The
Electronic Frontier Foundation is taking the Department of Justice
to court because of the FBI's failure to respond to its request for
information on the DCS-3000 and Red Hook surveillance systems.
The EFF believes that the DCS-3000 system is the latest version
of the controversial Carnivore system which was designed to
intercept and read emails. Red Hook is a system designed to perform
a similar function for voice phone calls.
Though the US government always maintained that the systems were
designed to read the communications of terrorists, civil liberties
activists have argued that its use was not limited to that.
"Recent allegations of domestic spying by the US government
already have both lawmakers and the general public up in arms,"
said EFF staff attorney Marcia Hofmann. "Americans have a right to
know whether the FBI is using new technology to further violate
their privacy. The Department of Justice needs to abide by the law
and publicly release information about these surveillance
tools."
In a separate case the US government has been allowed to
carrying on surveillance activities on people in the US while a
legal case about the activity is ongoing. The American Civil
Liberties Union began a law suit in January accusing the government
of conducting wiretaps on phone and internet communications without
the proper warrants.
The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of lawyers, academics and
journalists who it said were being targeted because of their
foreign contacts.
Detroit district judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled in August that
the surveillance breached the constitutional rights of US
residents. The programme targets the communications of people in
the US with people abroad.
The Bush administration is appealing the ruling and had applied
for the right to continue the surveillance while the appeal is
heard. A three person federal appeals court panel has ruled that
they can.
