September 10, 2001
Coalition for Constitutional Liberties
Letter to Senators Leahy and Hatch
Regarding The Drug War
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 bjansen@freecongress.org.
Respectfully,
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