Washington – FBI Agents Seeking Phone Records Used ‘Startling’ Methods

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    Washington – FBI agents seeking telephone records demanded information from phone companies in a variety of “startling” and illicit methods, including e-mail and post-it notes, in an “egregious breakdown” of safeguards and oversight, the Justice Department’s inspector general reported Wednesday.

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    The long-awaited investigative report describes numerous lapses by FBI agents seeking material through more than 700 emergency letters to phone service providers between 2002 and 2006, many of which did not involve real urgency, officials said.

    One FBI agent interviewed in connection with the probe said the process became so casual that “it [was] like having an ATM in your living room,” according to the report.

    FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, told lawmakers that the process had ended in 2006 and that officials were reviewing the report to determine whether any bureau employees should be disciplined for the lapses. Mueller pointed out that the phone records did not cover the content of calls but rather toll information.

    The report also describes three FBI media leak investigations in which agents sought and received information for phone numbers belonging to Washington Post and New York Times reporters without the required approval from the attorney general.

    “This report examines in detail the flawed practices that the FBI used to obtain thousands of telephone records, and the accountability of FBI employees for these troubling practices,” Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said. “While the FBI has taken action to end the use of exigent letters and other informal requests for telephone records, we believe that the FBI and the Department need to examine this report carefully and take additional corrective action to ensure that the FBI obtains such records in accord with the law and Department of Justice policies.”

    Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said at a hearing Wednesday: “This was not a matter of technical violations. If one of us did something like this, we’d have to answer for it. This was authorized at high levels within the FBI and continued for years.”

    Leahy and other Democrats, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), said the report underscored the need for changes to the USA Patriot Act, set to expire at the end of February. It gives the FBI authority to send demand letters to phone companies and financial institutions for information on Americans.


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    7 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    The ability to “trace” leaks to the press curtails freedom of our information stream: this only is allowed BY COURT ORDER and with criminal investigations

    Askupeh (part 1)
    Askupeh (part 1)
    14 years ago

    II told you so. For years I have been telling you that the government abuses their power, and ALL governments abuse their power. If you thought that here is any different then you were mistaken. If you thought that under Obama it will be any better then you were also mistaken. (The following is what I believe, that) the State Department, the CIA and the FBI is a government (or governments) within a government. When they want, they can make sure that you are dead by an inmate (like Earl Krugel) or create a suicide (like Irv Rubin) or send an agent provocateur to get Meir Kahane assassinated. I have no sympathy for the Guantánamo Bay terrorists, but I suggest you read up on the “mysterious deaths of 3 Guantánamo Prisoners” and we need to ask ourselves, are we a Judicial country or not? Can “some” branches of government just do what they want ex-judiciously? And when exposed will be covered up?

    Askupeh (part 2 of 2)
    Askupeh (part 2 of 2)
    14 years ago

    I once heard how the United States spies on Jewish organizations here, by switching with Great Britain, where they spy on American Jewish organizations and the Americans spy on their Jewish organizations; that’s how they get around the legalities. After 9/11 it was reported that a group of Israelis were held for an extended period of time (for so called questioning, because someone said that they laughed).

    It is one thing to fight terror, and it is entirely another thing to be accountable to the public. If you want that your rights should be protected, then you have to speak up when other people’s rights (even terrorists) are trampled.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Give them a little power and they abuse it. This has been going on for time immemorial.

    Don't Care
    Don't Care
    14 years ago

    As long as they need the information for security reasons no matter how minor then I couldn’t care less if they water board someone over it!!!.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    What’s the big deal? Anyone can get someone’s phone records easily.