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Civil Liberties
Yahoo Rebuked For Withholding Details From Congress
by Andrew Noyes
Leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday blasted the Yahoo Internet firm for giving false information to Congress about its role in the arrest of a Chinese journalist despite the sworn testimony of a company executive at a February 2006 hearing.
A committee investigation showed that although Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan said the nature of the Chinese government's probe was unknown, some Yahoo employees knew data was being collected on Shi Tao in order to imprison him.
When Callahan later discovered that he had provided incorrect information, he did not attempt to correct his testimony, Chairman Tom Lantos said. "This was inexcusably negligent behavior at best and deliberately deceptive behavior at worst," the California Democrat said.
New Jersey Republican Christopher Smith, who chaired the original hearing in the 109th Congress, added: "It's one thing not to know something; it's another thing altogether to choose not to know."
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang joined Callahan at the witness table for a tongue-lashing by Lantos, who called a follow-up hearing to further discuss the firm's ties to Yahoo China, in which the Sunnyvale, Calif., company holds a minority share. The company "practically led the police to [Shi Tao's] door," Lantos said. He called the firm's provision of information about the reporter to the Chinese government "spineless and irresponsible."
Lantos urged Callahan and Yang to "apologize to this committee, the Congress of the United States and the American people." He also asked the executives to "beg for the forgiveness" of Shi's mother, who was sitting in the front row behind them.
The pair complied with the request and pledged to continue to work with the committee in its efforts surrounding Internet freedom. Yang said his company will "do what we can" to get Shi and other journalists released from jail.
The broader issue is whether it is better for American companies "to engage in China or disengage," he said. "Our view is that engagement in China is the better course." Google and Microsoft officials shared that view at the February hearing.
Legislation introduced by Smith would ban U.S. firms from disclosing identifying information to repressive regimes unless it is for legitimate law enforcement. The measure, H.R. 275, was approved by the panel two weeks ago.
When asked whether Yahoo backs the measure, Yang said he generally supports "the goals of the bill" but does not understand "how to operationalize" its provisions within his company. Callahan echoed that sentiment.
Committee ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida said Yahoo should welcome the bill because it could help the company avoid further trouble with the U.S. government and future data requests by authoritarian countries. "You would sleep better at night," she told the pair.
In one heated exchange, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., pressed Yang to meet jailed Chinese dissidents' "humanitarian needs." The executive said he was "very open to understanding how we can be helpful," but that was not good enough for Sherman.
"That's a no," he snapped. "You're going to go home tonight and go to sleep knowing that these individuals are in prison." Sherman further claimed Yang was "trying to distract the committee by saying you're going to advocate for their release" without taking more direct actions.
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Labor
Security Concerns Blamed For Downturn In Telework
by Aliya Sternstein
The number of teleworkers in the federal government decreased in 2006 due to security concerns and problems tracking personnel, an Office of Personnel Management official said Tuesday.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Federal Workforce Subcommittee gathered witnesses from the government and industry to explore why agencies continue to disregard telework and to identify methods for increasing the number of employees who work remotely.
In 2005, there were 119,248 federal workers out of approximately 1.8 million total employees documented as regularly performing official duties at home or other work sites near their homes. In 2006, the number dropped to 111,549.
According to information OPM received from agencies, the differing practices of automatically tracking teleworkers versus hand-counting those workers, changes in the staff collecting the data from year to year, and a lack of communication led to difficulty in tracking the number of teleworkers. OPM officials also noted that agencies justifiably have grown concerned about information security overall and may view remote access as particularly troublesome.
OPM has temporarily suspended part of its telework program until data protections are adjusted, said Daniel Green, deputy associate director of the agency's center for employee and family support policy.
The employees involved in retirement claims operations now must stay at OPM's offices because they need to undergo retraining for a new electronic claims system, Green said. He added that "the more immediate concern" was the security of personally identifiable information.
"Case files are taken home" when employees telework, Green said. "Management wants to find ways of protecting that information. Once that's done, there'll be a re-emergence of telework. I'm sure."
The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, proposed that Congress direct agencies to establish consistent telework ambitions and program definitions.
"The real issue is creating management cultures that are focused on results," said Bernice Steinhardt, GAO's director for strategic issues, but managers have not set measurable performance goals for their telework programs. She said telework should not be regarded as a reward but as a means of being more productive.
Subcommittee Chairman Danny Davis, D-Ill., said he and other House lawmakers -- including committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; John Sarbanes, D-Md.; and Frank Wolf, R-Va. -- soon will introduce legislation aimed at ensuring that federal employees are given the chance to telework and that agencies are including telework as a way to keep operating during disasters.
In written testimony, Ann Bamesberger, a vice president at Sun Microsystems, described the success of Sun's "Open Work" telework program
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She said Sun has excelled at attracting and retaining "top talent," saved millions of dollars on real-estate consolidation, reduced technology spending by millions, cut carbon emissions and commuter congestion, and improved employee performance. About 20,000 of Sun's 35,000 employees and on-site contractors participate in the program.
"The loss of a major Sun facility at the World Trade Center, the impact of [severe acute respiratory syndrome in Asia] on travel and work arrangements, and a shut-down blizzard in Colorado are all events which Sun was able to quickly mitigate with its networked, flexible Open Work infrastructure," Bamesberger said.
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Security
Secretary Chertoff Vows Tougher U.S. Border Entry
by Chris Strohm
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Tuesday vowed that his department will stiffen security at U.S. ports of entry, one day after government investigators reported that thousands of foreigners were allowed to improperly enter the United States in 2006.
The Government Accountability Office reported Monday that Customs and Border Protection allowed "several thousand inadmissible aliens and other violators" through ports of entry in fiscal 2006. During a press conference the next day covering various border initiatives, Chertoff said CPB will end the days of "waving people through [checkpoints] with a nod and a wink."
Starting in January, Chertoff said, the department will require U.S. and Canadian travelers to present secure identification documents in order to enter the country at land crossings. Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, a limited number of identification documents will be accepted. Border inspectors currently accept about 8,000 different types of IDs.
Chertoff said he also is working with CBP officials to determine appropriate staffing levels for border checkpoints, and whether more traffic lanes can be installed at some crossings. "All of these steps are exactly the solution to the problem that GAO has identified," Chertoff said.
But Chertoff said additional security measures can be inconvenient, which sometimes leads to opposition. The department, for example, faced an onslaught of criticism after it began requiring air travelers last January to present passports in order to enter the United States when traveling from Bermuda, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico. The department had to temporarily suspend the rule because travelers were unable to get new passports from the State Department.
Chertoff noted that other security efforts have faced opposition. Lawsuits were filed, for example, against a rule requiring employers to verify the Social Security numbers of their workers, and against the department's efforts to build fencing along the southern border.
Chertoff vowed to continue using the department's authority to enforce immigration and border laws. But he also urged Congress to pass a law that would give millions of foreigners a legal way to temporarily work in the United States.
"In the end, I ask Congress to come back to the table and talk about how we might address this problem," he said. "I just think it's time for Congress again to look at this problem comprehensively."
Chertoff added that Homeland Security is enhancing its E-Verify program, which is a voluntary program that employers can use to verify the legal status of their workers. The enhancements will allow employers to check workers' identities using photographs. Chertoff said about 30,000 employers are using E-Verify.
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Antitrust
Martin Weighs Compromise On Media Ownership
by David Hatch
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is exploring a compromise proposal on media ownership that would lift the federal ban on co-owning a newspaper and broadcast property in major markets but retain the restriction for smaller cities, multiple sources said. They cautioned that the situation is fluid and that the chairman has yet to circulate a draft recommendation.
An FCC source described Martin as gauging Congress' "pain threshold" regarding how much relaxation it can tolerate. Several lawmakers, including North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan and Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, have urged the Republican chairman not to ease any of the existing media-ownership rules, but some might back down under a compromise.
Dorgan, meanwhile, is drafting legislation designed to prevent the FCC from fast-tracking changes to the restrictions.
Lott spokesman Nick Simpson said his boss is not participating in that effort even though both lawmakers recently held a press briefing to threaten legislation. Lott's stance was news to Barry Piatt, Dorgan's spokesman, who said the Republican's office has been collaborating on the bill.
Martin's push to ease the newspaper-broadcast ban is fueled in part by an appeals court decision in 2004 that sent previous rules changes back to the agency for further review. The court indicated that there is legal standing to eventually lift the ban.
The chairman also is said to be concerned about sliding newspaper subscriptions, a trend reflected in fresh circulation statistics issued Tuesday.
At stake right now in the media-ownership debate is the buyout of the Tribune Company by real-estate mogul Sam Zell. The deal, which Zell is hoping to complete by year's end, requires cross-ownership waivers in five markets to close.
Andrew Schwartzman, president and CEO of the Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm, speculated that Martin would hold a mid-December vote on cross-ownership while delaying until early next year votes on easing thresholds affecting radio and television outlets. "Carrying the water for Clear Channel has politically got its costs," he said, referring to the nation's largest radio conglomerate.
Martin is facing mounting criticism from Congress, consumer advocates, civil rights leaders and the FCC's two Democratic regulators, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps. The Senate Commerce Committee, headed by Hawaii Democrat Daniel Inouye, plans to hold a Thursday oversight hearing on media ownership, while the House Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled a similar session on Dec. 6.
Democrats have blasted Martin for scheduling a Nov. 9 field hearing on media ownership in Seattle with only five business days' notice. "With such short notice, many people will be shut out," Adelstein and Copps complained in a joint statement issued Friday. "We received notice of the hearing just moments before it was announced. This is outrageous and not how important media policy should be made."
In a Nov. 2 letter to Martin, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Jay Inslee, both Democrats representing Washington, urged the agency to give the public four weeks' notice about the hearing so interested citizens can travel from nearby states. That day, the FCC announced the Nov. 9 event.
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Intellectual Property
Oregon Prosecutor Challenges Recording Industry Suit
by Michael Martinez
The top cop in Oregon has gone to bat in federal court on behalf of a state university whose students are being targeted by the recording industry in an intellectual property lawsuit.
State Attorney General Hardy Myers has urged a U.S. district court to quash a subpoena by the Recording Industry Association of America that seeks the identities of University of Oregon students accused of illegally downloading copyrighted music.
For several years, the industry has been pursuing individual users of online file-sharing networks. In this particular case, filed in the summer, the RIAA threatened 17 anonymous students that it could identify only by the Internet addresses linked to the university. The industry then filed a subpoena, demanding that the university produce the names, current addresses, telephone numbers and other data to identify the individuals behind those addresses.
According to Ray Beckerman, an attorney at the New York offices of Vanderberg and Feliu who also writes the Recording Industry vs. The People blog, it is the first time a state attorney general has filed an motion to quash a subpoena by the RIAA.
In his brief, Myers argued that the anonymous defendants are not readily identifiable from existing records and that some of the information the RIAA is seeking is protected by a federal educational and privacy law.
He also noted that several of the targeted students lived in dormitories with at least one other roommate. Because the IP addresses are assigned to rooms, not individuals, he said it would be impossible to trace the alleged activities to a specific person.
Myers further argued that federal copyright law does not require the university to investigate the Internet addresses on behalf of the RIAA.
By press time, RIAA had not returned a call for comment on Myers' views.
The "plaintiffs' subpoena is unduly burdensome and overbroad," according to the brief. "It seeks information the university does not readily possess."
The Oregon case has attracted considerable attention online from people who closely follow intellectual property issues. Technology bloggers at Slashdot and TechDirt have joined Wendy Seltzer, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society in commenting on the case.
In a telephone interview, Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann said that if Myers' argument about federal copyright law is accepted, it could radically transform the nature of the RIAA's campaign of file-sharing lawsuits.
He said such a ruling would force the industry to abandon its strategy of pressuring universities to identify student targets. Then he said the industry would have to find a way to conduct those investigations themselves.
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Security
Experts Urge Assault Against Terrorists' Web Efforts
by Michael Martinez
Internet experts on Tuesday told a House panel that the United States needs to immediately improve its efforts to understand and respond to the online activities of terrorists who want to harm the country.
Witnesses before the House Homeland Security Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment Subcommittee questioned the robustness of military and intelligence community efforts to understand how terrorist entities, particularly the al Qaeda network, are using online tools to spread their messages.
In prepared testimony for the mid-afternoon hearing, Georgetown University professor Bruce Hoffman said the ability of the United States to counter ideological enemies like al Qaeda will depend on understanding the resonance of their messages and recruiting strategies, both of which involve the Internet.
He argued that so far, the United States has monumentally failed to understand al Qaeda. "Until we recognize the importance of this vital prerequisite," Hoffman said, "America will remain perennially on the defensive."
Rita Katz, director of the Search For International Terrorist Entities Institute, told lawmakers that the "jihadist movement" will continue to grow if the Internet remains a "safe haven" for terrorists. She said the challenge will not just be to monitor the online activities of terrorist suspects, but also to identify and exploit the online weaknesses of terrorist groups and mine for information that can help to defuse offline terrorist efforts.
"For as long as jihadists on the Internet can engage in terrorist activities unfettered and unmonitored," Katz said, "the U.S. will not be able to cause significant, lasting damage to the global jihadist movement."
Mark Weitzman, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's task force against hate and terrorism, said officials need the political will to act against the use of online tools to spread terrorist ideologies. He said it is particularly important that the government recruit researchers with the technical and linguistic skills to comprehend what they find online.
"In many ways, we have ceded the Internet to our enemies, and the result has been extremely harmful," Weitzman said. "However, even in a globalized world, there is no reason to believe that this condition is permanent."
WiredSafety.org founder and Executive Director Parry Aftab, meanwhile, warned the committee that blocking or limiting access to certain types of online technologies within the United States would not make the Internet a safer place for those who use it.
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Today's Feature:
People Column
Former Progress and Freedom Foundation President Thomas Lenard has the title of president again. He is now leading iGrowthGlobal, a think tank on issues affecting the information and communications technology industries.
Every Tuesday, read the People Column by Heather Greenfield.
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E-briefs
On The Hill: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of federal judge Michael Mukasey to become attorney general. The vote was 11-8. Two of the 10 Democrats on the panel sided with nine Republicans to give Mukasey a margin never in doubt after and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced their support for the nomination this week. The committee voted on Mukasey and then heard arguments for and against the nominee. The full Senate is expected to vote this week on Mukasey's nomination to succeed Alberto Gonzales, who resigned in August after months of criticism, mainly from Democrats, over charges of politicization of his office and firings of U.S. attorneys. Mukasey's nomination had been in doubt over his refusal to brand "waterboarding," an interrogation technique, as torture and thus illegal, although he said he considers the technique repugnant.
Labor: A number of experts on Tuesday offered Congress contrarian views on the popular belief that there are shortages of scientists and engineers in the United States. The U.S. education system produces a greater supply of qualified graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics than the number of jobs available, Urban Institute researcher Harold Salzman said in his written testimony for the mid-afternoon hearing of a House Science subcommittee. "If there are shortages," Salzman said, "it is most likely a demand-side problem of STEM career opportunities that are less attractive than career opportunities in other fields. However, standard labor market indicators do not indicate any shortages." Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Vice President Michael Teitelbaum argued that what is known is "that we don't really know in any detail what is happening now, and certainly not what is going to happen over the next 5-10 years."
E-Government: Rep. Heath Shuler on Tuesday introduced legislation aimed at ending the hiring of illegal aliens. The measure would require all employers to use the federal citizenship-verification program E-Verify within four years. "The number one cause of illegal immigration is illegal employment," said Shuler, D-N.C. The bill has a "strict emphasis on border security, employer verification and interior enforcement." E-Verify, now voluntary for employers, is an Internet-based program run by the Homeland Security Department that offers employers verification of job applicants' citizenship status within three to five seconds. Shuler's bill would expand E-Verify servers to accommodate the large increase in users. Other objectives of the bill include the hiring of 8,000 additional Border Patrol agents, revamping agent recruitment, expanding detention facilities and increasing the number of federal court judges. The measure is supported by the House Immigration Reform Caucus and NumbersUSA, which wants immigration numbers reduced.
Privacy: Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee asked Chairman Bobby Rush, D-Ill., on Tuesday to call a hearing to examine potential privacy implications of the proposed merger of Google and the online advertising provider DoubleClick. The full committee's top Republican, Joe Barton of Texas, supported the hearing proposal, saying "the more I know about the Google-DoubleClick merger, the more I realize that the personal privacy of computer users doesn't seem to be much of a priority." Google is an "information colossus already," he said, but DoubleClick's power could "produce a single commercial entity that can know more about you and me than nearly everybody but mom and the IRS." The merger was a topic at last week's FTC town hall on behavioral marketing and was the focus of a Senate Judiciary Committee antitrust subcommittee hearing in September.
Campaigns: A Kentucky-based grassroots organization seeking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality has denied being behind automated telephone calls that were placed on behalf of a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. The Fairness Campaign has issued a statement that blames opponents of Steve Beshear, the Democrat challenging Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher, for placing fraudulent "robocalls" and falsely representing themselves as members of the Fairness Campaign. The calls, which voters reported to the campaign, touted support Beshear is receiving from gay rights activists. The Fairness Campaign has officially endorsed Beshear, but the group said the calls were part of an effort to smear his campaign. "These last-minute dirty tricks should remove any doubt about who fair-minded Kentuckians should elect as their next governor on November 6," the group said. Fletcher has denied any knowledge of the calls during campaign events this week.
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