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Subject: Secret Service Role Questioned in "2600 Washington Raid" 11/10/92 From: newsbytes@clarinet.com Date: 10 Nov 92 21:03:23 GMT WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1992 NOV 10 (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 that "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," he said. 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)