Carnivore - Reno Will Speed Up E-Mail Review

Bill Addresses E-mail Surveillance

By D. IAN HOPPER Associated Press Writer

August 3, 2000

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday
she will accelerate a promised review of the FBI's e-mail
surveillance system and do everything she can to calm
privacy advocates' worries about it.

In a weekly media briefing, Reno reiterated that she will
have an independent panel of experts critique the inner
workings of "Carnivore," the FBI's system.

"The thought would be that we would show the source code to
these experts and then create the opportunity for us to have
a discussion about any weaknesses that they saw in the whole
process," she said.

Carnivore is the term used for the entire system, a computer
running the Microsoft Windows NT operating system and
software that scans and captures "packets," the standard
unit of Internet traffic, as they travel through an internet
service provider's network. The FBI can install a Carnivore
unit at a service provider's network station and configure
it to capture only e-mail going to or from a person under
investigation.

At a Capitol Hill hearing last month, FBI officials said
Carnivore has been used 25 times, including 16 times this
year. None of the cases has gone to trial, so the FBI has
disclosed no detailed information about them.

Privacy advocates say that only the FBI knows what Carnivore
can do, and Internet providers are not allowed access to the
system while it is installed.

On Wednesday, the Washington-based Electronic Privacy
Information Center asked federal judge to force release of
Carnivore's computer source code. U.S. District Judge James
Robertson gave the FBI 10 days to respond to the group's
Freedom of Information Act request. The American Civil
Liberties Union has filed a similar request.

Reno refused to comment on the court cases. Earlier, FBI
officials suggested they would object to the request because
Carnivore is an investigative tool and making it public
might enable suspects to circumvent it.

Congress has taken notice of Carnivore, as well. After the
July hearings, two legislators introduced bills to restrict
the FBI's power to monitor e-mail traffic, and several
high-ranking congressman have reservations about its use.

Reno said the review would start as soon as Justice
Department attorneys agreed on the process _ with her
encouragement.

"I don't know that I can satisfy all the privacy
advocates," she said, "but I want to try to do everything
I can."