AP - January 19, 2010 Report: FBI Illegally Collected Phone Records
The Washington Post says the FBI invoked nonexistent terrorism emergencies or persuaded phone companies to provide information as it illegally gathered more than 2,000 records between 2002 and 2006.
WASHINGTON -- The FBI violated the law in collecting thousands of U.S. telephone records during the Bush administration, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Citing internal memos and interviews, the Post said the FBI invoked nonexistent terrorism emergencies or persuaded phone companies to provide information as it illegally gathered more than 2,000 records between 2002 and 2006.
The bureau said in 2007 that it had improperly obtained some phone records, and the Justice Department inspector general is expected to release a report this month detailing the extent of the problem.
FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni told the Post that agents technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which was enacted in 1986, by citing nonexistent emergencies to collect records. "We should have stopped those requests from being made that way," she said.
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It seems like todays world corruption is simply part of the game. It might have to do with the fact that things are more transparent due to technology and we are actually seeing this stuff. Where in the past, it was never discovered.
I agree, this is not acceptable.
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
Much to do about nothing guys. Read the article this morning. No names we attached to any of these numbers or files. This is paranoia at it's best. Come to me when some odinary criminal like a major drug lord is proscuted for this type of tapping.
For those who feel this is unconstitutional, please define the word "unreasonable". We are at war with a very covert enemy. I'm not going to tie the hands of the people on the frontlines of this war until we have won! Most on here agree not to tie the hands of our military men and women, why would you do that for the people trying to prevent the bad things from happening here on your door step?
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
FM, the article states the FBI said some of its' people "cited nonexistent emergencies" to collect records. That is the FBI's analysis of the incidents and not the newspaper's. I fully agree with you about not tying the hands of people fighting the war against terrorism but I also draw the line when they lie, as in "cite a non-existent emergency" simply to collect records that they should be able to obtain with a search warrant if they have enough evidence and/or probable cause to obtain one. Lying simply is not acceptable.
7.62NATO, do you have some sort of documentation, proof, evidence, study, etc. to back up your claim above that you could count on 2 hands the # of LEO's who "know what that means" to uphold the Constitution? Exactly how many LEO's have you discussed this with? How did you arrive at that conclusion?
Kevin1, the answer to your question is yes, they do. It is also why cops that violate the law get fired and prosecuted if applicable.
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Jesus Christ--The reason for the season!
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.
If you're certain you know everything, there's little opportunity to learn anything.
FM, the article states the FBI said some of its' people "cited nonexistent emergencies" to collect records.
And that statement can be interpeted several different ways. First and foremst, it selld a lot of papers. It could be someone bucking for promotion within the administration making that claim and going overboard. If it was through an internal audit and was disicovered, it shows our system works.
Any system will have abuses both intentional and inadvertant. If you read the article from the post, you would have seen, no names were attached to those numbers, so they were just that numbers. Sounds like to me it was more related to pattern detection rather than anything too sinister.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Any FBI agent who told a lie in order to get an illegal wiretap should be off to federal prison.
Yeah, we should water board them and pull their nails out while we're at it.
Hey falcon, try and join the thread. This isn't about wire tapping anyone. This is about looking up call logs/records without names attached.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Most on here agree not to tie the hands of our military men and women, why would you do that for the people trying to prevent the bad things from happening here on your door step?
And the prize for Best Rationalization goes to.............
...........................Fieldmouse!
I don't think anyone here has argued that there is absolutely nothing our service men and women cannot do in the name of "winning" in combat. Falsifying records by the FBI is "much to do about nothing?" Maybe on your planet, not this one.
FBI Illegally Collected Phone Records
