FBI Broke Law for Years in Phone Record Searches

[Hissyspit]

Source: Washington Post

FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

By John Solomon and Carrie Johnson
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.

A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

The records seen by The Post do not reveal the identities of the people whose phone call records were gathered, but FBI officials said they thought that nearly all of the requests involved terrorism investigations.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011803982.html?hpid=topnews

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Flying Dream Blues]

2. Hardly a surprise, but gee I'm sure it was worth it since

it kept us safe from terra.
:sarcasm:

[madokie]

22. Man I need coffee

I first read that as 'it kept us safe from tuna' LOL

[Flying Dream Blues]

33. Well, I wouldn't want to make one mad, fer sure!

:rofl:

[No Elephants]

3. Thing is, what are WE doing about story after story like this?

[OnyxCollie]

6. Don't worry.

Senator Obama voted to expand surveillance and give immunity to telecommunication companies. It's all good now.

With some adjustment to your principles, two plus two can equal three, four, five, or all of the above, depending on the situation.

[Iowa]

15. +1

[TheEuclideanOne]

16. Is that crickets I hear?

[Doctor_J]

38. nothing. same thing we did the whole time

during the fascist takeover.

[clear eye]

40. There is something that can be done.

See my post #39 below.

BTW, to all the snarksters responding to this story, this sort of wholesale listening in particularly affects our ability to get news of gov't misdeeds by allowing monitoring of reporters' communications w/o any criminal wrongdoing on the part of the reporter or the source of a story disagreeable to the gov't. If we want to do more than complain about a neutered MSM, we have to protect them and their sources by supporting the proposed law. Link in post #39.

[pleah]

4. no shit.

k&r :eyes:

[ProudDad]

5. Hardly surprising...

As a target of CoIntelPro I can assure you that the FBI makes a living breaking the law...

As does the entire criminal-injustice system...

[EFerrari]

13. News would be a year they didn't break the law.

[SoapBox]

7. Well, DUH!

...like this is a surprise?

[New Dawn]

8. Kick for truth. Most were probably just people who publicly oppose the Iraq War.

[TexasObserver]

9. Recommend

[PSPS]

10. And Obama's "justice" department is still behind immunity for this criminal behavior.

So don't expect them to do anything about this evidence of FBI (part of the "Justice Department") malfeasance.

[Irish_shark]

11. I am 100% confident that President Obama will prosecute the culprits n/t

[TheEuclideanOne]

17. Can't do that... have to look forward.

[tinrobot]

12. How many of these illegal searches were on journalists and Democrats?

[clear eye]

41. Exactly. Folks think that b/c they are law-abiding it doesn't affect them.

But neutering the press by getting the identity of sources for important stories embarrassing to the gov't affects us all. Wholesale wiretapping w/o cause allows the gov't to do that. If the gov't is going off-course, we need to know about it in time to exert pressure to correct it. It also allows officials to get leverage on individual reporters by overhearing evidence of, say, an illicit affair or habitual gambling. This is w/o doubt unreasonable search from which we are supposed to be protected by the Fourth Amendment and a violation of freedom of the press, a protection of the First Amendment.

[sabrina 1]

14. FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

Source: The Washington Post

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.

A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

>snip

Caproni said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III did not know about the problems until late 2006 or early 2007, after the inspector general's probe began.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011803982.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

---

According to the article, which is long, there will be a decision made about whether any disciplinary measures are necessary.

People whose civil rights were violated probably don't have any recourse now because of the FISA BIll.

It looks like one more crime will go unpunished from the Bush era.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. Oooh! Disciplinary measures!

:scared:

[Sherman A1]

18. Shocked!

There is gambling going on in this establishment.................

[DissedByBush]

19. They need to notify the victims

So they can sue the bejeezus out of the FBI, and the agents personally, for civil rights violations.

[Vidar]

20. K&R.

[rasputin1952]

21. And we expected something else?

Given free rein under bush/cheney, many of the Rights and Privileges we took for granted...vanished.

The did it all through fear...naked unbridled fear. FWIW, that fear was based on essentially nothing other than what they could dream up to subjugate the citizens into a compliant mass that would look to two of this country's worst citizens to "lead" them.

There are times when I have to wonder about our collective sanity.

[ck4829]

23. Kick

[Festivito]

25. Sounds tip-of-the-iceberg-ish. /nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

26. "By John Solomon and Carrie Johnson"

This must surely be the John Solomon who just got the axe at the Washington Times. You might recognize his name; it has appeared at DU before.

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. So what is their penalty?

Do these people they wronged get renumeration?

I hope so, because I figure I stand to make some money out of these intrustions.

[OnyxCollie]

28. Good luck with that.

After the last FISA bill, any civil suit will likely be tossed.

If the President approves it, it's legal. If it's legal, no damages. No damages, no renumeration.

Thank Senator Jello Jay Rockefeller and all the others who received campaign contributions (as well as Obama) for that.

[4dsc]

29. So, nothing will become of this matter

SO what if this is revealed now.. If no one is held accountable then so what.. They could reveal every single illegal activity committed by the Bush administration and nothing would become of such activity. Its utterly disgusting.

[NashVegas]

30. WOW! Nice of John SOLOMON To Finally Get Off His Ass and Report on Fed Misdeeds

Too freaking bad he had to wait until a Dem was in office, huh?

Or is it just that he couldn't find anything negative to write about Howard Dean anymore?

[Vinnie From Indy]

31. Nothing shocking here

Was there anyone that ever expected the FBI to follow the law in this regard?

Americans should simply understand that many parts of the Bill Of Roghts are now completely and forever null and void thanks to GW Bush and President Obama. Everyone should understand that Obama is a major player in the new reality of total surveillance. Because he did not address these issues after taking office, they have become precedent and will be used from here after by the executive branch.

[pinniped]

32. I think a very sternly worded letter or grilling is in order.

A threat of either one will be enough to make the guilty quiver.

[fascisthunter]

34. corruption is corruption

it is present in all facets of this government. I'm the least surprised to read about the FBI doing this.

[Mulehead]

35. FBI 'fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records'

Source: Guardian UK

FBI 'fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records'
Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 20.06 GMT

Justice department to accuse FBI of invoking crises to obtain details of more than 2,000 calls, Washington Post reports

The US justice department is preparing a report which concludes that the FBI repeatedly broke the law by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist to obtain more than 2,000 telephone call records over four years from 2002, including those of journalists on US newspapers, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post.

The bureau also issued authorisations for the seizure of records after the fact, in order to justify unwarranted seizures.

The Washington Post said the emails show how counter-terrorism ­officials inside FBI headquarters breached regulations designed to protect civil liberties.

The FBI's general counsel, Valerie Caproni, told the Washington Post that the agency violated privacy laws by inventing non-existent terrorist threats to justify collecting the phone records. "We should have stopped those requests from being made that way," she said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/19/fbi-terror-emergencies-phone-calls

[TroglodyteScholar]

36. Does this surprise anyone?

Recommended.

[Doctor_J]

37. yes, but a nude model took teddy's seat today

so please don't talk about the fact that the fascists have already taken over.

[clear eye]

39. The Nat'l Whistelblowers Ctr is asking us to support H.R. 1507 to protect the agent who broke this.

As things stand now, FBI director Mueller is permitted to fire the agent. Link to online letter in support of H.R. 1507 to increase protections for whistleblowers, which in turn increases our protection against gov't and contractor misdeeds.