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By mike5

Letter to Senators Leahy and Hatch re: Drug War

Written by Coalition for Constitutional Liberties

Sunday, 09 September 2001

September 10, 2001
Coalition for Constitutional Liberties
Letter to Senators Leahy and Hatch
Regarding The Drug War

Coalition for Constitutional Liberties
A project of the Free Congress Foundation's Center for Technology Policy

717 Second Street NE * Washington, DC 20002 * (202) 546-3000 * Fax (202) 543-5605

September 10, 2001

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman
The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch, Ranking Member
Members
Senate Judiciary Committee
United States Senate
225 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Re: Nomination of John Walters

Dear Chairman Leahy, Senator Hatch and
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

We are part of a broad coalition of groups concerned that the war on drugs has degraded our privacy and civil liberties. We respectfully ask that the members of Committee consider raising the following privacy and civil liberties issues in connection with the nomination of John Walters to be the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Office of the White House). We intend by issuing this letter to signal neither support nor opposition to Mr. Walters' nomination. Rather, we are issuing this letter to urge members of the Committee to explore these issues in connection with Mr. Walters' nomination. As we set forth below, these issues include the use of new surveillance and investigative technologies, including the Carnivore/DCS1000 and Echelon systems, the "Know Your Customer" proposal of the Financial Action Task Force, asset forfeiture abuses, wiretaps and the drug war's sometimes corrupting influence on law enforcement itself.

Rapid advances in technology have unfortunately brought with them new opportunities for the invasion of privacy in the form of programs like Carnivore, a system designed to allow the FBI to sift through vast quantities of internet communications, or "Know Your Customer" (proposed regulation requiring banks to collect personal financial information about their customers) "profile" them, and report "suspicious activities" to the Government. The misguided drug war is often a driving force behind these initiatives. "Know Your Customer" was prompted largely to further the drug war by combating drug-related money laundering. The FBI claims that Carnivore helps in narcotic investigations.

We are concerned that "profiling," including racial profiling, appears to be an accepted component of the federal government's war on drugs. As noted by Georgetown University Law Professor David Cole, characteristics of "drug courier profiles" used by U.S. Customs at airports have included:

Arrived late at night

Arrived early in the morning

Arrived in afternoon

One of first to deplane

One of last to deplane

Deplaned in the middle

Bought coach ticket

Bought first class ticket

Used one-way ticket

Used round-trip ticket

Traveled alone

Traveled with a companion

Wore expensive clothing

Dressed casually

Suspect was Hispanic

Suspect was black female

In short, everyone anywhere at any time could fit the profile of a drug courier according to U.S. Customs officials. Court records confirm that highway patrol officers both in California and in New Jersey were taught to profile automobile drivers using minority status as an excuse to stop them, search their car, and in some cases, find drugs, a process known as racial profiling. In fact, civil rights organizations have charged that the DEA's own Operation Pipeline actually trains state and local law enforcement agents to engage in racial profiling.

The extent to which our drug policy drives government surveillance and invasion of privacy is especially clear in the case of wiretaps. Three quarters of all wiretaps are authorized for narcotics investigations. The Administrative Office of the United States Courts reports that annually approximately 80 percent of conversations intercepted on wiretaps are innocent communications.

In addition to government surveillance, there has been an increasing effort to have private businesses monitor their customers in order to fight the drug war. In the case of the "Know Your Customer" proposal now being resurrected by the FATF, the government attempts to force customer monitoring through regulation. More and more often, the DEA is using financial incentives to induce businesses to report personal information about their customers to the government. This undermines both consumer privacy and businesses' relationships with their customers. In April, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Amtrak was providing access to its ticketing database to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Amtrak provided agents with information such as passengers' last names, their destinations, their method of payment, and whether they were going on a round trip or only one-way. In return, Amtrak was given 10% of anything the government seized. Although controversy led Amtrak to discontinue the DEA's computer access, the company still provides information gleaned from the ticketing system to law enforcement officers and continues to receive a portion of assets seized on trains by agents.

The Amtrak case demonstrates the degree to which forfeiture laws are giving an incentive for law enforcement and private businesses to focus on seizing property supposedly related to drug crimes. The system is still very susceptible to abuse and one does not have to be convicted of a crime before their property is taken. Before the passage of the Civil Asset Forfeiture Act of 2000, which addressed some of the more egregious abuses, eighty percent of people who had property forfeited were never charged with a crime. While this number will likely become lower because of the reforms, the abuse of forfeiture laws continues.

As reports (some of which were initiated by members of this Committee) have shown, the war on drugs has had a corrupting influence on the professionalism of law enforcement; one March 1999 GAO report described the problem as a "serious and continuing threat."

We urge you to raise these issues with Mr. Walters and ask for assurances that he will reform the conduct of the drug war in order to address these problems and ensure that drug policies respect the privacy and other civil liberties of all Americans.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss these issues further, please contact J. Bradley Jansen of the Free Congress Foundation at 202-204-5324 or by email at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

Respectfully,

Paul M

Paul M. Weyrich

National Chairman

Coalitions for America

Lisa S. Dean

Vice President for Technology Policy

Free Congress Foundation

Grover Norquist

President

Americans for Tax Reform

Karen Kerrigan

Chairman

Small Business Survival Committee

Tom DeWeese

President

American Policy Center

David Banisar

Deputy Director

Privacy International (London, UK)

Dr. Jane Orient, M.D.

Executive Director

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

Eric E. Sterling

President

The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation

Amy Ridenour

President

The National Center for Public Policy Research

Erik Johnson

Chairman

Young Americans for Freedom

Laura W. Murphy

Director

American Civil Liberties Union,

Washington National Office

Alexander-St. James

Chairman, African American

Republican Leadership Council

Frances B. Smith

Executive Director

Consumer Alert

Christian Josi

Executive Director

American Conservative Union

Jim Martin

President

60 Plus Association

Paul Haughton

President

National Federation of Republican Assemblies

Evan Hendricks

Editor/Publisher

Privacy Times, D.C.

Larry Pratt

Executive Director

Gun Owners of America

Richard W. Rahn

Senior Fellow

Discovery Institute

James X. Dempsey

Deputy Director

Center for Democracy and Technology

Carol W. LaGrasse

President

Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc.

Dr. Alexander Tabarrok

Vice President and Director of Research

The Independent Institute

James Landrith

Editor and Publisher

The Multiracial Activist & Abolitionist Examiner

Gordon S. Jones

President

Association of Concerned Taxpayers

Dwight Patel

Director

Coalition for a Tax-Free Internet

Solveig Singleton

Senior Analyst

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Benjamin Crocker Works

Executive Director

Strategic Issues Research Institute of the United States

Katherine Albrecht

Founder and Editor

Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering

Hank Whitmore

Chairman

People Against Church Taxation

Chuck Muth, Chairman

Michael Ostrolenk, Capital Hill Liaison

Republican Liberty Caucus

Aaron Zelman

Executive Director

Concerned Citizens Opposed to Police States

Adrian Day

Editor

Global Analyst

Star Parker

President

Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education (CURE)

Kathryn A. Serkes

President

Square One Media Network

John H. Whitehouse, Jr., Ph.D.

Director of Certification

Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals

Robert D. Lonn

Consultant/Planner

Northwest Council of Governments

Larry Cirignano

President

CatholicVote.org

Joseph Eldred

President and Founder

God Bless America

Audrey Mullen

Consultant

Advocacy Ink

Helen E. Farson

Member

Phonetic Bible Printing Committee

Andrew F. Quinlan

President

Center for Freedom and Prosperity

Steve Dasbach

National Director

Libertarian Party

Galen E. Alexander

Founder and Chairman

Ohio Conservative Alliance

Gregory Quinlan

President & CEO

Pro-Family Network (OH)

Dottie Feder

Vice President

Eagle Forum of Wisconsin

Patricia J. Owens

Executive Director

Wisconsin State Sovereignty Coalition

Miriam Archer

Director of Operations

Christian Coalition of California

Ken McEldowney

Executive Director

Consumer Action (CA)

Rev. Bob Vanden Bosch

Director

Concerned Christian Americans (IL)

Lee Coleman

Chairman

Constitution Committee of Florida

Eunie Smith

President

Eagle Forum of Alabama

Ann Frazier

President

Eagle Forum of North Carolina

Peter J. LaGrasse

Chairman

Board of Assessors (NY)

Cathie Adams

President

Texas Eagle Forum

Janine Hansen

President

Nevada Eagle Forum

Bobbie Patray

President

Tennessee Eagle Forum

Mike Fellows

Chairman

Libertarian Party of Montana

Ronald D. Bain

Former Chairman

Libertarian Party of Colorado

Marie B. Corn

Coordinator

Western North Carolina Area

Family Advocacy & Research

Duane Royal

Member

Sampson County Republican

Executive Committee (NC)

Victoria T. DeLacy

Member

Prince William & Manassas

Family Alliance (VA)

Warren Nelson

Founder and Commander

Ector County Volunteers (TN)

Roger L. Boyell

Forensic Analyst

Moorestown, New Jersey

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The Multiracial Activist - www.multiracial.com

September 10, 2001Coalition for Constitutional LibertiesLetter to Senators Leahy and HatchRegarding The Drug War

September 10, 2001
Coalition for Constitutional Liberties
Letter to Senators Leahy and Hatch
Regarding The Drug War