F.D.A. Plans to Post Inspectors Overseas
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The F.D.A. intends to post inspectors to embassies and consulates in the developing world in hopes of improving the quality of imported food and medicines.
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(InfoWorld) - Foreign Internet service and applications providers would be required to base inside the country the servers they use for U.S. customers, under a proposal from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ and its U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) division are taking that message to the U.S. Congress and asking lawmakers for a broad rewrite of U.S. wiretapping rules. However, some members of Congress have ripped into the Chinese government for a similar law requiring Internet providers to locate their servers inside its borders. U.S. lawmakers have criticized the Chinese law because it allows the government to censor and monitor Internet traffic. The DOJ proposal, which would amend a 1994 telephone wiretapping law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), aims to allow the U.S. government easier access to servers so it, too, can monitor communications. The proposed law, not yet introduced in Congress, would likely set off an arms race in which other countries that want to conduct online surveillance require U.S. companies such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to locate servers inside their borders, said John Morris, director of the Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil liberties group. "There are countries around the world that would like nothing more than have the United States set the example, to say, 'you have to have a point of presence in my country,'" Morris said. The CDT included the DOJ proposal, pitched to lawmakers during the last couple of months,Â on its list of "dangerous" tech proposalsÂ in Congress. The CDT listÂ wasÂ released Thursday. The CDT is concerned that Congress could take up the proposal yet this year as lawmakers look for ways to attract voters before the November general election, CDT officials said. The DOJ press office did not return a phone call seeking comment on the proposal. In February, members of the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee scolded Google, Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. officials for allegedly cooperating with the Chinese government's censorship efforts. A day after that hearing, Representative Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican, introduced a bill that would bar U.S. Internet companies from locating Web servers inside "Internet-restricting" countries such as China and Vietnam, with penalties of up to five years in prison and a US$2 million fine for officers of companies that willfully violate the restrictions Smith's Global Online Freedom Act is awaiting action in the committee. Morris called the DOJ proposal "embarrassing" after lawmakers objected strongly to the Chinese law earlier this year. "The proposal has some horrendous provisions," he said. "The point-of-presence proposal itself would be devastating to the American economy." The DOJ proposal would force vendors of any Internet communications applications to redesign their products to allow wiretapping, Morris said. "The harm to innovation that would follow ... is hard to underestimate," he said.
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By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ  DORAL, Fla. - More than 85 federal and local law enforcement agencies kicked off a two-day exercise Wednesday to prepare for a possible mass migration from the Caribbean, such as might occur following a change in government in Cuba.
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WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday ordered new measures to improve government oversight of private guards who protect US diplomats in Iraq, including cultural awareness training for contractors and a board to investigate any future killings.
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KANSAS CITY, Missouri  - The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is alerting financial firms of potential danger from a would-be letter bomber after companies in Kansas City and Denver were targeted with explosive devices and threatening notes, an agency spokeswoman said on Monday.
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To: AND LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITORS  Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, +1-202-514-2007, TDD: +1- 202-514-1888   WASHINGTON, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Overseas Shipholding Group Inc.
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According to testimony Tuesday, exporters have been able to bring tainted products into the U.S. because the F.D.A. has neither enough resources nor inspectors to stop them.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency says it will dispatch another team of inspectors to South Korea this month to pursue an investigation into South Korea&#39;s nuclear research.
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The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will look into Citibankâs Seoul branch as well as other foreign banks as late as next month to check whether their private banking units have been
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Hong Kong will work closely with overseas jurisdictions to fight transnational organized crime, the China Daily reported Monday. Hong Kong&#39;s Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung
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The new policy would also be a step toward expanding the F.D.A.Âs oversight to clinical laboratories.
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(InfoWorld) - Europeans who visit the U.S. will be required to fill out an online questionnaire two days before they enter the country under a proposal being studied by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The department has been discussing the idea internally for about a month, said Hugo Teufel III, chief privacy officer for the DHS, in a meeting with journalists in Paris on Thursday. He could not say when the registration system might be introduced. The proposal will likely increase tensions between the U.S. and Europe at a time when the two sides are already in heated debate over U.S. demands for data about air passengers flying from Europe to the U.S. The U.S. says it needs access to more data to prevent suspected terrorists from entering the country, while European regulators counter that the demands are excessive and worry how the data will be used. The online registration would complement the Automated Targeting System, or ATS, a program disclosed by the DHS in November that assigns a "risk assessment" to people entering and leaving the U.S., to determine the likelihood that they pose a security threat. The registration system would likely require approval by the U.S. Congress before it could be introduced, Teufel said. "It's a fairly new initiative in that we've been discussing it internally for about a month," he added. He offered few other details Thursday, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussed the proposal earlier this week in an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel. Chertoff said the U.S. wanted to "elevate the security level generally" for foreign visitors, particularly in light of its looser visa requirements for some countries. The online registration "would be similar to what they do in Australia where visa waiver travelers would register online in advance, and they would, therefore, know before they arrive in the United States whether there was going to be a problem with their being admitted," Chertoff told the newspaper. "The registration would have a shelf life of some years. It wouldn't be something you do every trip, you would do it periodically," he added. The DHS will prepare a "privacy impact assessment" on the registration plan, Teufel said Thursday. Such assessments cover issues like how data is used, who can access it and for how long it will be retained. Teufel suggested that the assessment report would be made available to the public, although U.S. law makes exceptions for reports about systems used by the intelligence community, he said. Teufel was appointed by Chertoff in July last year and is responsible for the DHS's privacy policies.
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Federal agencies required to ensure security of their Windows XP and Vista PCs by the end of February are going to get some tools to help them.
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The city ordered fire inspectors to examine hundreds of buildings under construction or demolition after an investigation found numerous planning and safety failures at an abandoned ground zero skyscraper where two firefighters died.
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The United States will assign an officer from the FBI to work at the office of the pan-European police office known as Europol, U.S. and European Union officials said Sept.
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Beginning Thursday, foreign visitors from 27 countries will be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter the United States, according to the Homeland Security Department.
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Major shipping ports on the West Coast, such as Seattle and Long Beach, California, will be the first targets of a new import surveillance program detailed on Monday by the top U.S. product safety regulator.