the book to attack the Patriot Act, but wanted readers to reflect on the relevance of its themes. Anne Phillips, assistant director of the Patten Free Library in Bath, said there is so much concern about the Patriot Act that staff members are now leaving "no trace" of who borrows books or uses computers.

So far, the library has not been asked to turn over any records. "We're just hoping no one ever comes through the door," she said.
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Washington Post
FEC Wants Electronic Senate Race Data 
Voters Often See Last Finance Disclosures After Election 
By Brian Krebs
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 9, 2003; 5:10 PM 
Federal election regulators today said that U.S. Senate contenders should be required to file their spending and fundraising reports online, a move campaign finance experts said would give voters quicker access to important information about candidates.
If backed by Congress and the White House, the change would make fundraising data more available in the days just before an election, when candidates often spend the most money and receive a flood of last-minute contributions. In Senate races, how much money a candidate raised and spent -- and where it came from -- often does not become public until weeks after the election because the information is not transmitted electronically.
Senate campaigns and PACs are required to file paper copies with the Secretary of the Senate, unlike presidential and House campaign filings, which must be sent to the FEC in electronic form. The secretary's office scans the reports into image files that are forwarded to the commission.
The problem, fundraising experts said, is that the files are not text-searchable. That forces the FEC to enter the data by hand, which often delays public disclosure of the data by several weeks.
The FEC said that Senate campaigns and PACs that raise more than $50,000 should electronically file their financial reports with the secretary's office, which would forward the information to the FEC.
Adopting this system would allow voters to learn about last-minute contributors and campaign spending before they cast their votes, said Ken Cooper, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine.org, which tracks campaign finance data.
"That pre-election period is when most voters are starting to focus on who to vote for, and these disclosure reports are essential to helping them make an informed decision," Cooper said.
The FEC decision came as welcome news for e-government advocates and critics of the campaign finance disclosure rules.
"The senators have already made the transition from inkwells to Blackberries," said Carol C. Darr, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at The George Washington University. "It's high time they graduated from paper copies to electronic copies."
The proposal will go nowhere unless the Senate comes up with legislation based on the proposal and can get it signed into law. If history is any indication, Congress probably will ignore the recommendation, said FEC Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub.
"There's a long history on this issue. Every year we send up legislative recommendations, and the reality is most times they're ignored," Weintraub said. "I think this year in particular there's not a lot of appetite for doing anything campaign finance-related."
A similar proposal was included in early drafts of the campaign finance reform bills sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), but it did not make it to the final draft of the legislation.
Staffers for McCain and Feingold did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
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USA Today
Students put their own spin on downloading music 
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES  As the record industry starts to come down hard on unauthorized music downloading on college campuses, students are responding with defiant words and defensive actions.

The Recording Industry Association of America, which had relied on warnings and educational programs aimed at campuses, last week filed its first legal suits against students at Princeton, Michigan Tech and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The record industry says the students infringed on copyrights by operating song-sharing sites on university servers.

Since then, according to the record industry and other sources, students on at least 15 campuses, including UCLA, Brandeis, Rice and Syracuse, as well as the four defendants, have pulled down their sites.

But students on the UCLA campus said this week that they weren't cowed by the threat of legal action. "I'm not scared," says UCLA history major Ean Plotkin, 21, who says he still downloads regularly. "The record labels will never be able to stop downloading. It's too widespread."

In fact, he says, he doesn't see it as theft. "This is exactly like going to the library. Do I have to pay to check out a book? I'm just listening to the song, not selling it."

Eliot Winder, 19, had been pulling songs off the campus sharing site until it was taken down. But that hasn't stopped him from looking elsewhere. The lawsuits represent "three campuses in the total collegiate universe," he says. "This is just a slap on the wrist."

Ever since 18-year-old Shawn Fanning created Napster in his Northeastern University dorm room in 1999 to ease music-sharing among his buddies, campuses have been the cradle of file-swapping. They have free, fast network access and an audience of passionate music consumers.

The record industry managed to sue Napster out of business. But new entities have taken its place, from the hugely successful Kazaa, with 211 million registered users, to Morpheus and Grokster, now also being sued by the industry.

The record industry says an average of 165 million song files are traded through university networks. It says the traffic has doubled since October, when the association sent letters to 2,300 college and university presidents asking them to work harder to convince students of the evils of swapping.

The letters didn't work, so "we hope this gets (students') attention," the record industry's Matthew Oppenheim says. The suits aim at home-brew campus sharing programs, which the industry calls "mini Napsters," and seek damages of $150,000 a song, with potential liability in the millions. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said Wednesday that global sales fell 7.2% in 2002, a result, in part, of piracy.

While just one student at Princeton was sued for his site, which the industry says indexed 650,000 songs, the Daily Princetonian reported that several similar sites also were taken down.

How can colleges not be aware of these sites on their networks? "We have millions of Web pages connected to our system, and it's not feasible for us to monitor them all," Princeton spokeswoman Lauren Robinson-Brown says.

The school does respond to complaints: It has investigated 15 such notices from the record industry this school year. "We fully briefed our student leadership on this just two weeks ago," Robinson-Brown says. "And now we'll certainly use this (lawsuit) as an educational opportunity."

Meanwhile, students who don't indulge in swapping remain rare. Jackie Vayntrub says she's the only one she knows on campus who won't do it. "My roommate even just bought a second hard drive to hold all of her MP3s."

But Vayntrub, 20, is wary of potential viruses and "spyware" often loaded along with file-sharing software. She concedes, though, that she's not ethically opposed to sharing music: She constantly asks friends to burn CDs for her. "I don't remember the last time I bought a CD. But I do buy lots of blanks."
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Wired News
IQ Test for Rebuilding Iraqi Net  
Apr. 10, 2003 PT

Even before Saddam Hussein's regime started losing its grip, a London ISP began rallying momentum for a plan to bring pervasive and unfettered Internet access to post-war Iraq. 

The grassroots proposal seeks to fund the reconstruction of Iraq's Net infrastructure by selling Internet addresses ending in .iq -- the country-code suffix in Iraq's domain name. 

Due to trade sanctions and other issues, no dot-iq domains are currently active. But the charity project's sponsors, which include British ISP Onega, say the domains -- with the country-code suffix that connotes high intelligence -- could be auctioned off to worldwide Internet users for a hefty sum. 

"We think there's a lot of goodwill toward the Iraqi people and a desire to help them get the benefits of an open Internet," said Ben Fitzgerald-O'Connor, leader of the project known as the Committee for Information Technology Reconstruction in Iraq. "This is one way for the international IT community to help raise the funds to do that." 

Under the CITRI plan, dot-iq domains would be available at a reduced price for Internet users in Iraq. But the group estimates it could also raise $10 million through domain auctions to worldwide corporations and individuals. For example, members of Mensa International could snap up addresses ending in @high.iq, according to Fitzgerald-O'Connor. 

Most Iraqis have been unable to access the Internet since March 31, when cruise missiles hit servers and satellite dishes at the Information Ministry in Baghdad. Repeated strikes on telephone switching centers have also disabled much of the phone service in the city, rendering dial-up modems -- Iraqis' predominant means of connecting to the Internet -- useless. Additionally, the war has knocked out almost all of the websites operated by the Iraqi government and state-controlled media. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. government's plans for repairing Iraq's IT infrastructure are still unclear. The Bush administration has charged the Agency for International Development with rebuilding the infrastructure and public facilities in post-war Iraq. But none of the agency's eight projects currently out for bid includes repairing Iraq's telecommunications or information technology. 

CITRI's efforts to restore Iraqis' Internet access face numerous obstacles, but one stands out: The technical management of dot-iq is currently assigned to a U.S. company facing federal prosecution for allegedly funding terrorists. 

Records on file with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which helps manage the Internet's addressing system, show that dot-iq was delegated in 1997 to InfoCom of Richardson, Texas. In December 2002, the United States indicted (PDF) the four Elashi brothers who run InfoCom on charges of providing financial support to Hamas, a Palestinian fundamentalist movement known for its suicide bombings. Three of the men are currently being held in a Texas prison. 

Michael P. Gibson, the Elashis' attorney, did not respond to interview requests. But Gibson has reportedly denied that his clients were involved in terrorist activities. 

Earlier this month, Fitzgerald-O'Connor asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to consider transferring management of the dot-iq domain to CITRI. 

ICANN officials had no immediate comment on the request or on InfoCom's suitability as managers of dot-iq. But Louis Touton, ICANN's general counsel, said in an interview this week that trustees of any country-code domain have "obligations to tend to the needs of the domain." Failure to perform such tasks could result in redelegation by IANA, Touton said. 

Any initiative to replace the current administrators of Iraq's country-code domain, however, must have the broad support of the Internet community in Iraq, and not merely be driven by well-intending outsiders, Touton said. 

Fitzgerald-O'Connor said CITRI hopes to enlist the involvement of Iraqis, and envisions that management of dot-iq would eventually be controlled by an Iraq-based organization such as Baghdad University. In the short run, however, CITRI would be better positioned to conduct an international auction of dot-iq domains, he said. 

Officials with the Iraqi National Congress, an opposition party seen as playing a key role in post-war Iraq, had no immediate comment on the CITRI proposal. 

Officials with the U.N. Development Program said the international agency has no current plans to play a role in rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure. But UNDP spokesman William Orme said making Iraq's country-code domain live may have important symbolic value. 

"I could see it being used by a transitional government to advertise a break with the old era. It does have a nationalist aura, which is a new thing," Orme said. 

In March, the United Nations helped launch the new country-code domain for Afghanistan. The activation of dot-af involved changing the management of the domain from a private individual in Kabul to the country's transitional government. While fast-tracked by ICANN, the redelegation process took more than six months -- a "best-case scenario" for any proposed change to management of dot-iq, according to Michael Froomkin, a U.S. lawyer specializing in domain issues. 

Eric Brunner-Williams, a former manager with NeuStar, which operates the dot-biz domain registry, pointed out that reconstructing Iraq's network infrastructure does not technically require activating dot-iq. And while he said getting the Iraqi country-code domain operational is a worthwhile goal, Brunner-Williams was skeptical about CITRI's revenue projections.

"I have no idea how you get $10 million from dot-iq," he said. "There have been a number of high-profile, repurposed domains like dot-tm and dot-tv, and none of them have achieved that kind of revenue. Even the heavily marketed domains like dot-biz have had to expend lots of money to approach that level." 

But Fitzgerald-O'Connor remains optimistic. Even if CITRI's proposed domain auction comes up short financially, or if the United States decides to contract out Iraq's IT reconstruction, he believes the grassroots plan for dot-iq will still be relevant. 

Besides rebuilding core infrastructure, Fitzgerald-O'Connor says Iraq will benefit from the establishment of Internet access and education centers, as well as a skills exchange with companies and universities in the West. 

"CITRI would be the perfect vehicle for everyone willing to make a difference to rally behind. We are about bringing the Internet to the people," he said.
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New York Times
April 10, 2003
Internet via the Power Grid: New Interest in Obvious Idea
By JOHN MARKOFF and MATT RICHTEL

AN FRANCISCO, April 9  As cable, telephone and wireless companies compete to provide high-speed Internet access to homes, a new challenger is emerging based on a decidedly old technology.

The idea is to send Internet data over ordinary electric power lines. Proponents argue that it can be a competitive alternative to digital cable, telephone digital subscriber line and wireless efforts to connect the "last mile" between homes and Internet service providers.

Power-line networking has held out promise for several decades, in part because the electric grid is already in place, running to almost every residence in the nation, and also because it was thought that power companies would leap at the idea of a new revenue source  if the technology is proven.

But the idea has elicited deep skepticism from technologists who argue that the electric power network is a remarkably difficult environment for transmitting digital information. Moreover the nation's electric power industry has for the most part remained complacent about the technology.

Still, the technology is getting sudden attention in response to several trial efforts around the country and in other nations. Today, Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, gave the concept a further boost when he toured a demonstration site for the technology in Potomac, Md.

The agency and its chairman have said they are backing the power-line approach in an effort to stir competition and offer greater consumer choice.

"I was struck by how it has matured," Mr. Powell said. He said the F.C.C. was preparing to undertake a regulatory proceeding that could help pave the way for commercial deployment. "I'm optimistic," he said. 

The F.C.C. has licensed seven companies to conduct field tests in roughly a dozen communities around the country, including Raleigh, N.C.; Potomac, Md.; Cincinnati,; Lehigh, Pa.; and Briarcliff, N.Y.

But even if the technology can be made to work, weighty business questions remain. What is unclear, according to analysts and academics who follow the emerging industry, is whether any of the fledgling competitors can make money offering consumers lower-cost access to high-speed data, including Internet-based telephone calls and video.

The technology requires the installation of equipment that acts as a switch to transfer data between the power lines and fiber optic lines, which traditionally carry Internet traffic.

Currently there are several competing approaches. Some companies are developing the technology to transmit data over traditional fiber cables until it reaches telephone poles that serve small clusters of homes, where it would then be transferred to the power lines. Others are taking a more radical approach, trying to transmit Internet data directly from electrical power substations that serve several hundred homes and businesses in a neighborhood.

For the more ambitious plans, "there are all sorts of costs associated with installation," said Rahul Tongia, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "The costs do involve people going up the poles. That's not to say these costs are crippling, but they have to be factored in."

At least one company is trying to minimize the costs associated with home installation by relying on inexpensive consumer equipment that is already available to use electrical wiring as a local area network within the home.

"What we are now seeing in our customer's homes," said Jay Birnbaum, president of Current Technologies, "are data rates ranging from two to four megabits," which is much faster than old-fashioned dial- up services but not particularly fast for high-speed broadband services. Current Technologies, based in Germantown, Md., is conducting the Potomac trial that Mr. Powell visited today, in cooperation with the local power provider, the Potomac Electric Power Company.

Despite the obstacles, some power companies may forge ahead because of further advantages from providing the service, including the ability to regulate the flow of electricity more directly and to use the network to check power meters over the Internet rather than visiting individual homes.

PowerWan, a start-up in Palo Alto, Calif., has begun testing a technology capable of doing just that in a handful of homes in Hawaii. Moreover, the company says it can offer data rates at twice the speed of telephone line D.S.L., said John Wheadon, PowerWan's acting chief executive.
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Seattle Times 
New state law to fight anonymous spam 
By Peter Lewis
Seattle Times consumer affairs reporter

Consumers are expected to have an easier time pursuing out-of-state spammers in District Court under legislation approved by both chambers and expected to be signed into law by Gov. Gary Locke. 
Rep. Roger Bush, R-Spanaway, sponsor of the state's 5-year-old anti-spam law, said he hopes the new legislation, unanimously passed by the House on Tuesday, "turns into a cottage industry (and that) people will start hitting them $500 a pop" to make spammers cut back. 

The bill gives explicit authority to district-court judges to handle cases under the state's anti-spam statute. The original 1998 law outlaws unsolicited commercial 

e-mails that hide how they travel across the Internet, contain misleading subject lines or use a third party's Internet address without permission. 

Under the law, state residents who receive such messages can turn to district court to collect $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater. 

The new legislation was introduced at the request of the state Attorney General's Office, which said that district-court judges themselves disagreed on the question of their jurisdiction over out-of-state spammers. 

Complicating things further, district courts include small-claims divisions. Some judges who believed they had jurisdiction over out-of-state spammers in district courts were less sure about small-claims courts, where lawyers seldom appear. 

The new legislation does not address the question of whether cases against out-of-state spammers may be brought in small-claims courts. The attorney general's advice for consumers is to file such actions in more-formal district court, and to file against in-state spammers in small-claims court. 

There are about 50 district courts in the state. They have a $41 or $31 filing fee, depending on the particular court, and a $50,000 ceiling on damages. The less-formal, small-claims courts have a $21 filing fee and a $4,000 ceiling. 

Peter Lukevich, a former Tukwila Municipal Court judge, chaired the legislative committee of the Washington State District and Municipal Court Judges Association when the Attorney General's Office started to push the new legislation. 

The office originally wanted legislation to clarify that small-claims courts could hear out-of-state spam cases, Lukevich said. 

  
  
But the judges' association rejected that. "We felt from a historical policy perspective that small-claims courts were really designed to be a local remedy for two people having a dispute," Lukevich said. 

Even with the new legislation defendants may continue to argue, as they have with some success, that district courts lack "personal jurisdiction" over out-of-state spammers. 

In other words, the spammers' lawyers will contend that their clients had minimum contacts in Washington state and had no way of knowing that state residents would receive their messages. 

Dave Horn, assistant state attorney general, called passage of the legislation "very significant" but acknowledged its effect would be hard to measure. "I hope that the rate at which (spam) cases are thrown out of district courts will decline," Horn said. 

One of the Puget Sound area's most active spam fighters, Bennett Haselton of Bellevue, is less impressed with the new legislation's value, believing most judges already agree that consumers may go after spammers in formal District Court. 

Haselton, who has filed about 40 spam cases, mostly in the small-claims division, said his experience makes him believe there are other legal ambiguities in need of legislative attention. 

For example, while many judges have permitted his spam suits to proceed, others have dismissed them on grounds that a consumer, to recover damages, must have lost money. 

Peter Lewis: 206-464-2217 or plewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Federal Computer Week
Davis seeks to shift reorg power to Bush
Proposal could make way for smaller federal government
BY Judi Hasson and Diane Frank 
April 7, 2003

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) plans to introduce legislation next month that would give the Bush administration expedited authority to recommend changes to how agencies are organized governmentwide.

At a hearing on whether the White House should have fast-track authority, lawmakers and government experts agreed that Congress should let the executive branch eliminate redundancies, shrink offices and decide what operations agencies should conduct.

The impetus for granting the reorganization authority follows the difficult and long process of folding 22 agencies into the new Homeland Security Department (DHS). 

"In the wake of the long and arduous debate on the creation of [DHS], one thing is clear: Given our current organizational structure in Congress, it is exceedingly difficult for Congress to undertake even the simplest reorganization of the executive branch," said Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, which held an April 3 hearing on the issue.

Davis wants to fast-track legislation that would give the president reorganization authority similar to authority that was granted under a law that lapsed in 1984. It allowed the president to send a reorganization plan on a proposed restructuring to Congress for an up or down vote within a certain number of days.

The American Federation of Government Employees opposes the reauthorization proposal, said Mark Roth, the union's general counsel. In testimony, he called it a measure that would expand the "executive branch's downsizing authority."

But Davis, whose Northern Virginia district includes many federal workers, said "it is going to be our goal that there are adequate protections for federal workers."

The bill will include language that will address worker concerns, said Davis spokesman David Marin. "There is concern that worker protection might be eroded or that this is somehow a backdoor approach to downsizing the federal workforce," Marin said. The language will show that those fears are not warranted, he said.

However, Davis and others acknowledge that something must change soon. "It was a fiasco with Homeland Security last year," he said. And it could be a fiasco with other departments, said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

DeLay noted that 45 offices were awarded separate contracts for the same computer database programs at the Energy Department. And the Department of Health and Human Services manages seven agencies that all fund programs to prevent child abuse.

The government has lagged behind the technology revolution, "clinging to an organizational model developed between the 1930s and the 1970s," DeLay said.

However, David Walker, comptroller general at the General Accounting Office, warned in his testimony that Congress must have a say in any reorganization plan. "Only Congress can decide whether it wishes to limit its power and role in government reorganizations," he said. "Congress must agree with any restructuring proposals submitted for consideration by the president in order to make them a reality."

A January report from the National Commission on the Public Service also recommended that the fast-track authority be reauthorized. And officials at an April 2 Secure E-Business Summit in Crystal City, Va., agreed that a government reorganization may be the most necessary step to bringing better service to citizens, through e-government or any other means.

The President's Management Agenda has been the Bush administration's main mechanism for pushing agencies into new ways of working with the public and revamping old processes, but it is likely not enough, said Norm Lorentz, the Office of Management and Budget's chief technology officer. "There is no aspect of the federal government that doesn't need to change" to provide better service, he said. 

Greater attention to the federal governance structure is needed, agreed David McClure, vice president of e-government at the Council for Excellence in Government. The reorganization authority's reintroduction "will not be an easy discussion or a very easy one to conclude, but I think it needs to be discussed," he said.
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Federal Computer Week
Delta named 'Big Brother'
BY Megan Lisagor 
April 8, 2003

Delta Air Lines remains under attack from privacy activists because of its involvement with a much-contested computer system that would screen passengers to assess their terrorism risk.

On April 3, the company won one of Privacy International's annual "Big Brother" awards, a dubious distinction meant to call attention to invaders of personal privacy.

Delta began testing an information technology infrastructure for the Transportation Security Administration's Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) II last month, officials said.

CAPPS II would scan government and commercial databases for personal information that could indicate a traveler poses a threat.

The program is under siege from privacy groups, lawmakers and information experts, who argue that it could violate privacy protections, civil liberties and due process.

Privacy activist Bill Scannell, the force behind the successful boycott of Adobe Systems Inc. during a digital copyright trial in 2001, is shunning Delta and hopes others will do the same  a stance promoted on a new Web site, BoycottDelta.org.

Critics have compared CAPPS II to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Total Information Awareness program (TIA). In theory, TIA would enable national security analysts to detect, classify, track, understand and preempt terrorist attacks against the United States by drawing on surveillance and spotting patterns in public and private transactions.

Privacy International, an independent organization founded in 1990, tapped the program for another one of its four "Big Brother" awards.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin Management and Systems, which received from TSA in February a $12.8 million five-year task order to get CAPPS II off the ground, escaped the list.

Privacy International began handing out the awards five years ago to celebrate those public and private sector groups deemed "the invaders and champions of privacy."

The winners are selected by a judging panel, which this year included privacy advocate Jason Catlett, Free Congress Foundation Vice President Lisa Dean, American Civil Liberties Union President Nadine Strossen and Harper's Magazine editor Lewis Lapham.
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Federal Computer Week
Critics dog student tracking system
Latest glitch: Forms printing at wrong schools
BY Sara Michael 
April 7, 2003

The system designed to track foreign students has been criticized as being rife with technology glitches and management flaws, but immigration officials maintained last week that the system works.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System has taken hits from the Justice Department's inspector general, the academic community and lawmakers for numerous technology snags and concerns about inefficient oversight.

"SEVIS is a new system, developed and deployed under an aggressive schedule," Johnny Williams, interim director for immigration and interior enforcement at the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told lawmakers at an April 2 House committee hearing. "Any new system will have bugs and anomalies that must be addressed."

The most recent snag in the $38 million project is known as bleeding, which occurs when one college or university prints SEVIS forms and they show up on another college's printer. The glitch raises privacy concerns. For example, a confidential form sent to print by someone at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a secure government installation, instead popped out of a printer at a school in San Francisco, according to David Ward, president of the American Council on Education.

Williams said the bureau has hired a contractor to fix the problem. "We'll keep focusing on it until it's fixed," he said.

Ward told lawmakers April 2 that colleges have also had trouble processing large batches of information, and often that data is lost by the system.

The result of the glitches is that it makes it harder for foreign students to study in the United States, he said.

"I fear that we are, for [various] reasons, making it more difficult for international students and scholars to come to our country and complete their studies," Ward said. "Eventually, [the system] will work well, but the damage to our reputation as the destination of choice may be seriously undermined before that happens."

In a report released last month, Justice IG Glenn Fine said that despite assertions from immigration officials that SEVIS has been up and running since January, the system is not fully implemented. It has "serious deficiencies," including an incomplete database and improperly trained investigators.

Referencing that report, Fine said last week that contract inspectors lack oversight, leading to insufficient reviews of colleges. Inspectors were using checklists with sparse information and no narrative comments about colleges. Those investigators were insufficiently controlled and monitored, he said.

Immigration adjudicators were not properly trained in what to look for on the contractors' checklists and how to identify sham colleges. Immigration inspectors at ports of entry also lacked technical training on using the system, he said.

"I think [immigration officials] need more resources for training, more resources for oversight of contractors [and] more resources for the technical problems," Fine told lawmakers.

Former Immigration and Naturalization Service district director Thomas Fischer described SEVIS as a "dumbed down" version of the Coordinated Interagency Partnership Regulating International Students, which began in 1997 but was discontinued two years later. SEVIS replaced CIPRIS, but Fischer said the new system lacks nearly two dozen key features that support the program's objectives.

Officials also raised concerns about the fee collection process because the government has not published regulations on how that will occur. Ward proposed that fees be collected at consular offices, rather than through a separate process, but said officials may be reluctant to transfer funds from the State Department to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Current students already are entered into the system, and college officials will add new students by August. Many officials worry the system won't be able to handle the data influx. Technology snags delayed by two weeks the Jan. 30 deadline for colleges to enter information.

***

Program learning curve

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System has been criticized for technology snags and insufficient management. Among the concerns:

* College officials try to print SEVIS forms and they show up on another college's printer. The flaw, known as bleeding, raises security concerns.

* College officials have trouble entering large amounts of data.

* The contracted inspectors reviewing colleges lack oversight, leaving little assurance that they are doing thorough work.

* Immigration adjudicators and inspectors lack sufficient training on the system, making them less able to identify sham colleges.
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Government Computer News
04/09/03 
Desktops add biometrics to their lineup 
By Vandana Sinha 

Seeing a demand from federal agencies, PC makers said they are increasingly launching new desktops that boast of biometric authentication, either embedded in the hardware or added as a separate scanner. 

"It eliminates all the headaches of passwords," said Harvey Bondar, vice president of marketing for DigitalPersona, which announced a new partnership with Gateway Inc. this week to provide the PC company with add-on fingerprint readers. 

Agencies "really need a here-and-now solution," Bondar said at the FOSE trade show in Washington, where some original equipment manufacturers had the biometric-enabled desktops on display. 

Gateway has begun selling DigitalPersona's U.are.U Pro Fingerprint Authentication System as part of a package with its desktop hardware or as an add-on feature, depending on agency needs. Starting a few months ago, Apple Computer Inc. began reselling a separate fingerprint identification unit, developed by Sony Electronics Inc. and compatible with its Mac OS X. 

"We're starting to get a couple requests to have biometrics on the desktop," agreed Michael S. Adkins, chief executive officer and president of MPC Computers LLC, formerly MicronPC. "It's very secure."
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Government Computer News
04/09/03 
Information sharing driving homeland projects 
By Wilson P. Dizard III 

Homeland security projects rest squarely on a base of information sharing for improved effectiveness, according to several officials who spoke today at FOSE. 

Rose Parkes, the line of business CIO for the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate of the homeland department, highlighted the role of information sharing in the SAFECOM program to ensure interoperable communications among first responders. 

Parkes said the Homeland Security Department and the Justice Department?s Community Oriented Policing Services Program jointly plan to issue grants totaling $50 million in fiscal 2003 to support information sharing at its most basic levelamong first responders at disaster scenes and other incidents. 

?There isn?t enough money to solve this problem,? Parkes said, ?but there is enough money to begin to solve this problem.? 

The homeland department is working to develop grant guidelines for interoperable communications systems based on open standards, Parkes said. 

The homeland department?s EPR Directorate also is fostering information sharing via its Disaster Management Interoperability Services program, which provides a basic toolset of emergency response applications to state, local and tribal organizations. 

So far, 19 states have adopted DMI Services, Parkes said. 

The program largely is based on the Army Knowledge Online system, a much larger application that links hundreds of thousands of service members and Pentagon employees. 

?We have a platform that gives us scalability,? Parkes said. ?We have leveraged a $30 million investment the Army made.? 

DMI Services allows first responders and disaster managers to share information via several tools, including a geographic information system, an instant messaging capability and an incident log. 

Also in the field of information sharing, Jo Balderas, chief executive officer of YHO Software Inc., described the Dallas Emergency Response Network, an FBI project. 

The Dallas network is an FBI project that the bureau started in the months before September 11, 2001 and greatly expanded after the terrorist attacks. 

The system ties together nine Texas state agencies, about 40 federal agencies, more than 540 police departments and more than 300 fire departments, Balderas said. 

The Dallas ERN relies on a Web site linked to a Structured Query Language database running under Linux to funnel information to law enforcement officers and alert the public to emergencies. The system uses secure sockets layer security. 

?We created a vehicle for the general public to submit anomalies,? Balderas said. The FBI has opened more than 200 cases based on leads submitted through the Dallas ERN, she said. The Dallas system also links to private sector corporations, allowing them to access information about infrastructure vulnerabilities. ?It is a mature tool,? Balderas said. ?We have been using it since July 2001.? 

The Dallas system can alert first responders by cell phone or pager, can generate 6,000 automated outgoing calls each minute and receive 30,000 incoming calls each minute, Balderas said. 

In an emergency situation affecting a specified geographic area, the system could call only the fixed and cellular phones in the affected area. 

Users can access the Dallas ERN system via www.fbiern.org. 

Judy Gross, section manager in the National Security and Non-proliferation Department, Nuclear Engineering Division, of Argonne National Laboratory, described how her laboratory built an automated system for corporations to submit information to comply with the Energy Department?s Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence rules. 

Federal law in some cases requires Energy Department contractors and vendors to some other agencies, such as military agencies and the State Department, to assure the government that they are not owned or influenced by foreigners. 

The e-FOCI system comprises three parts: a Web site for contractors to submit FOCI packages online, a FOCI Operations Manager Processing Site to help DOE employees determine the validity of submissions, and an analytical tools module that Argonne still is developing. 

Gross said Argonne would make the e-FOCI software available to other federal agencies that seek to automate this national security process. 

David Forslund, a laboratory fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, described the Bio Surveillance Analysis, Feedback, Evaluation and Response project at his laboratory. 

B-Safer is intended to build applications in Java that allow sharing of medical information and the standardization of patient records. The system has applications in public health and response to biological terrorist attacks, Forslund said. 

?The goal is to have a medical record as a collaboration document,? Forslund said. ?Right now, the information is stored in different places, and we need a common data model and functional data sharing.? 

Forslund said the notion of medical information data sharing had advanced farther in Europe and South America than in the U.S. Forslund said many hospitals and medical system vendors in the United States are reluctant to share data because doing so limits their proprietary data rights and advantages.
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Government Computer News
04/09/03 
CFO Council to roll out governmentwide performance metrics next month 
By Vanessa Jo Roberts 

The Chief Financial Officers Council has settled on eight measures that agencies governmentwide can use as leading performance indicators and plans to issue them by the end of May, Office of Management and Budget controller Linda Springer said today. 

?We believe there are certain things that are common and relevant across all agencies,? Springer said at the FOSE trade show in Washington. 

Springer and JoAnn Boutelle, deputy CFO for the Defense Department, discussed the council?s draft list of metrics, which the council expects agencies to begin using as soon as the council makes them public. 

Although performance indicator is what Springer called an in-vogue term, the government?s CFOs think metrics matter all the time, she said. 

The challenge for the council was to settle on just a few metrics that would be of most use to department secretaries, agency chiefs and their deputies. ?You?re not doing this because it?s intellectually satisfying, you?re doing it to make better decisions ? and to be a better steward of the taxpayers? dollars,? Springer said. 

Getting the council?s CFOs to agree on single definitions has been no mean feat either, said Boutelle. She is overseeing DOD?s effort to create a single financial enterprise architecturewith the first version planned for release later this month. 

Ultimately, OMB wants to make consolidated governmentwide data available online, said Springer, who added that she expects her agency will take responsibility for the rolling up of the metrics gathering by the government?s 26 major agencies. 

The council decided late last year that it made sense to have a series of metrics that could be applied governmentwide, Springer said. To that end, a subgroup began meeting in January to settle on metrics and definitions that would be amenable to agencies large and small. To be useful, such metrics must be collected, analyzed and released in a timely manner, she said. ?We want it to be like breathing.? 

Most of the data will be monthly, although a few measurements will be quarterly. 

Council members also believe that the datato be useful to agency decision-makersmust be readily accessible. That?s why the council will push agencies to make their data Web-friendly. 

?I can?t say it enough: online, online, online,? Springer said. ?If it?s paper or nothing, then do paper,? but the goal eventually should be to make the data available electronically. 

Once it releases the list of metrics, the council next wants to set governmentwide goals for each performance measure. That will be tough, Boutelle said, because each agency is a little bit different from the next. Springer said there would likely be variances from agency to agency, but what those might be is still up for discussion. 

Whatever the governmentwide goals, individual agencies will need to set their own goals, too, Boutelle said. ?You?ve got to set something that?s achievable and realistic,? she said. ?If you don?t set something that?s achievable, people will ignore it.? 

The eight metrics are: Reconciled/unreconciled cash balances Suspense clearing, Delinquent accounts receivable from public, Electronic payments, Percent of non-credit-card invoices paid on time, Interest penalties paid, Travel card delinquency trends, Purchase card delinquency trends.
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Government Executive
April 9, 2003 
FEMA offers first responders instant messaging service 
By Amelia Gruber
agruber@xxxxxxxxxxx 

Nearly 5,000 first responders are taking advantage of an instant messaging service to help bridge communications gaps among federal, state and local emergency relief workers, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Wednesday. 


The Homeland Security Department bought the technology at an undisclosed price from Bantu, a Washington-based technology company, and it was ready for use by first responders by late March. It allows them to send out secure notes or alerts from any location with Internet access. Unlike some commercial instant messenger services that many first responders use now, Bantu?s system is relatively safe from hackers, said Larry Schlang, the company?s president and chief operating officer and Bob Coxe, the program executive officer of e-government initiatives at FEMA. 


Notes sent over Bantu?s system are encrypted and the service contains firewalls to protect against viruses, Schlang explained. Because the system is so secure, Homeland Security officials are encouraging the country?s approximately 4 million first responders to start using it, according to Coxe. 


Responders can access the system by logging onto Disasterhelp.gov, an e-government site designed by FEMA to help coordinate emergency workers. These workers first need to obtain a user name and password for access to select areas of the site by filling out registration information in the upper right corner of the homepage. Anyone can register for Disasterhelp.gov, but registered users are not allowed to use the instant messenger service unless FEMA has verified that they are first responders, Coxe said. 


Local firefighting associations and other first responder groups are helping the Homeland Security Department publicize Bantu?s instant messenger service, but Coxe predicted that it will still take a while for the new messaging system, which was complete late last month, to catch on. 

The Homeland Security Department approached Bantu to provide the service because the company offers a more secure system than others in the field and has worked with other federal agencies on similar projects, Schlang said. In 2001, Bantu installed instant messenger technology on the Army?s Knowledge Online portal, helping more than 1.3 million service members communicate. 


The service will help local responders contact colleagues across the country who have expertise in such areas as bioterrorism, Schlang said. For instance, if a first responder in rural Kansas is reading a research paper on anthrax, he can check if the paper?s author is logged onto the instant messenger and if so, initiate a conversation. The system also houses chat rooms where responders can discuss topics of concern. 


Right now, Bantu?s service is most useful for sending out more ?mundane? communications about research or meeting reminders, Coxe said. But eventually, emergency operations centers will be able to use the system to locate and talk to first responders in the event of a terrorist attack or other emergency. Such technology would have helped prevent the confusion that slowed rescue efforts during the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, he added. 

Bantu was one of 443 technology companies with exhibit booths at the annual FOSE trade show, which runs from April 8 to April 10 at the new Washington Convention Center. The show featured a ?Homeland Security Pavilion? with more than 40 products on display, ranging from communications devices to surveillance cameras. 


The Homeland Security Department hopes to complete an inventory of its current IT assets by June and will look to the private sector to fill gaps in existing technology, said Steve Cooper, the department?s chief information officer, in a keynote speech at FOSE Tuesday. When he gets the go-ahead from the department?s general counsel, Cooper hopes to publish information about IT products currently in use at the department. Cooper said he would then publish an e-mail address where technology companies can send feedback and ideas for new products. 


Homeland Security officials are especially interested in learning about wireless communications devices, infrastructure mapping devices and computer programs that simulate disasters, according to Cooper. Many of the FOSE exhibits showcased such devices.
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Government Computer News
April 8, 2003 
Former, current Bush officials battle on cybersecurity 
By William New, National Journal's Technology Daily 

The Bush administration's top information technology official and its former cybersecurity czar locked horns Tuesday over the need for dedicated senior officials for cybersecurity.


"I would ask, 'Who is the highest person who does nothing but cybersecurity in the Department of Homeland Security, and in the [White House] Office of Management and Budget, and how many people in OMB have that as a full-time responsibility?'" said Richard Clarke, former special adviser to the president for cybersecurity. "The answers to those are pretty frightening." 


Mark Forman, associate director for information technology and e-government at OMB, said the issue was "thoroughly vetted" when the department's directorate on information analysis and information protection was created. He noted the intention to nominate Robert Liscouski as Homeland Security's assistant secretary of infrastructure protection, with the responsibility for physical and cybersecurity. 


Forman said the new department's plan for cybersecurity will become clearer. He added that the federal government is addressing the issue through the chief information officers in the department who are being integrated into cybersecurity activities. 


But Michael Vatis, director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College, said, "The worry I have is that if an official is looking at physical and cybersecurity, cyber is going to get short shrift."

Vatis, the former head of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), also predicted that it will take more than a year for the department to get government back to its previous level of cybersecurity. He said less than 20 of the 300 people from the former NIPC actually moved to the department as part of that center's transition. 


The experts spoke at a hearing of the House Government Reform Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census Subcommittee.

Clarke said the thought of the federal government's cyber policies "scares me to death." He and Vatis recommended that that the Securities and Exchange Commission require publicly traded companies to list the cybersecurity measures they take on the reports they submit to the agency. Then the companies would get grades from outside auditing firms, he said. That strategy "had a great effect" amid concerns about possible computer malfunctions dubbed the Y2K bug, he said. 


Clarke disagreed with Vatis' suggestion that such data be made public, however. Clarke said the focus should be on overall performance, with breaches confidentially reported to a third party.

Forman resisted the idea, suggesting that market forces, in which customers seek companies that have taken cybersecurity measures, are sufficient. 


Clarke also recommended mandatory cyber insurance for companies, which he said would require first that the insurance industry set standards. Rates could reflect cybersecurity actions taken, he said. An actuarial database would need to be established as well, he said. 


Clarke further recommended that Congress act to secure the Internet domain-name system and the border gateway protocol. 


Clarke said cyberattacks are inevitable. "As long as we have major cybersecurity vulnerabilities that would allow someone to screw up our economy, then someone will," he said.
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Government Computer News
April 3, 2003 
FBI designing vast terrorism database 
By Shane Harris
sharris@xxxxxxxxxxx 

The FBI is testing a limited version of an electronic counterterrorism system that officials hope will revolutionize the way agents collect and understand information, FBI officials said Thursday. 


As part of an ongoing technology upgrade, the FBI is building a massive database to store case information, leads, intelligence and even newspaper and magazine articles related to terrorism. Articles, the names of suspected terrorists on watch lists and terrorism-related message traffic from the Defense Department and the CIA have been placed into the database, which is being tested by some agents, according to Wilson Lowery, the FBI executive assistant director leading the project. Visa information from the State Department will be added to the database within 60 days, he said. 


Lowery and a number of bureau officials briefed reporters on the new database, known as TID, or Terrorism Intelligence and Data. If designed as envisioned, it would house information from a vast array of sources and would be used in some capacity by the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, the government?s new terrorism intelligence hub overseen by the CIA. 


The database also would store information from state and local law enforcement agencies, records of telephone calls and terrorism-related information from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Defense agencies. It would also contain data from the 66 joint terrorism task forces at FBI field offices, as well as from the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, an interagency group formed by Attorney General John Ashcroft in October 2001 to keep known terrorists and suspects out of the United States and to track them if they do enter the country. 


Lowery acknowledged the security and privacy concerns that would likely be raised by placing so much sensitive information in one place. He said that security of the database is a top priority, and that a CIA official detailed to the FBI is working on the system?s design and can ?veto? elements that don?t meet strict standards. Also, Lowery and other officials said information would be collected according to guidelines established by the attorney general. 


Those assurances may not appease civil liberties groups and privacy advocates, which have assailed Ashcroft for loosening long-standing restrictions on FBI agents? ability to collect information on people suspected of involvement in terrorism. 


Ashcroft told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday that in 2002, the Justice Department made more than 1,000 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorizes law enforcement surveillance, including wire taps, of suspected terrorists in the United States. Also, Ashcroft requested 170 ?emergency? surveillance requests, three times the total number obtained in the 23 years prior to the Sept. 11 attacks. The emergency requests allow collection of information for 72 hours prior to court review, and are personally authorized by the attorney general. 


Lowery said that the director of Central Intelligence would have to authorize any extension of the new terrorism system to other agencies, such as the Homeland Security Department. 


Lowery and FBI officials showcased a number of technological ?tools? used with the database that agents are testing now. One resembled an Internet search engine, and would allow agents to conduct key word searches of the database. 


Another tool lets agents enter questions to find relevant documents. To demonstrate the system, one official entered the phrase ?Who helped Abu Bakur Bashir with the Bali bombing?? The tool generated a list of news articles mentioning Bashir, who is the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiah, the group suspected of bombing a popular tourist spot in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2002. The official said the version of the tool FBI agents would use would return mostly official documents, not news reports. 


Lowery also said that the much anticipated Virtual Case File would begin operating in December. The system is an online case management system that would house the paper forms agents use now when conducting all manner of investigations. The system will absorb five other case management systems that are antiquated and disconnected. 
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Government Executive
April 3, 2003 
Senators blast administration on agency science funding imbalance 
By William New, National Journal's Technology Daily 

Lawmakers on Thursday again criticized top science and technology officials in the Bush administration for their failure to boost National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for the physical sciences when compared with funding for the life sciences at other agencies. 


"I am alarmed and troubled by this disparity because the decline in funding for the physical sciences has put our nation's capabilities for scientific innovation at risk and, equally important, at risk of falling behind other industrial nations," said Missouri Republican Christopher (Kit) Bond, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NSF. 


"I believe this is not an NSF budget, it's an OMB budget," Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., added in reference to the White House Office of Management and Budget. 


The lawmakers spoke at a hearing on the administration's fiscal 2004 budget requests for NSF and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). At the hearing, NSF Inspector General Christine Boesz cited continued concerns over the delay in implementing recommended changes to NSF's management of large facility projects.

"We have taken the suggestions of the inspector general to heart," said NSF Director Rita Colwell. She likened the changes to "changing tires while you're going 60 miles per hour."

Bond recommended that NSF "pull off the interstate for a minute and hire the people you need" because "if you're going 60 miles per hour and you don't know where you're headed, that's a problem."

Bond and Mikulski criticized the administration for failing to request more money for NSF after the president signed a law last fall authorizing the agency to begin doubling its budget. Bond noted that the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recommended that from fiscal 2004 through fiscal 2008, "funding for physical sciences and engineering across all relevant agencies be adjusted upward to bring them collectively to parity with the life sciences." 


He called the proposed $5.48 billion for fiscal 2004 "a paltry $171 million, or 3.2 percent, increase" over fiscal 2003 and said, "I have that feeling that Charlie Brown must have had when he asked Lucy to hold the ball he was kicking." 


OSTP chief John Marburger and Colwell said the administration prepared its fiscal 2004 budget before completion of the fiscal 2003 appropriations process in Congress. But Bond challenged this by saying that the Senate and House committee reports on the budget had been completed and that both offered significantly higher increases to NSF. 


Bond and Mikulski also criticized the proposal for a 70 percent cut in funding for the "tech talent" program, which benefits undergraduates in engineering and mathematics.

Bond also pressed the officials, including National Science Board Chairman Warren Washington, on the failure to meet a statutory requirement to provide a separate fiscal 2004 budget request for the science board. Washington and Marburger promised to comply. 
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