Federal Government Planning on Warrantless Surveillance of Your E-mails

UrbanMan's comments: I have always thought that the Federal Government's Law Enforcement Agencies needed the ability to quickly gain approvals for electronic surveillance so they could timely react to threats. I thought that the separations of authority for the various federal agencies would provide some safe guards. I thought the warrant requirements of the Patriot Act would serve to provide Americans with another safeguard on Government intrusions into our freedoms and constitutional rights. Then a report on Yahoo titled "Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants" concerning a Senate bill being proposed by Senator Leahy (D-CT) and reported as being quietly re-written to give not only more surveillance capability but warrantless capability.

I have been middle of the road between people who think the Government is going further and further into a Geroge Orwell envisioned government and the people who think the Government is there to help us. It is the obvious over reach of this bill that not only concerns me about our rights and privacy, but also pushes me to plan to survive in a decayed infrastructure and also in a total collapse, because this is just crazy and a possible sign of things to come.

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge. (CNET obtained the revised draft from a source involved in the negotiations with Leahy.)

Revised bill highlights

> Grants warrantless access to Americans' electronic correspondence to over 22 federal agencies. Only a subpoena is required, not a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause.

> Permits state and local law enforcement to warrantlessly access Americans' correspondence stored on systems not offered "to the public," including university networks.

> Authorizes any law enforcement agency to access accounts without a warrant -- or subsequent court review -- if they claim "emergency" situations exist.

> Says providers "shall notify" law enforcement in advance of any plans to tell their customers that they've been the target of a warrant, order, or subpoena.

> Delays notification of customers whose accounts have been accessed from 3 days to "10 business days." This notification can be postponed by up to 360 days.

It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill "provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."

Leahy had planned a vote on an earlier version of his bill, designed to update a pair of 1980s-vintage surveillance laws, in late September. But after law enforcement groups including the National District Attorneys' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association organizations objected to the legislation and asked him to "reconsider acting" on it, Leahy pushed back the vote and reworked the bill as a package of amendments to be offered next Thursday. The package (PDF) is a substitute for H.R. 2471, which the House of Representatives already has approved.

One person participating in Capitol Hill meetings on this topic told CNET that Justice Department officials have expressed their displeasure about Leahy's original bill. The department is on record as opposing any such requirement: James Baker, the associate deputy attorney general, has publicly warned that requiring a warrant to obtain stored e-mail could have an "adverse impact" on criminal investigations.

Christopher Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said requiring warrantless access to Americans' data "undercuts" the purpose of Leahy's original proposal. "We believe a warrant is the appropriate standard for any contents," he said.

An aide to the Senate Judiciary committee told CNET that because discussions with interested parties are ongoing, it would be premature to comment on the legislation.

Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that in light of the revelations about how former CIA director David Petraeus' e-mail was perused by the FBI, "even the Department of Justice should concede that there's a need for more judicial oversight," not less.

Markham Erickson, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who has followed the topic closely and said he was speaking for himself and not his corporate clients, expressed concerns about the alphabet soup of federal agencies that would be granted more power:

There is no good legal reason why federal regulatory agencies such as the NLRB, OSHA, SEC or FTC need to access customer information service providers with a mere subpoena. If those agencies feel they do not have the tools to do their jobs adequately, they should work with the appropriate authorizing committees to explore solutions. The Senate Judiciary committee is really not in a position to adequately make those determinations.

The list of agencies that would receive civil subpoena authority for the contents of electronic communications also includes the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission.

Leahy's modified bill retains some pro-privacy components, such as requiring police to secure a warrant in many cases. But the dramatic shift, especially the regulatory agency loophole and exemption for emergency account access, likely means it will be near-impossible for tech companies to support in its new form.

A bitter setback

This is a bitter setback for Internet companies and a liberal-conservative-libertarian coalition, which had hoped to convince Congress to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to protect documents stored in the cloud. Leahy glued those changes onto an unrelated privacy-related bill supported by Netflix.

At the moment, Internet users enjoy more privacy rights if they store data on their hard drives or under their mattresses, a legal hiccup that the companies fear could slow the shift to cloud-based services unless the law is changed to be more privacy-protective.

Members of the so-called Digital Due Process coalition include Apple, Amazon.com, Americans for Tax Reform, AT&T, the Center for Democracy and Technology, eBay, Google, Facebook, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, TechFreedom, and Twitter. (CNET was the first to report on the coalition's creation.)

Leahy, a former prosecutor, has a mixed record on privacy. He criticized the FBI's efforts to require Internet providers to build in backdoors for law enforcement access, and introduced a bill in the 1990s protecting Americans' right to use whatever encryption products they wanted.

But he also authored the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which is now looming over Web companies, as well as the reviled Protect IP Act. An article in The New Republic concluded Leahy's work on the Patriot Act "appears to have made the bill less protective of civil liberties." Leahy had introduced significant portions of the Patriot Act under the name Enhancement of Privacy and Public Safety in Cyberspace Act (PDF) a year earlier.

One obvious option for the Digital Due Process coalition is the simplest: if Leahy's committee proves to be an insurmountable roadblock in the Senate, try the courts instead.

Judges already have been wrestling with how to apply the Fourth Amendment to an always-on, always-connected society. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police needed a search warrant for GPS tracking of vehicles. Some courts have ruled that warrantless tracking of Americans' cell phones, another coalition concern, is unconstitutional.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies already must obtain warrants for e-mail in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, thanks to a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010.

Two Threats to Survival Preppers

I have talked to over a dozen people since Obama was re-elected about what that means to Survival Preppers. It seems many are now concerned that without the need or chance to be re-elected second Obama administration can implement not only economic regulations that will hurt preppers but the Government is in position to implement changes to our second amendment freedoms as well as our very liberty.

Some of these people I have talked to cannot articulate what they are concerned about other than gun control. They have some vision of impending economic doom,.... and as middle of the road as I am, I can't say that they are completly mistaken.

I think besides the chance of an economic collapse being greater with a continuation of the the fiscal policies of the last four years, the real two possible threats to preppers are the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the United Nations Small Arms Treaty.

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)

The NDAA authorizes the military to: 1) detainment of persons captured within the United States of America without charge or trial, 2) prosecute said persons through military tribunals for persons captured within the United States 3) the transfer of persons captured within the United States of America to foreign nations (foreign jurisdictions).

Of course this is in violation of the Constitution of the United States of America. But the Government's point is to trust them, they will be very select in using the provisions of the NDAA on American citizens. In fact Senator Carl Levin stated on the floor of the Senate that the NDAA did not pertain to citizens of the U.S. But not we now know that the Office of the President of the United States, requested that such restriction be removed from the 2012 NDAA.

What is more troubling is that the NDAA passed the Senate. An amendment from Senator Udall to forbid the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, was was rejected by a vote of 38–60, along party lines.

What this means is that most of the 4th, 5th and 6th amendment rights that U.S. citizens have enjoyed for a couple hundred years now can be taken away by the U.S Government, presumably the Justice Department, using military assets which are free of restrictions of statutory authority that Federal Law Enforcement agencies have. Potential loses of these rights:

The right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures (4th Amendment);
The right to be free from charge for an infamous or capitol crime until presentment or indictment by a Grand Jury (5th Amendment;
The right to be free from deprivation of life, liberty, or property, without Due Process of law (5th Amendment);
The right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of our peers in the State or District where the alleged crime shall have been committed (6th Amendment);
The right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation and to confront witnesses (6th Amendment);
The right to Legal Counsel (6th Amendment; and even the right to be free from excessive bail and fines, and cruel and unusual punishment with comes from the 8th Amendment;

The threat here is possible and becomes real if the Government continues to lump survival preppers into anti-government threats groups like the right wing militas and anarchists, like they have with various "intelligence reports" from Department of Homeland Security.

UN Arms Treaty,..and It Will Happen

I previously wrote about this back in August - that post is here.

If you think that a conservative House of Representatives would not allow this happen, you are both right and wroing. If it was in the power of the House it would not happen, but the House is not a player in approval/disapproval of this treaty.  Let me write that again"  It does not matter what Congress wants or does not want - this power is in the President's hands.

If two thirds of the U.N. main body (general membership - not the security council) votes for this treaty, then this treaty becomes defacto law for at least four years unless rejected by the President or the Senate. If this treaty goes into effect it will have the effect of a Constitutional Amendment. Let me say that again,....If this treaty goes into effect it will have the effect of a Constitutional Amendment superceding the 2nd Amendment. The Supreme Court precedence is that International Treaties, that the U.S. is a signature to, trumps U.S. Law. And again, the U.S. will be de facto signatures unless either the President or the Senate reject it.

And speaking of the Senate,....figure the odds on a newly re-elected Barack Obama rejecting this Treaty. Figure the odds on Senator Harry Reid even allowing a vote on this in the Senate. And what is scary is that only a reported 51 Senators, prior to the last election, were against the original treaty. The new Senate will have even more Senators supporting this treaty. The treaty would require nations to register guns and their owners.

Certain types of guns will be outlawed. And the subsequent U.S. Government performance in the treaty provisions will most assuredly require no notice inspections of those people considered to own "arsenals".

The threat here is probably that the UN Arms Treaty will effect gun onwers and since Survival preppers are indivudually responsible for their own security, the ability to own guns and buy ammuniton will certainly be adversely effected by the UN Arms Treaty.

This threat is probable and becomes real if the Government decides to enact compliance with the teay by going after the Survival community because we are open, easy and law abdiing targets,...read "easy targets" to score some initial victories in removing the "excessive guns threats". And since Preppers are preparing to survive a sceanrio where there is not government, we could be seen as "anarchists planning for no government".

Very scary times my friends.

For more information, I suggest going to the excellent Town Hall article on the UN Arms Treaty

New Vehicles fit to Survive the Collapse

This article ran on Yahoo earlier this year. Chevrolet doesn't take modern-day Impalas and rework them into updated Bel Airs. There's not much in common between a Ford Fusion and any Ford family sedan from 1960 through 1980. So if Jeep wants to mine its past for a pair of concepts that revive not just the look of '60s -era Gladiators but Forward Control pickups, we welcome the rare trip down the nostalgia trail -- especially if powered by a 470-hp Hemi V8.Built by Jeep to mark its annual Easter party near Moab, Utah, the two concepts were built from everyday Jeep Wranglers to highlight pieces of the Mopar parts catalogue for Jeep owners. The most striking is the Jeep Mighty FC, which revives the cabover look of early '60s Jeep trucks with a custom front-end and drop-down bed from the Wrangler pickup conversion kit. If you're not a Chrysler designer, the only pieces you can buy are the two Portal Axles, designed for heavy-duty work and height, which run $11,000 to $12,000. Each.

A less radical transformation of the Wrangler pickup kit produces the J-12 Concept, which combines an upgraded suspension and eight-foot bed with a front end reminiscent of the first-generation Gladiator pickups. On the inside, Jeep has removed many of the Wrangler's comforts in favor of a dash and floorboard that can almost withstand a hose down, using truck-bed liner for flooring instead of carpets. It reminds everyone that once upon a time, Jeep made some of the most stylish small pickups in America. Why Jeep can't do that again remains one of Detroit's enduring mysteries.

Jeep also showed four other concepts for its parts business, including two Wranglers upgraded with a new Mopar kit that lets owners easily bolt in the 470-hp Hemi V8 in place of the standard Chrysler V-6 in models with a five-speed transmission; an update will let owners of the new 2012 model with a six-speed automatic in on the fun. Bully for them, but seems there could be room for combining all of these parts into something that could take all terrains and look fantastic doing so.

Now for the really dedicated, and well funded Survivor, we have the Survivor Truck, brought to our attention from a Yahoo autos article. 

The Survivor Truck, built to drive through the end of the world, by Justin Hyde of Motoramic

"Sometimes," author William S. Burroughs once said, "paranoia is just having all the facts." Given the
facts gathered from the past few natural and man-made disasters, it's not a surprise that many people
have begun to think of what they'd need to survive the next calamity. One California man has taken a
kitchen-sink approach and created the Survivor Truck -- a machine that could keep rolling through
any given Armageddon.


Jim DeLozier, who sells survival goods in Costa Mesa, Calif., says the idea of the Survivor Truck was
to build the ultimate rolling outpost, one that could withstand even a nuclear attack. Starting with a
Chevy C70 truck powered by 150-gallon tanks of gasoline or propane, DeRozier outfitted the chassis
with every conceivable piece of equipment needed to travel through a disaster. "My goal was to build
a vehicle that can go anywhere you want to go, stay as long as you want and drive back out,"
DeLozier says.

On the outside, the truck gets bulletproof shielding, a filtration system to keep chemical agents out of
the cabin and even a coating of pickup truck bedliner. Night vision helps keep watch on what's
happening when the lights go out, while a solar generator can provide power for the array of
communications gear during daylight hours. On the inside, there's enough water, food, toilets and
battery power to keep a group of people not just alive but comfortable for months amidst chaos. If
parked in the wilderness, the top platform includes a complete camping unit and inflatable raft, along
with a water purification system; if there's some need for an aggressive response, the truck has a
protected sniper's cage and a backup crossbow and arrows.

While DeLozier says he originally conceived the truck as the ultimate survivalist driving machine --
with a price that runs between $100,000 and $600,000 -- he's received more interest from military and
law enforcement agencies mulling a rolling command center. He says he's somewhat surprised by the
attention his concept has received, "whether it's the zombie apocalypse fad or whether people believe
they have a potential need....it's designed to be a home away from home." Given how many people
have seen their homes washed away or destroyed in recent years, it's no wonder there's some demand
for something that could outrun trouble.

Chapter 26 Survival Chronicles of Jim – SHTF Consultant

I called urbanman the last Saturday although I’m not sure when he’ll edit this and post it. UrbanMan’s note: Jim sent this to me on 20 October and for the record I do not edit his content much.
I have been through three seasons since I last wrote about my journey becoming prepared. Since then I have re-planted and taken those vegetables – not really expanding my garden with the exception of a couple pots of herbs which did not amount to much. I continue to use Silver Saver as a means to purchase a little bit of Silver each much and once my monthly allotment to them reaches the required minimum amount (22 ounces), they send me the silver bullion.

I have not yet found a 1970’s truck or jeep type yet, but I am still looking.

Last year, I had befriended an older couple on my street with some vegetables (cucumber and squash) that I grew in back yard garden. The lady gave me a couple of jars of canned tomatoes and a suckatash (?), which I haven’t ate yet, even though I need to get the mason jars back to her. She promised to show me how to can vegetables. So my near term project is to try her canned vegetables, but a 12 piece canning set from Amazon, return her mason jars and ask her when she can teach me the “how to’s” of canning.

Her husband, the gentleman, is a Korean War vet, and has an M1 garand. After I gave him some .30-06 ammunition (still waiting on those clips Urbanman) he seemed to open up to me and showed me his other guns: a 12 gauge double barrel shotgun and a .45 cal pistol. We haven’t been out shooting again since the old guy has to be near or just past 80 years old, but he seems spry enough to use it when the time comes. Trying to see where his mind is on survival preparation as I think it took him some time to accept me in my goatee and occasional earring and I did not want to come across as a nut, so I asked him if he keeps his guns for memories or for a practical purpose. He said words to the effect that “you never know when you are going to need a gun”…..fair enough in my mind.

I did drop off a printed copy of a book called “Gone Before You Get There” highlighted 77 items that are in short supply during emergencies. I told the old man that I had bought this booklet so I can get an idea on how to be prepared in case of a natural disaster and was now finished with it. The old man just asked what kind of things I bought so I told him that stockpiled a little extra food, water and medical items. He just grunted and said something like “that’s sounds like a good idea, I’ll have a look at this”. Fair enough.

So the next thing that happens is that another neighbor, an older than me gent knocked on my door to ask about the old Ford Taurus with two flat tires parked in my car port. He was asking if I was looking to sell it. I had previous purchased it for $2,200 so my son could have a car to get back and forth to college, but my son never obtained the insurance on it before he left to college and ended up buying a different car. Anyway, to make a long story short, I asked the gent into my house so I could find and show him the title. In the living room he saw my shotgun laying on top of a short duffel I use as my range bag and my web belt with holster and asked if I was going out shooting. I told him I was until he stopped to talk about the Taurus. This neighbor, I’ll call him Bill, asked me about shooting and hunting. I told him, “I am not involved in any shooting sport nor do I hunt. I just like to go out and shoot my guns for practice because it makes me feel better prepared as an individual.”

Apparently Bill has a 7mm Magnum hunting rifle, but has been wanting to get a handgun for him defense. In short order I helped Bill pick out a S&W M&P 9mm handgun, a belt holster and mag pouches (this came in some type of kit offered by the factory) and 3 boxes of ammunition for $675 at a franchise sporting goods store. Since then, I saw him one morning and he told me he has bought a 12 gauge pump shotgun (I haven’t seen it yet) and he told me he wants to pickup a .22 rifle. Bill also told me he was kinda amazed that I was a single guy because I’m a neat freak and my house is pretty spotless, but saw that I had a water cooler with many 5 gallon jugs lined up next to it along the wall. I took that as an implied question so I told Bill “it’s just like why I own guns. In case there is an interruption of the water supply, I have enough to get by for a few weeks until things get restored.”

UrbanMan’s note: The pistol Jim’s friend bought is probably the Smith and Wesson M&P 9mm Range and Carry Kit. Kind of a one stop shop if you are not too specific on what holsters you really like and a good choice.

Bill just said “that’s a good idea.” We made some vague pans to go to the range together, which we have yet to do. But Bill did send me an e-mail asking me if I had any recommendations for stocking some “survival type” (his words) food.

Urbanman is now teasing me that I am a survival consultant, but in a more serious way we talked about how I am getting to know the neighbors, build some credibility with them, and have a basis for what may turn-out to be a neighborhood survival group. I will take Bill out shooting. This will be a good time to feel him out and see where he is at mentally to absorb what I started two years ago. I have the last of this year’s cucumbers which I will deliver to the old lady with her mason jars and make a plan for her to teach me canning. I understand there is a new Rawles survival novel out which I’ll order when I make my Canning Set order through Amazon…and start looking for that old 1970 pickup truck or jeep.

I have come to terms with not living Survival Prepping every day like I did in the beginning. Life gets in the way. But I still need to get better, not just measure it on an hour by hour or day by day basis. Wishing everyone a fruitful week.