WP: Amid Concerns, FBI Lapses Went On

[Pirate Smile]

Amid Concerns, FBI Lapses Went On
Records Collection Brought Internal Questions But Little Scrutiny

By R. Jeffrey Smith and John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 18, 2007; Page A01

FBI counterterrorism officials continued to use flawed procedures to obtain thousands of U.S. telephone records during a two-year period when bureau lawyers and managers were expressing escalating concerns about the practice, according to senior FBI and Justice Department officials and documents.

-snip-
Under pressure to provide a stronger legal footing, counterterrorism agents last year wrote new letters to phone companies demanding the information the bureau already possessed. At least one senior FBI headquarters official -- whom the bureau declined to name -- signed these "national security letters" without including the required proof that the letters were linked to FBI counterterrorism or espionage investigations, an FBI official said.

The flawed procedures involved the use of emergency demands for records, called "exigent circumstance" letters, which contained false or undocumented claims. They also included national security letters that were issued without FBI rules being followed. Both types of request were served on three phone companies.

-snip-
The use of such letters was virtually "uncontrolled," said an FBI official who was briefed on the issue in early 2005. By that fall, CAU agents had begun creating spreadsheets to track phone records they had collected for a year or more that were not covered by the appropriate documents, according to FBI e-mails and interviews with officials.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/17/AR2007031701451.html

[Kagemusha]

1. But it's their position that the telcos are immune from consequences

because the telcos are supposed to blindly help even if the national security letters violate the FBI's own procedures. So what's the incentive to follow the rules? At all?

[gulfcoastliberal]

2. K&R - "phantoms of lost liberties" manifesting...

nt!

[maddezmom]

3. kick

[Tatiana]

4. And we have yet another scandal for Congress to investigate.

Somehow, these telephone companies need to be held liable, along with whatever officials at the federal level, for simply handing over this information. Several ISP's have wised up and automatically demand that the governmental agency provide proof/standing for their information/records request.

Anyone whose privacy rights were compromised should be able to sue. Hitting these companies in their pocketbooks is the only way they will take this violation seriously.