Inspector general cites 'egregious breakdown' in FBI oversight

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/20/AR2010012002070.html?hpid=topnews

FBI agents for years sought sensitive records from telephone companies through e-mails, sticky notes, sneak peeks and other "startling" methods that violated electronic privacy law and federal policy, according to a Justice Department inspector general report released Wednesday.

The study details how the FBI between 2002 and 2006 sent more than 700 demands for telephone toll information by citing often nonexistent emergencies and using sometimes misleading language. The practice of sending faulty "exigent" letters to three telecommunications providers became so commonplace that one FBI agent described it to investigators as "like having an ATM in your living room."

Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said the findings were "troubling" and urged the FBI and the Justice Department to "take additional corrective action" in response to the 289-page report. Information on more than 3,500 phone numbers may have been gathered improperly, but investigators said they could not glean a full understanding because of sketchy record-keeping by the FBI.

At a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said that the bureau had stopped using emergency letters in 2006 after he and the inspector general became aware of problems. Mueller pointed out that the bureau did not monitor the content of phone calls but tracked only numbers, dates, times and durations of the calls. He also pledged that FBI officials would review the report to determine whether disciplinary action should be taken against employees.

Investigators concluded that the trouble was compounded because employees for three of the telecommunications companies shared office spare at the FBI's communications analysis unit between 2003 and 2008, effectively serving as members of the FBI's "team" under "poor supervision and ineffective oversight."