FBI Broke Law for Years in Phone Record Searches

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

it kept us safe from terra.
:sarcasm:

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

:rofl:

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.

during the fascist takeover.

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.

k&r :eyes:

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...

...like this is a surprise?

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

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.

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.

:scared:

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

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

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.

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.

Do these people they wronged get renumeration?

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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

Recommended.

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

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.