WP: Lawmakers Vow Hearings on FBI Errors; Considering reining in Patriot Act

[DeepModem Mom]

Lawmakers Vow Hearings on FBI Errors
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 9, 2007

Members of Congress vowed today to conduct investigative hearings -- and consider reining in parts of the Patriot Act -- following revelations of pervasive problems in the FBI's use of national security letters to secretly obtain telephone, e-mail and financial records in terrorism cases.

Members of the House and Senate Judiciary and intelligence committees will be briefed today on a Justice Department inspector general probe that found the FBI mishandled one of its potent anti-terrorism tools.

The problems included failing to provide proper documentation to justify the use of the letters and significantly underreporting to Congress the number of times the special authority was used, The Washington Post reported in today's editions. The reports to Congress are required by law.

The Post article was based on interviews with officials who had access to the report, a classified version of which will be presented today to the Judiciary and intelligence committees. It said the violations were not deliberate, but could be widespread.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised the possibility that Congress might shrink some of the FBI's antiterrorism powers....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030900539.html

[underpants]

1. I like how quickly they have set off to reverse the Bush years

Well done keep it up

[LiberalFighter]

2. So the FBI never lies

[loudsue]

3. Yay for the Dems! The whole damned Act should be scrapped.

As should the "Dept. of Homeland Security" Act. Two republican nazi pieces of crap if I've ever seen them!

:kick::kick::kick: (and recommended! )

[ixion]

4. yep, the unPATRIOTic Act and the DHS should both be scrapped

it we're ever to see any semblance of liberty here again, IMO.

[UpInArms]

7. USA PATRIOT Act is Unconstitutional on its face:

The USA Patriot Act:

Violates the First Amendment freedom of speech guarantee, right to peaceably assemble provision, and petition the government for redress of grievances provision; it violates the First Amendment to the Constitution three times.

Violates the Fourth Amendment guarantee of probable cause in astonishingly major and repeated ways. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution reads: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons of things to be seized." The Patriot Act, now passed and the law of the land, has revoked the necessity for probable cause, and now allows the police, at any time and for any reason, to enter and search your house - and not even tell you about it.

Violates the Fifth Amendment by allowing for indefinite incarceration without trial for those deemed by the Attorney General to be threats to national security. The Fifth Amendment guarantees that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, and the Patriot Act does away with due process. It even allows people to be kept in prison for life without even a trial.

Violates the Sixth Amendment guarantee of the right to a speedy and public trial. Now you may get no trial at all, ever.

Violates the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment).

Violates the 13th Amendment (punishment without conviction).

[loudsue]

8. That is a good rundown of some of the atrocities against our constitution

that the Patriot Act commits. It's like the republicans (with the help of too damned many of the Dems) amended the constitution WITHOUT the trouble of getting a 2/3 majority of states to ratify the changes.

Add to that, the Homeland Security Act makes us vulnerable to all sorts of other nazi tactics...which the folks in New Orleans found out during Katrina.

It's good to see you, UIA! :hi: I didn't know they'd let you out of the SMW thread long enough to post over here! (just kidding!)

:hug:

:kick::kick::kick:

[UpInArms]

9. hiya loudsue!

you caught me playing hooky! :blush:

:hug:

[loudsue]

10. It's okay you're over here fiddling....

Rome doesn't appear to be burning today! :applause:

:kick:

[NovaNardis]

28. It is.

It's a farce that the Congress has taken so long to recognize what we all knew from the begining.

Who would trust George Bush with these extraordinary powers? Not any sane person.

[ProudDad]

27. Hear, Hear!!!!

[rodeodance]

5. 'many times the FBI supervisors .....did not even have the legal authority'

......The report discloses that on 739 occasions, the FBI obtained telephone toll or subscriber records without first having a required national security letter or grand jury subpoena, according to a declassified version. Instead, the report says, the FBI used a tactic called "exigent letters" that claimed there were emergencies that warranted getting the information immediately. Many times, no such emergencies existed, the inspector general found.

"On over 700 occasions the FBI obtained telephone billing records or subscriber information from three telephone companies without first issuing national security letters or grand jury subpoenas," the report says. It notes that many times the FBI supervisors who approved such requests did not even have the legal authority to sign national security letters.

The report also details how, after getting its sweeping new anti-terrorism powers under the Patriot Act, the FBI did not put into place basic training and record-keeping procedures to ensure civil liberties were protected. Such problems kept the FBI from giving Congress legally required accurate numbers on the times they used national security letters, the investigation found.

"During the time period covered by this review, the FBI had no policy or directive requiring the retention of signed copies of the national security letters or any requirement to upload national security letters to the FBI's case management system," the report says.

[maine_raptor]

12. Oh, how F'ing cute!

"During the time period covered by this review, the FBI had no policy or directive requiring the retention of signed copies of the national security letters or any requirement to upload national security letters to the FBI's case management system," the report says.

How cute! That's going to make looking into this matter sooo much easier. :sarcasm: (added for the irony-impaired).

I hope whoever made the decision NOT to keep any copies gets a nice note in their permanent file.

[roguevalley]

6. Junk it all. Stalin might weep but no one else will.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

11. If anyone took a few moments to look at the history of the FBI,

especially under Hoover, you'd KNOW that they don't need to ever be given such sweeping powers as are found in the PA. They have a known track record of illegal spying.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. were these all terrorism cases?

did the WH ask for this info on innocent people?

[MannyGoldstein]

14. I'd Like To Thank All Of the 'Dems' That Voted For The Patriot Act

Twice! Once wasn't bad enough!

The wonders of triangulation. Incredible.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Nazis were not the only ones voting for Hitler's Enabling Act

and just as there were many fingerprints on the crimes of the Third Reich, there are many fingerprints on the crimes of the Bush regime. The demise of our Constitution, and its being supplanted by a fledging dictatorship, did not happen in a vacuum.

[IndianaGreen]

15. The Left has always advocated repeal of PATRIOT

but the moderates never listened to the Left, just as they didn't listen when the Left warned about voting for the Iraq War Resolution.

So, here we are...

[dkofos]

17. Why just reign it in, the PATRIOT act should be abolished!!

[annabanana]

18. Junk the whole thing....

Anything positive that came of it can be rewritten in a much better, much more constitutional way.

[VP505]

19. Reining in Patriot Act ???

BushCo is what needs REINING IN, the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act need to be REPEALED, NEVER to be seen or spoken of AGAIN, PERIOD!!!

[lizbitchwitchy]

20. This is riduculous

Smoke and Mirrors - FBI this and FBI that. LIKE I CARE! It's just a diversion from them sending over more troops - 21,000 to Iraq and God knows how many to Afghanastan. Everyone said no surge and look what he is doing. The Dems keep funding the war - screaming - stop the war - It's all a big freakin joke and it's on us. There is no one willing to do what we want them to do up there on the hill. When are people going to realize this? FBI is spying on us because that is what the administration wants them to do - not because they have nothing better to do. What else are they building those damned happy camps all over the country for? Does everyone really think there are that many immigrants to lock up? Come along people....we are one foot in the door and the other dragging along - it won't be long now unless people stand up; speak out and do something and QUICK!

[bjobotts]

21. Real ID May, '08

I hope they do repeal the Patriot Act as it was rushed through Congress on a weekend by a Republican congress and most didn't get a chance to read it all much less study it. If the FBI can misuse and screw up the signing letters just think what they will end up doing with Real ID where everyone is identified by a number chip. Please, someone get rid of this Soviet-style policy ("Papers please...papers!"). May is coming quick and this absolutely needs to be repealed. It will cost billions, won't do a thing to identify terrorists(unless a number mistake turns us all into terrorists) and is the basis for creating a police state.:hide:

[TankLV]

22. Scrap the "patriot act" altogether. Start from scratch if we must - line by line.

go over every fucking WORD with a microscope and vote on each sentence, line by line.

IF - and I doubt it - there is anything of merit that we may want - vote on it separately - each and every item.

That is the only fair and honerable way to do it...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

23. Ahem. they weren't errors; they were "deliberates"

and the Feebees had free rein to spy on everyone and anyone. Plus, their boss Alberto could and did instruct them as to specific government targets, political enemies, democrat supporters and more.

[NoodleyAppendage]

24. "Errors?" How about flagrant disregard for the law!

Errors...my ass.

J

[Eric J in MN]

25. Who could have foreseen that giving the FBI the power...

...to get records without a warrant would cause that power to be abused?

Just everyone.

END "NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS."

http://thismodernworld.com/3607

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. with Alberto in charge of justice, which operates the FBI.

so when berto wanted to spy on a democrat who posed a threat, piece of cake.

[NovaNardis]

29. Gonzales should be fired

post haste. He is absolutely disgusting.