Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act 341
happyslayer writes to mention that according to Yahoo! News a recent audit shows that the FBI has improperly and in some cases illegally utilized the Patriot Act to obtain information. "The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct. Still, 'we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities,' the audit concludes."
And yesterday Captain America was shot to death. (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess, maybe we can't trust those in power.
Welcome back, Tricky Dick!
Our Freedoms? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:oblig (Score:2, Interesting)
That's so wrong I'm not even sure it's not sarcasm. I think what you meant was:
The constitution was not intended to allow ordinary people to do bad things to each other without fear of consequences but to prevent people holding positions of power in the government from doing bad things to ordinary people.
In case you're still not understanding, remember that it is the people who hold power in the government (a.k.a. "the Government") who ultimately determine who is and who is not a "criminal".
So, Sweden (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:And yesterday Captain America was shot to death (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Accountable? (Score:3, Interesting)
Define abuse...? (Score:5, Interesting)
Same here. No one is alleging that the FBI used these Patriot Act powers outside of their intended purpose. What the FBI didn't do, that they should have, was properly account for the letters they did use, specifically, properly count the number used, and properly follow up with the recipients of the letters.
So yes, if FBI agents were using this power to get information that the law was not designed for them to get, then I'd expect criminal prosecution. But, as it appears is the case, the FBI just didn't properly ACCOUNT for the letters they did use, an administrative penalty seems perfectly sufficient to address the problem.
That all, of course, is separate from the issue of whether this law should exist at all (it shouldn't).
As if this is news. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What are the chances... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What are the chances... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What are the chances... (Score:5, Interesting)
She further discovered that "senior elected US officials" were implicated by these documents in direct involvement with organized crime groups in the Middle East and Turkey involved in drugs, arms smuggling, and the nuclear materials black market. These same people were involved with the outing of CIA covert agent Valerie Plame Wilson, apparently for the purpose of protecting these same organized crime groups which Plame's covert operation was investigating. (Marc Rich, the alleged "money man" for some of these organizations, was a client of "Scooter" Libby at one time.)
For these discoveries, she was fired and gagged by a direct order from the DoJ from ever discussing these matters with anyone not in the US Senate with a security clearance. So far, no one in the US Senate has had the balls to come forward and request the details.
When I was arrested by the FBI, I was presented with a document they requested me to sign before interrogation. The document expressly stated that I would waive all rights to an attorney before questioning. I pointed this out to the agent. He said, "No, it doesn't mean that." I pointed out that I could read and understand English perfectly well, and there was no caveat whatsoever anywhere on that paper that said anything other than that I waived all rights to an attorney.
I refused to sign. They stomped off. My Miranda rights were secured.
Anybody who thinks the FBI adheres to ANY form of "rule of law" is living in a dream world.
Such people need to look at the Federal court decisions that ruled that the FBI engaged in YEARS of illegal "black bag" jobs and other illegal operations against the American Indian Movement.
Such people need to look back at the 1960's when the FBI printed up posters of Abbie Hoffman and other activists of Jewish background accusing them of being Jews who were racist against blacks and had these posters plastered all over black neighborhoods in Harlem and elsewhere.
Such people need to look at the case of the Federal prison inmate who was beaten to death in the Oklahoma City transit center by two Bureau of Prisons correctional officers. The Oklahoma coroner had to get a court order to be allowed in to investigate the case. The FBI was called. One of the agents took the bloodstained garments of the prisoner, threw them in the trunk of his car and drove around with them, destroying their value as evidence, until he eventually complained to his supervisor that they were stinking up his car.
The FBI are the scum of the earth. The only lower scum are Bureau of Prisons correctional personnel. In fact, this is being detrimental to the reputation of earth scum to put these people on the same level.
Re:Define abuse...? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What are the chances... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What are the chances... (Score:4, Interesting)
SKipping over the details a bit for times sake, I was arested for something I didn't do, held overnight and filed a complaint directly after my release. The officer who wrote the report out was going on vacation the day I was released and he didn't have it finished. So he handed it over to another who worte one or two lines and signed it. MY complaint trigured the watch commander to make all of the officers on the scene write detail acounting's of what happended. The officer who went on vacation did his in the morning before leaving and mailed it in while the other five officers sat in a room and colaborated everything.
The difference was black and white. On one hand, you had reports that I stormed the officers and he put up his hands to say stop and I fell into them stumbling to the ground. In the officer on vacation's report, the officer told me to stand against the wall and when I didn't the other officer pushed me against it and after my head struck the brick wall, I pulled my hands to my head wich look as if i was going to strike him, so the officer then threw me to the ground in a headlock. My acounting of events was that after leaving a nightclub because the music as too loud and the speakers were poping and hissing, an officer was saying something and I couldn't hear him. So i started getting closer to him when he threw me agaist the wall and then draged me to the ground.
In court, it was four people saying one thing, ME saying something else and this officer who went on vacation supporting bits and pieces of both our stories. The judge asked to see me, my lawer, the one officer and the DA in private. In there he told us we better strike a deal before this goes any further. After refusing to cop to a plea, I was finaly offered all charges being droped if i signed a statment that I wouldn't sue the city, police, these officers or anyone associated with them about this particular incident.
So yes, It goes on and it is propbably something more often then not. But if the FBI has a record of this being used in an illegal way, then the cops lieing shouldn't be a factor in it. And BTW, there are ways to charge officers who break the law. Look at the border patrol agents in jail right now. And ever normal person would think they were just doing their job when whatever happened to put them in prison.
Re:Wait a minute, aren't we missing something here (Score:3, Interesting)
What I'm not OK with is broad, sweeping police powers with little or no oversight. I don't think that there has ever been a time in history when a government with those types of powers didn't abuse them. There's a reason we involve two branches of government with search and seizure or wire tapping, and it's not just to get second opinion. The fact is, if one person or organization has the power to tap your phones or go through your bank records or search your house without having to justify it to anybody, they'll eventually start doing it for less than justifiable reasons.
"I thought he was involved with terrorism" eventually becomes "He was involved in organized crime" which becomes "We thought he might be committing mail fraud" which becomes "We thought he used pot" which eventually becomes "He's a member of the opposition party" or "I want to date his wife, so I'll try to ruin their marriage by digging up dirt on him." With nothing to stop them, there's no reason to think they'll stop at legitimate police action. I accept that the government has the right to search me, try me, deprive me of property, and even execute me as long as they do it for justifiable reasons that are accepted by a demonstrably neutral party. As for acting on their own with no checks and balances, I have a hard time even accepting the idea that we let them use scissors.