FBI chief blames computers for privacy flap

[donsu]

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6170995.html?tag=nl.e550


FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday said secret "national security letters" are invaluable in unearthing telephone and e-mail logs and blamed computer snafus for deceiving Congress about how often the technique is used.

-snip-

An "employee is responsible for taking every (national security letter) lead that is sent to OGC and manually entering the pertinent information into the OGC database," Mueller said in his testimony on Tuesday, referring to the FBI's Office of General Counsel. "Nearly a dozen fields must be manually entered, including the file number of the case in which the (letter) was issued, typically 15 digits and alphanumeric identifiers."

That, combined with other problems, led Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine to conclude that official reports to Congress "significantly understated" the actual number of national security letters. "We were unable to fully determine the extent of the inaccuracies because an unknown amount of data relevant to the period covered by our review was lost from the OGC database when it malfunctioned," his report said.
-snip-
--------------------------------

perhaps they like the way they do things - easy to claim the pc did it or an employee did it wrong.

they probably have a secret super duper pc system that works extra well that hides behind the messed up pc system.

[ShortnFiery]

1. It's beyond time for one each, Robert Mueller, to tender his resignation.

:wtf: does it take to get him out of leading the FBI? Hell, does he have to literally take a match and set the building on fire before someone in the Unitary Executive taps him to GET the F**k Out of Here?!?

Beyond all else, this man has been an UNQUALIFIED DISASTER for the reputation of the Bureau. :(

[cuncator]

3. Medal of Freedom anyone?

Hey, c'mon now - he's doing "a heckuva job" isn't he? Funny how that phrase has gone from meaning doing something well to doing something so incompetently that it has to be covered up and the perpetrator rewarded.

J. Edgar Hoover would be proud.

[tularetom]

2. To err is human - to really fuck things up requires

a bush appointee with a computer.

[jojo54]

4. ROTFLMFAO!!!

You are so RIGHT!!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[malaise]

6. Brilliant

:rofl:

[C_U_L8R]

5. did the dog eat their emails???

unrecoverable data loss?? I doubt it very much.