[LINK] Fwd: MEDIA: ASIO bugs 3000 calls a year

[Craig Sanders]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 02:02:22PM +1000, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> ASIO bugs 3000 calls a year
> Natalie O'Brien | May 29, 2009
> 
> AUSTRALIAN authorities, including the spy agency ASIO, are bugging 
> the telephones of Australian citizens at a rate of more than 20 times 
> their US counterparts.
> Figures cited in a federal parliamentary estimates hearing this week 
> revealed that about 3000 Australians had their phone calls 
> intercepted every year.

here's an idea - maybe the surveillance laws should be amended so that
whenever a warrant is issued the agency has an unavoidable obligation
to send written notification to the target, detailing the dates, times,
and reasons for the surveillance as well as copies of all recordings and
transcripts and a complete list of all parties who have had access to
them or the information within them.

the notification should, of course, be some short and reasonable time
AFTER the warrant has expired, or longer if the agency can convince
a judge to grant either an extension to the surveillance warrant or
a delay to the notification. any such extension or delays should be
detailed when the surveillance is finally notified to the target.



the general point i'm making here is that even though there is sometimes
a legitimate need for surveillance of people or groups, that doesn't
mean that the equally legitimate need for government and public service
accountability can be ignored.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>