Morning Security Brief: Wiretapping the Internet, Chinese Black Jails, VP Security, PA Surveillance Scandal, & More

♦ Next year, the White House will submit a bill designed to make it easier for law enforcement and national security officers to wiretap the Internet as communications move from phone lines to electronic communications like e-mail and instant messaging. "Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct 'peer to peer' messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages," reports The New York Times. The FBI's general counsel defended the proposed legislation as simply applying an old law enforcement tool to a new medium. “We’re talking about lawfully authorized intercepts,” Valerie E. Caproni, told the Times. “We’re not talking expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.” According to the Times, law enforcement and national security officers' ability to listen in on criminal and terrorism suspects has "gone dark" as people increasingly communicate online rather than on the phone.

♦ Chinese police in Beijing are investigating a security company that allegedly kidnapped and then detained people who traveled from the country's hinterlands to petition the central government for redress in "black jails." "The official China Daily reported Monday that police have detained Zhang Jun, the chairman of Beijing-based Anyuanding Security and Prevention Technical Support Service, and his general manager Zhang Jie for 'illegal detention and unlawful operation.' It did not say when the two men were taken into custody," reports The Associated Press. "The company was profiled in a hard-hitting expose this month by the Chinese financial magazine Caijing, which described the practice of illegally locking up citizens to prevent them from filing formal complaints with the central government. The magazine said the company reportedly earned 21 million yuan ($3.1 million) in revenue in 2008."

♦ Vice President Joe Biden's home on the grounds of the Naval Observatory is getting an expensive security makeover. "The Department of the Navy plans to install a 10-foot-high 'ornamental' fence and additional security checkpoints around the vice president's residential compound. The project was approved by the National Capital Planning Commission, which must green-light building projects within the capital city," reports The Washington Examiner. "The security upgrades consist of 'approximately 1,600 linear feet of new ornamental security fence, two new guard houses, four new gates, five new wedge vehicle barriers, and one relocated guard house,' according to Navy planning documents." The project will cost at least $1.7 million and the security improvements are not in response to a particular threat, said a Secret Service spokesman.

♦ Pennsylvania's director of homeland security will apologize today for hiring of a private intelligence firm that monitored the activities of law-abiding citizens engaged in political activism and protest. "In written testimony he is set to deliver Monday at a Senate hearing, James F. Powers Jr. says his office paid for the intelligence bulletins because other state and federal agencies weren't providing information about local activity that he thought was critical to protect nearly 4,000 sites in the commonwealth," according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, who obtained a copy of the testimony. "I sincerely apologize to any individual or group, regardless of their views or affiliation, who felt their constitutional rights infringed upon because they were listed in the bulletin. That was never the intention."

♦ A 54-year-old man has been arrested in Northern Ireland after police found weapons linked to Irish Republican dissident activity. "He faces charges of possession of articles likely to be of use to terrorists; preparation of terrorist acts; possession of firearms with intent to endanger life; possession of firearms and ammunition in suspicious circumstances; possession of a prohibited weapon; and conversion of weapons not being the holder of a firearms dealer's certificate," reports CNN International. Just recently, the head of Britain's domestic intelligence service warned of an increase Irish Republican extremism after seeing the number of attacks rise from last year to over 30 already this year.