Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Safire Sunset

Posted on November 16, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Wonkette, even more than Talking Points Memo, has the definitive response to the news that tired William Safire is going to retire. I presume the language column gig is going too.

Posted in The Media | 1 Comment

CFP 2005 Wants You

Posted on November 16, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference 2005, has just issued its Call for Proposals.

A key part of my becoming an Internet lawyer was attending an early CFP..maybe CFP 3?…in '92? '93?…could it really be that long ago?…in order to figure out the lay of the land. I had a computer background, and a legal background, but they were fully compartmentalized parts of my history, and I had only recently thought about putting them together. (I'm certain that the idea of 'computer law' was never breathed in my hearing during three years at Yale Law School.) I wanted to know what the state of the art was. I happened upon an announcement for CFP, it sounded interesting, so with some trepidation I went.

There were a few lawyers there, but not many. Most of them seemed (forgive me, whoever you were) to be talking nonsense, or to be very uninformed about how the technologies actually worked. There was one very noticeable exception, however: Stewart Baker, then General Counsel of the NSA. He was technically clued up, he knew his law. And I disagreed with him. So I came away with the feeling that I could play in that league.

On the other hand, there were loads of technologists, and cypherpunks, and some cops, and they were all pretty interesting. I learned a great deal from them. And for several years I kept going back; one year I even found myself on the program committee.

If you want an introduction to hot issues in the intersection of, well, Computers, Freedom and Privacy, then CFP can't be beat. It's pretty good for intermediates too; experts will enjoy the hallway conversations which tend to be great fun.

A variety of circumstances, some beyond my control, have kept me away from CFP for the last few years. And once again, the combination of distance (it's hard to find a place big enough to hold a CFP that is farther from Miami and still in the lower 48) and the number of classes I'd have to cancel to go may cause me to miss it again this year. Which makes me nostalgic.

Continue reading →

Posted in Talks & Conferences | 3 Comments

Today’s Discovery

Posted on November 15, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Universities don't cut your nominal pay. They just raise the cost of health insurance.

Posted in Personal | 4 Comments

The Sleeper Issue that Should Keep You Awake at Night

Posted on November 15, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I think our high-deficit cheap dollar party is a strategic blunder of the first order. And I also think currency markets are chaotic, and we are at risk of falling off a cliff. Brad thinks I'm silly, but I think this is doubly true now that the Euro is a credible alternate reserve currency (and commodity pricing index…what happens when oil is priced in Euros and the dollar falls?).

Of course, a sudden collapse in the value of the dollar could never happen…

Posted in Econ & Money | 6 Comments

Where Left Meets Right

Posted on November 15, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The place where the traditional left and the traditional right meet—as against the radicals currently in power—is civil liberties. So I find my self agreeing with, of all people in the world, a far-right ex-Congressperson who I would have put on my list of “top 5 nuts in office” while she served.

FAS Secrecy News, [IP] The Arrival Of Secret Law: Last month, Helen Chenoweth-Hage attempted to board a United Airlines flight from Boise to Reno when she was pulled aside by airline personnel for additional screening, including a pat-down search for weapons or unauthorized materials.

Chenoweth-Hage, an ultra-conservative former Congresswoman (R-ID), requested a copy of the regulation that authorizes such pat-downs.

“She said she wanted to see the regulation that required the additional procedure for secondary screening and she was told that she couldn't see it,” local TSA security director Julian Gonzales told the Idaho Statesman (10/10/04).

“She refused to go through additional screening [without seeing the regulation], and she was not allowed to fly,” he said. “It's pretty simple.”

Chenoweth-Hage wasn't seeking disclosure of the internal criteria used for screening passengers, only the legal authorization for passenger pat-downs. Why couldn't they at least let her see that? asked Statesman commentator Dan Popkey.

“Because we don't have to,” Mr. Gonzales replied crisply.

“That is called 'sensitive security information.' She's not allowed to see it, nor is anyone else,” he said.

There's something seriously wrong here, if we can't even see the rule (as opposed to the screening criteria which might legitimately be kept from the public) authorizing the search.

Which is why I'm involved in various efforts to make the government cough up the text of the alleged regulation, and justify it.

You can read more about the ugly things that TSA is up to regarding the right to travel at Ed Hasbrouk's blog. Also see Emergent Chaos.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Law: Right to Travel | 10 Comments

CIA Under Goss: Train Wreck in the Making

Posted on November 13, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

In Deputy Chief Resigns From CIA, the Washington Post gives us a peek at the train wreck in the making at the CIA.

It's obvious that Bush has nominated a partisan hack. He brought with him four aides, people I don't know much about, but whom the CIA people depict as having much to be modest about.

I wish I could stop there, and just pen another Bush-administration-incompetence story (which this seems to be), but it's more complicated than that. I actually think that a significant fraction of what Goss says is wrong with the CIA is likely to be right.

The problems at the CIA are pervasive. They start with a general lack of brilliance among the people who've been promoted in the agency. They run through bloat and hide-bound ways of work. The agency never recovered from the last purge, so it lacks 'assets' in key parts of the world, and is still shaking off its cold-war-centered focus. The CIA tortures people, which is no trivial matter.

Thus, even though it was politically expedient I have not been real comfortable with the war between the spooks at the Agency and their nominal political masters. It's never good when the secret police or the get into politics.

The agency is a serious mess and nowhere more than the dark side, the clandestine service. It needs a cleanup; it's just not at all likely that the ham-handed methods being used by Goss and his merry henchmen are likely to improve matters much. They might even make things worse.

Posted in National Security | 5 Comments