FBI’s ‘Carnivore’ Follows Court Orders

* Re “Who Needs Big Brother When There’s ‘Carnivore’?” Commentary, July 27: Carnivore is the computer system the FBI occasionally uses in conjunction with Internet service providers’ own technical experts to ensure compliance with court orders when a criminal’s e-mails are intercepted pursuant to those orders.

We have shown Carnivore to over 30 reporters and dozens of people on Capitol Hill and now are offering up the system for independent expert analysis so the public can be further assured that it only does what it is supposed to, i.e., intercepts the specific e-mails or other computer traffic going to or from specific individuals to the exclusion of all other computer communications. That is all the controlling statutes permit and courts authorize, and going beyond that would be a serious crime subject to severe civil and criminal penalties.

We are not recruiting Internet service providers to “spy on U.S. citizens.” We cannot ask them to do that and they cannot lawfully do so for us. Only after a court concludes that there is probable cause to believe that a serious crime has been or is being committed, the e-mails to or from a specific person are about that crime and the interception is necessary to obtain evidence about the crime can an order be obtained to intercept the content of any e-mails. Carnivore ensures the intercept matches the court orders, nothing more, and provides an audit trail to double-ensure that is what happened.

The FBI has not been granted any new powers, let alone “sweeping” ones, and we are not asking anyone to just “trust” us. The controlling statutes were enacted long ago and mandate that all interceptions--Carnivore’s are included--be closely supervised by a court and be subject to vigorous challenge by defense lawyers. No law enforcement agency can randomly “snoop” through e-mail.

In an age of high technology, criminals and terrorists rely on e-mails to conduct their trade just like everyone else. We can either ignore their criminal communications at the risk to public safety or find the technology to ensure we intercept only them to the exclusion of everyone else. Carnivore lets us do that.

JOHN E. COLLINGWOOD

Assistant Dir., Public and

Congressional Affairs, FBI

Washington