Mukasey confirms plans to loosen post-Watergate restrictions on FBI's Spying Of Americans

FBI to get freer rein to look for terrorism suspects
By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey confirmed plans Wednesday to loosen post-Watergate restrictions on the FBI's national security and criminal investigations, saying the changes were necessary to improve the bureau's ability to detect terrorists.

Mukasey said he expected criticism of the new rules because "they expressly authorize the FBI to engage in intelligence collection inside the United States." However, he said the criticism would be misplaced because the bureau has long had authority to do so.

Mukasey said the new rules "remove unnecessary barriers" to cooperation between law enforcement agencies and "eliminate the artificial distinctions" in the way agents conduct surveillance in criminal and national security investigations.

"There was clear-eyed and bipartisan recognition after the attacks that we needed to be able — and allowed — to collect intelligence in the United States," he said in speech prepared for an anti-terrorism conference in Portland, Ore. "Indeed, there was a loud demand for it."

more at:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/48078.html

can we make citizen arrests? can we go before judges, over and over, and petition for a hearing?

how can democracy be perverted to this extent without any recourse to justice?

agencies and "eliminate the artificial distinctions" in the way agents conduct surveillance in criminal and national security investigations."

IOW, everything they trotted out under the aegis of the Patriot Act for use against foreign terrorists will now be authorized for use against US citizens - the distinctions are purely artificial, anyway. A wire tap is a wire tap.

THIS is why we objected to the Patriot Act in the first place - this is the inevitable outcome.

This was the entire purpose from the beginning.

:argh:

I'm sure we have nothing to fear from further expanded powers of surveillance on Americans.

:sarcasm: