From: jsq@tic.com
Subject: 2600 Washington Meeting -- Secret Service
Originator: jsq@aahsa.tic.com
Reply-To: eff-austin@tic.com
X-Submissions: eff-austin@tic.com
Organization: Texas Internet Consulting
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 23:16:24 GMT


The following will appear on Newsbytes. Newsbytes is a copyrighted
commercial service and its material may not be reproduced. This article is
posted with the express permission of the authors.
==========================================================================

(NEWS)(GOVERNMENT)(NYC)(00001)
Confusion About Secret Service Role In "2600 Washington Raid"
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 NOV 7 (NB) -- In the aftermath of an 
action on Friday, November 6th by members of the Pentagon City Mall 
Police and police from Arlington County, VA in which those attending a 
2600 meeting at the mall were ordered from the premises, conflicting 
stories continue to appear.

Attendees at the meeting have contended to Newsbytes that members of the
mall police told them that they were "acting on behalf of the Secret
Service.". They also maintain that the mall police confiscated material
from knapsacks and took film from someone attempting to photograph the
action and a list of the names of security officers that one attendee was
attempting to compile. 

Al Johnson, chief of security for the mall, denied these allegations to 
Newsbytes, saying "No one said that we were acting on behalf of the Secret 
Service. We were merely enforcing our regulations. While the group was 
not disruptive, it had pulled tables together and was having a meeting in 
our food court area. The food court is for people eating and is not for 
meetings. We therefore asked the people to leave."

Johnson denied that security personnel took away any film or lists and
further said "We did not confiscate any material. The group refused to own
up to who owned material on the tables and in the vicinity so we collected
it as lost material. If it turns out that anything did belong to any of
those people, they are welcome to come in and, after making proper
identification, take the material."

In a conversation early on November 9th, Robert Rasor, Secret Service 
agent-in-charge of computer crime investigations, told Newsbytes that 
having mall security forces represent the Secret Service is not something 
that was done and, that to his knowledge, the Secret Service had no 
involvement with any Pentagon City mall actions on the previous Friday.

A Newsbytes call to the Arlington County police was returned by a 
Detective Nuneville who said that her instructions were to refer all 
questions concerning the matter to agent David Adams of the Secret 
Service. She told Newsbytes that Adams would be providing all 
information concerning the involvement of both the Arlington Police and 
the Secret Service in the incident.

Adams told Newsbytes "The mall police were not acting as agents for the 
Secret Service. Beyond that, I can not confirm or deny that there is an 
ongoing investigation."

Adams also told Newsbytes that "While I cannot speak for the Arlington
police, I understand that their involvement was due to an incident
unrelated to the investigation."

Marc Rotenberg, director of the Washington office of Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), told Newsbytes "CPSR has
reason to believe that the detention of people at the Pentagon City Mall
last Friday was undertaken at the behest of the Secret Service, which is a
federal agency. If that is the case, then there was an illegal search of
people at the mall. There was no warrant and no indication of probable
illegal activity. This raises constitutional issues. We have undertaken
the filing of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to determine the
scope, involvement and purpose of the Secret Service in this action."
 
2600 meetings are held on the evening of the first Friday of each month in
public places and malls in New York City, Washington, Philadelphia,
Cambridge, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They are
promoted by 2600 Magazine: The Hacker Quarterly and are attended by a
variety of persons interested in telecommunications and so-called "hacker
issues". The New York meeting, the oldest of its kind, is regularly
attended by Eric Corley a/k/a Emmanuel Goldstein, editor and publisher of
2600, hackers, journalists, corporate communications professionals and
other interested parties. It is known to have been the subject of
surveillance at various times by law enforcement agencies conducting
investigations into allegations of computer crime. 

Corley told Newsbytes "While I'm sure that meetings have been observed 
by law enforcement agencies, this is the only time that we have been 
harassed. It's definitely a freedom of speech issue." Corley also that he 
plans to be at the December meeting in Washington "to insure that it 
doesn't happen again."

(Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen/19921110)

John F. McMullen           mcmullen@mindvox.phantom.com    Consultant,
knxd@maristb.bitnet        mcmullen@well.sf.ca.us            Writer,
70210.172@compuserve.com   mcmullen@panix.com                 Student,
GEnie - nb.nyc             mcmullen@eff.org                     Teacher
Newsgroups: austin.eff