WASHINGTON – Federal law enforcement agencies are seeking enhanced surveillance powers over Internet service on airplanes, an effort to shape an emerging technology to meet the government’s concerns about terrorism.
Authorities want the ability to intercept, block or divert e-mail or other online communication to and from airplanes after obtaining a court order. Internet providers would have to allow government monitoring within 10 minutes of a court order being granted, be able to electronically identify users by their seat numbers and be required to collect and store records of the communications for 24 hours.
Such capabilities would go far beyond the government’s current ability to monitor Internet traffic on land.
The FBI, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security jointly made the requests in a filing last week with the Federal Communications Commission.
The law enforcement agencies say they fear that terrorists could use the services to coordinate an attack or use Internet-connected devices to detonate explosives via remote control.
The Boeing Co. – which is the largest worldwide provider of Internet service on airplanes – will abide by any government rules, company spokesman Terrance Scott said. But he added that the company questions whether the FCC’s technical review of satellite services is the proper venue for examining surveillance rules, rather than Congress or the courts.
Judge slams Indian fund accounting
The Interior Department was ordered Tuesday – by a judge who called it a “pathetic outpost” – to admit that it can’t provide accurate information about lost royalties owed to American Indians. In a scathing condemnation of the government’s treatment of American Indians, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth directed the department to enclose notices in its correspondence saying information provided on trust assets may not be credible.
Reprimand reportedly rejected
A military investigation into FBI reports of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, recommended that the prison’s former commander be reprimanded, but a top general rejected the recommendation, according to a congressional aide familiar with the inquiry’s findings. Investigators recommended that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller be reprimanded for failing to oversee the interrogation of a high-value detainee, which was found to have been abusive, the aide said. But Gen. Bantz Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, instead referred the matter to the Army’s inspector general, the aide said.
Colorado: Wildfire crew bolstered
Fresh crews and more aircraft joined the battle against a 12,200-acre wildfire in the Wet Mountains in southern Colorado Tuesday, hoping to pounce on the blaze while lighter winds and higher humidity were on their side. About 100 of the 5,000 people forced from their homes were allowed to return late Monday. Pueblo County sheriff’s officials said other evacuation orders would continue at least through this afternoon.
Logging appeal is dismissed
A federal appeals court in Denver dismissed an attempt by environmental groups to restore a Clinton-era ban on logging in roadless areas of national forests, saying their appeal became irrelevant when the Bush administration adopted a replacement rule. The Clinton administration’s rule put 58.5 million acres of roadless forest off-limits to logging and other development. Under the new rule, those lands, most of which are in the West, are again open to road building for potential logging, mining and other commercial uses.
Virginia: Sailor gets life sentence
A sailor who killed his roommate, took her body to Massachusetts and burned it was sentenced in Virginia Beach on Tuesday to life in prison. Jarred D. Swartzmiller, 22, pleaded guilty in May to murder in the death of Laura Skinner, 21. Skinner and Swartzmiller were shipmates on the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
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