FBI Wants To Limit Document Searches

An anonymous reader writes "In what seems to be in opposition to the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI is seeking to limit document searches. It seems since now that a lot of documents are in electronic form, searching them is much easier than before, and for that reason the FBI is taking this action."

Comments

Wow.

[Tavor]

Sounds like they have something to hide.

Not so bad, but not so good either

[the_mad_poster]

That's not exactly what's going on here. The FBI is in hot water because they didn't dig up already-released documents in a later FOIA request. Their argument is that the search was sufficient, not that they shouldn't have had to do it at all.

While they may be intentionally stunting their software search capabilities, it seems less likely that this is some malicious attempt on our freedoms and very likely that it's pure laziness on their part. The government has never been too happy about having to handle FOIA requests because they take time and money. When someone comes along and makes one, it's often easier for them to fight it than to use the resources required to dig up the info.

Re:Not so bad, but not so good either

[medelliadegray]

While you could attribute this to laziness. I would not like the government to be in the position of deciding what point a FOIA request is sufficently fulfilled, especially if it skips over previously released FOIA docs. Just because a doc is released under the FOIA act, it does not necessarly become released to the public unless the requestor makes it available.

Now, if they limited it to not retrieving the same document twice for the SAME requestor in which two requests overlapped. that i think would be acceptable. so long as there's still a "hi i lost said documents i previously requested, can i get another copy" kind of fallback.

call me paranoid, but if the govt filtered any document previously relesed... they just have to have someone with close ties to the govt request said document which they do not want in public hands, and it'd never get released again. woot, easy coverup!

Re:Not so bad, but not so good either

[ScentCone]

Yeah, of course that's the reason. Not that they have anything to hide. After all, everyone knows the government HATES to spend money, right?

You don't actually spend much time understanding how agencies work or are funded, huh? There really isn't much of an entity called "the government." Each agency or department operates with funding that is dictated from the outside (usually with congressional authority, sometimes with some discretionary authority from the executive branch). Even when the judicial branch orders that the other branches do something, normal funding procedures have to kick in.

The point is, each agency has a budget. They can't exceed it. A single FOI inquiry can occupy several or even dozens of federal employees for days or weeks. One request, from one person. Now: every time some activist organization sends its troops to DC to make a stink about something, you end up with dozens or hundreds of requests for much the same data/documents, but all worded a litte differently, and requiring redundent attention. Essentially, every agency of the government has had to hugely expand its staff, filing, IT, etc., for the sole purpose of honoring these requests.

Note: I don't think that's a bad thing - the government's operations should always err on the side of transparency, except where doing so would jeopardize lives or important strategic issues surrounding defense, security, and personal privacy. But: the very same people that like to bitch about the government are also happy to spend thousands and thousands of all of our dollars doing what amounts to Denial Of Service Attack on the agency they're nagging. They should ask for information they rationally need, but they should also consider this:

If a typical FOI request to, say, the DOD (perhaps for "all records related to person X and his immediate supervisors/command") occupies half a dozen record clerks for several man-hours each, plus communications/infrastructure costs and the other overhead... the person making that request has probably just "spent" more money than they even paid in federal taxes that year. People who make dozens of such requests during a year are basically forcing dozens of us taxpayers to put all of our taxable effort into covering those requests. To the extent that many of them are frivalous, that's something those people should keep in mind. Of course, those are often the same people that keep thinking "it's only the government's money" (when it's really yours and mine), and then also bitch about budget deficits. Moderation in all things, please, and please note that the conspiratorial tone doesn't sound as pursuasive without the X-Files soundtrack playing in the background. Watch less TV and read some actual information - it will make you want to vote for people that are trying to streamline and minimize the government, not bloat it more and more to service interests that don't actually produce anything.

Re:Not so bad, but not so good either

[anon*127.0.0.1]

But if a search misses a document, someone should go back and figure out why the document was skipped, and if that's a situation that needs to be addressed. People "miss" documents because they're human. Computers don't miss documents, they fail to select them because there's a hole in their search parameters.

In this case, the document requestor provided several relevant and unique pieces of information in his document request. The FBI failed to produce all the documents pertaining to that request, and the requestor only learned about the documents because they surfaced in another case. The FBI can't explain why they didn't produce the documents intially, but they still maintains that it performed a proper search and it's not their fault that the documents were missed.

Sorry, that does not compute.

Re:Not so bad, but not so good either

[demachina]

"I still can't get over this Abu Graib thing."

Maybe you should be locked up in a prison on suspicion of a crime, especially a crime you didn't commit, and be tortured and sexually humiliated in front of a camera and then have those pictures shown to your friends and family if not the whole world.

Here , read this, its the testimony of one of the people tortured at Abu Graib. He was and is being held on "suspicion" of theft, not terrorism or decapitating people or anything he had been convicted of. Try putting yourself in his shoes while you are reading it and maybe you will stop being such an arrogant American dick.

I don't think ANY of the people tortured in Abu Graib were "terrorists" that had decapitated peoples. Most of them were people arrested for ordinary crimes, especially looting which EVERYONE in Iraq was doing after the invasion, or innocent people just caught up in dragnets when the U.S. was rounding up people looking mostly in vain for insurgents and Saddam loyalists.

Its key, NONE of the people in Abu Ghraib had been "convicted" of anything. They were suspects. You are basicly dropping the bar so low that the U.S. government can arrest and torture anyone, anywhere on suspicion, and maybe torture a confession out of them that isn't worth the paper its printed on. If they aren't found to be guilty of anything how do you justify torturing them?

You are in fact endorsing EXACTLY the same thing the U.S. has been so indignant about Saddam doing and used as an excuse to overthrow him. The stuff you are taking about is the antithesis of the "Freedom and Democracy" the Bush administration cons everyone in to thinking we brought to Iraq. It is a key reason the Iraqi people have become to despise the U.S. occupation force so much because it managed, with ease, to put itself at the same level as Saddam with arbitrary arrests, torture and killing innocent civilians, often women, children and wounded, unarmed combatants.

All in all you should probably turn in your U.S. citizenship because you have NO CLUE what your country is supposed to stand for, in particular due process is the most basic underpinning of the rule of law and if you chose to cast it aside for some people its a matter of time its thrown aside for everyone, you included, and you have a police state no different from Saddam's.

As for Geneva conventions not applying in Iraq they most certainly do. Its legal hair splitting if they apply to Al Qaida but they sure as hell apply to Iraq. When your nation invades and occupies a sovereign nation there are most definitely rules on how you treat the civilian population of that occupied country, they most definitely apply to the U.S. as a signatory no matter how much you and the Bush administration want to pretend they don't. They forbid:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; ...
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;

The U.S. has done EVERY one of these in Iraq.

If you want to cast aside U.S. adherence to the Geneva conventions then DON'T get mad if American's are taken as prisoners of war, in the upcoming war in Iran for example, if they are tortured and sexually humiliated, you've given every American adversary the rationale to do it and the world which just say America is getting what it deserves. You better also hope that you are never in place that is invaded and occupied because again you are giving the invading army a blank check to arrest, torture, sexually humiliate and kill you because you are an American who has chosen to cast aside the Geneva conventions.

Good thing it isn't up to them

[Dancin_Santa]

The government is much more than a little agency like the FBI. I'd rather keep my ability to get information about the comings and goings of my government, thank you very much.

Re:Good thing it isn't up to them

[Mistlefoot]

What is even scarier is the any agency could theoretically electronic archive ONLY materials that they don't mind being shared. Or since you can't convert everything immediatly - archive stuff you want hidden once you've archived everything else. This would actually seem the logical way to do things. Articles that "may" be secret should be read and re-read before being made public. An agency could simply create "3 piles". PUBLIC, TO BE DETERMINED, and SECRET when converting. They could they convert them electronically in that order.

Then if a request is made, do an electronic search, come up with nothing, and claim they 'did their best', while effectively not searching for anything that fit into the second category.

One Question?

[xPosiMattx]

Why should our ability to find the information that is available to use be limited? If this information is public shouldn't we be able to use it how ever or as efficiently as we wish?

Re:One Question?

[Scrameustache]

Why should our ability to find the information that is available to use be limited? If this information is public shouldn't we be able to use it how ever or as efficiently as we wish?

Then you would be watching the watchers, and they don't want that.

the FBI just doesn't get it

[Lawrence_Bird]

The beuraucratic culture at FBI headquarters and regional
offices are to blame for this and many other woes. I know
a retired field agent that was in counter-intel and he has
nothing good to say about agency management.

I don't think this is so much an overt effort to hide any
one particular document(s) but just a widely prevalent
'we don't give a damn what you want'. Laziness and CYA
mentality are to blame.

How long until the FOIA is dissolved?

[stealth24]

Let's see, there's the Patriot act, and now this is being considered... This sounds doubleplusungood to me. (sorry, had to get my paranoia quota for the day)

UK version

[Anonymous Coward]

In the UK, our version of the FOIA came into force on 1st January, it has some similar "loopholes".

For a start, just before Christmas, a memo went around whitehall (around government offices, basically) instructing civil servants to delete emails over 3 months old, unless vital. (i.e. just before they become available to the public via the act, destroy them!)

Notably if this 3 month rule had been in force before, the evidence that lost former home secretary David Blunket his post (for misuse of public services, basically) would not have been available to be made public...

Also our version allows as a valid response to a request for information a simple declaration that another government department has that information (i.e. go get it from them). This does NOT have to imply that the original department does not have the requested information; it is a simple buck-pass.

Of course the second department can give the answer that the first department has the information. This counts, under the act, as your request having been satisfactorily dealt with...

(so information in 2 departments can be withheld without being designated as "secret" should the departments wish...)

Wow. Summary couldn't be more wrong.

[daveschroeder]

But kneejerk slashdot sensationalism as usual.

And, the statement "It seems since now that a lot of documents are in electronic form, searching them is much easier than before, and for that reason the FBI is taking this action," is the diametric opposite of what is actually happening.

The story is that an individual made an FOIA request to the FBI for some specific information.

The FBI claimed that no such information was available.

The claimant found out in the meantime that such information WAS available, and, as such, requested a court order the FBI to provide it.

The FBI is arguing that its search was reasonable within department regulations and guidelines, and that it cannot and should not be expected to always undercover every single possible document. It's precisely BECAUSE documents are indexed electronically that is creating the difficulty: the FBI is claiming, essentially, that it can't predict every possibly keyword it should associate with a document for search purposes, and therefore shouldn't be held accountable if it misses documents during a good-faith search.

Whether or not the FBI was intentionally hiding OKBOMB memos, etc., is another story altogether.

Information Act

[nurb432]

Is superseded by the (un)Patriot act..

Think its bad now, wait a few years when even the discussion of what used to be public knowledge will get you tossed in jail:

"remember when the constitution protected....?" and they whisk you away as a terrorist or something.

Whats the answer? Other then a total revolt of the people, i donno. And yes i realize that is unlikely as most of the population are now simply trained sheep, believing what they are fed on TV.

All the FBI Needs is...

[Albinofrenchy]

The FBI should just install google desktop. Problem solved.

A Real Problem

[Thunderstruck]

Actually, all of our wonderful database technology and document scanners have created a problem that goes far beyond the FBI. This is news just because the FBI has tried to do something about it.

The real problem is that over the past 200 years or so, a lot of records have been generated that, while technically public, were never intended to be widely known. Consider for example, court documents. Many states require the social security numbers, home phone numbers, job information, or other very personal stuff to be included in pleadings filed with the courts. This is particularly common in divorce cases.

In the past, it wasn't much of a concern that some identity thief might go to the courthouse, ask for file C-200-87 and make some copies. Now, however, that thief can log on at a library in another state, and often request documents by the truckload without any human involvement.

Perhaps we, and the FBI, need a middle ground. Something like a "quasi-public-information" standard, where you can get the documents, but you have to show up in person and ask for them.

Re:A Real Problem

[demachina]

Not sure how the law reads for access to court records but for FOIA requests it is well established practice the FOIA office in the agency answering the request, and every agency has to have one, has to review the documents and censor all information that is classified or would violate the privacy of individuals.

At least as far as FOIA requests go your argument is a red herring.

Unfortunately this censorship can be abused to wipe out information that should be made public but the responding agency just doesn't want the public to know. FOIA requests on the TSA no fly list were answered this way, when they did release documents on the heart of the matter, who ran it, how names got on it, how names get taken off or names on the list, the documents were either censored in to oblivion, and many were simply withheld because they were "classified".

The content of this list should be public information, and how its managed MUST be public information because it directly impacts everyone who flies, especially innocent people unfortunate enough to have names that match names on the list and even aliases of suspected terrorists on the list, which is what they claimed when Senator Kennedy was prevented from flying by the list. Its a complete crap shoot if you can be accused of being a terrorist and prevented from flying because of the random chance your name is on the list and the mechanism for an average citizen to get there name off the list is ill defined. You are better off just slightly mutating your name until it stops matching. It would be trivial for an actual terrorist to circumvent this list, and the only way to fix that would be to make it an even more intrusive invasion of privacy as has been attempted several times with CAPPS.

EFF Similar Report

[Me-The-Person]

This report was published earlier this month by http://www.eff.org/

January 14, 2005
Can the FBI Monitor Your Web Browsing Without a Warrant?
EFF Demands Answers from DOJ about PATRIOT Act Surveillance

Washington, DC - Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI and other offices of the US Department of Justice, seeking the release of documents that would reveal whether the government has been using the USA PATRIOT Act to spy on Internet users' reading habits without a search warrant.

At issue is PATRIOT Section 216, which expanded the government's authority to conduct surveillance in criminal investigations using pen registers or trap and trace devices ("pen-traps"). Pen-traps collect information about the numbers dialed on a telephone but do not record the actual content of phone conversations. Because of this limitation, court orders authorizing pen-trap surveillance are easy to get -- instead of having to show probable cause, the government need only certify relevance to its investigation. Also, the government never has to inform people that they are or were the subjects of pen-trap surveillance.

PATRIOT expanded pen-traps to include devices that monitor Internet communications. But the line between non-content and content is a lot blurrier online than it is on phone networks. The DOJ has said openly that the new definitions allow pen-traps to collect email and IP addresses. However, the DOJ has not been so forthcoming about web surveillance. It won't reveal whether it believes URLs can be collected using pen-traps, despite the fact that URLs clearly reveal content by identifying the web pages being read. EFF made its FOIA request specifically to gain access to documents that might reveal whether the DOJ is using pen-traps to monitor web browsing.

"It's been over three years since the USA PATRIOT Act was passed, and the DOJ still hasn't answered the public's simple question: 'Can you see what we're reading on the Web without probable cause?'" said Kevin Bankston, EFF Staff Attorney and Bruce J. Ennis Equal Justice Works Fellow. "Much of PATRIOT is coming up for review this year, but we can never have a full and informed debate of the issues when the DOJ won't explain how it has been using these new surveillance powers."

The law firm of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary assisted EFF in preparing the FOIA request and will help with any litigation if the DOJ fails to respond.

Contact:

Kevin Bankston
Attorney, Equal Justice Works / Bruce J. Ennis Fellow
Electronic Frontier Foundation
bankston@eff.org

Posted at 09:27 AM

Sounds good - no more seizures

[originalhack]

When the FBI wants some record (they sometimes call it "evidence") from me, they can serve me with a subpoena or a warrant. I then perform a cursory check for the evidence they seek and turn the results over to them. I think that sounds much more civilized than many of the current practices.

Oh, wait...

This only applies to lawful requests for them to produce documents.

Re:Balance

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's always about balance... just a little further towards security, tighten a little more, just a little more.... ta da, police state.

Kooks are a problem too

[AndroidCat]

There are also wackos who request all sorts of information (over and over again) from every FBI office and then sues them because it doesn't match her delusional reality.

Google?

[jhines]

Perhaps the FBI needs to hire Google to do the indexing?

The Trentadue Case -- A Cover up ???

[Anonymous Coward]

The Trentadue case which is mentioned in the article is in my opinion most definitely a coverup. Not long after the Oaklahoma City Bombing Ken Trentadue was arrested for a simple parole violation. He was apparently put in an adjacent jail cell to Timothy McVeigh. There are allegations that McVeigh told him something. In either case, Trentadue shortly after was found dead in his cell. The various authorities ruled it a suicide. However, even a cursory glance at the photos show Taser burn marks over his entire body, bruises over his body but especially on his face, his hands and on the bottoms of his feet. There have been a number of senators and congressmen who have looked into this and in every case, the FBI has stonewalled.

A quick search turned up this site: http://www.geocities.com/prisonmurder/ken_trentadu e.html but I am sure there are many others. The photos on this page are not particuarly good but you can get the idea. I was shown poster sized photos of his Trentadue's body by a congressman from Idaho not long after this happend and the Taser burn marks and bruising inconsistant with a suicide are clearly visible.

I can understand why the FBI would want to cover this up. People are shocked when they hear about Abu Garab in Iraq and yet do not seem to realize that it can happen to you, an American citizen, here if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. If there was ever a case that deserved more scrutiny this is it. While I am not a big believer in "conspiracy theories", this one not only has me convinced but a number of senators and congressmen as well. Unfortunately, until significant pressure is placed on the FBI and similar agencies, we will not get to the bottom of this.

DEAR JOE PUBLIC...

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Joe Public,

We regret to inform you that every right given to you shall only be granted until actually taking advantage of it becomes feasible. At which time we shall revoke said rights on the basis that you might actually use them.

We hope you understand this is for your own safety and is not meant to indicate any wrong doing on the behalf of federal officials.

We apologize in advance for any resulting inconvenience.

Trust us,

Your Local Friendly Federal Agents.

Read about the case behind the request for info

[PureFiction]

The mysterious death of Kenneth Trentadue

The body of Kenneth Trentadue lay in a coffin in an Orange County, Calif., funeral home. His family had been told by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons earlier that week that the man hanged himself with a bed sheet on Aug. 21, 1995, while in federal custody at the Federal Transfer Center (FTC) in Oklahoma City. But Trentadue's family members who viewed his corpse-his wife, mother and sister-doubted the story. ...

the prison had gone to the trouble of putting Kenneth in a suit and applying makeup to his face-departing from the no-frills way the BOP typically releases dead inmates to their families-but had not bothered to mask his slashed throat.

Then the women noticed Kenneth's wrists and knuckles were black and swollen, strange injuries for a hanging.

Trentadue's sister, Donna Sweeney, clutched a camera she had brought with her. Taking a deep breath, she directed an attendant to strip Kenneth's body and scrub the heavy makeup from his face.

What the women saw shocked and disgusted them. Kenneth's head bore three massive wounds, two of which had ruptured the flesh to expose the skull. Below his left arm were fingerprint marks suggesting he had been propped up and held by someone else. Patches of skin had been ripped from his back. Bruises and welts lined the entire body, from his eyelids to the soles of his feet. [cont.]

I wouldn't be surprised if Homeland Security Operations Morning Briefs that we leaked are also part of their inclination to avoid digital record keeping (and comprehensive FOIA searches)

These reports show an interesting view of the domestic intelligence gathering being done at the DHS.

... what happened to the America I used to know?

Re:Read about the case behind the request for info

[Eminence]

I don't get it, where do you see nonsense? For me someone trying to conceal a knife in a jar of hair gel is suspicious. After all you can put all the knives you want into your luggage and no one would say a bad word about it. If the guy wanted to take his Leatherman on the trip with him then that's what he should have done. But hair gel? Sorry, but your explanation is less plausible that the one that he planned to take it out during the flight and threaten the crew.

Anyway, when I'm flying I prefer that someone ensures that people concealing knives of any kind in any way in their carry-on bags are not with me on the plane. Thanks to all those who do their job and stop nuts like the one described about.

Not Classic.

[sglider]

Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. -- Thomas Jefferson The Freedom of Information Act is another check in the checks and balances of our nation. Specifically, it insures that the people (for whom the government is supposed to serve) have control over the government, and not the other way around. The whole terrorism bit is simply an excuse to keep the people from controlling their government. That isn't to say that terrorism doesn't exist -- it does. What I am saying is that sacrificing our liberty for security isn't the best way to combat terrorism, although it is the best way to give us an Orwellian society.

Re:Not Classic.

[Sir Lurkalot]

You mean Ben Franklin... Check the facts

before the conspiracy theorists start to rant...

[maxpublic]

...let's remember this is a government agency. Having worked for and with various government agencies, I can tell you right now that there is no grand conspiracy afoot to hide truckloads of documents from the general public. In fact, you can pretty much boil down the FBI's position in four ways:

- like most government agencies (federal, state, local - it doesn't matter) a good many of the people in management really don't give a shit what you want, despite the supposed goal of serving the people who sign their paychecks - meaning you, the citizen. Egomania is fairly rampant among management and they take it as a given that you're nothing more than a bunch of irritating, ignorant proles who should keep their mouths shut and do as they're told. The fact that you'd file a FOIA request in the first place annoys the hell out of these people - who are you to question the government, you stupid serf? And that means they aren't at all inclined to put anything more than the minimal amount of effort required into fulfilling your request. Sometimes they'll even deliberately hide information for no other reason than to spite you. I've actually seen this done. Yes, it's pissy and childish, but that tells you a good deal about the people you're dealing with.

- most management types are heavily invested in making sure as little information as possible gets out to the public, especially information that hasn't been vetted by house PR. This is true even if the information appears to be harmless. Why? Because in order to get ahead in the game, a fair number of these folks have done things they don't want anyone to know about (or have screwed up royally, and are trying to hide the mistake), and citizens have this surprising knack for discovering patterns in otherwise innocuous bundles of information - patterns that sometimes point fingers. The less information the citizen has, the less likely it is to come back and bite someone in the ass. This isn't an agency conspiracy, it's the local management playing CYA. The more incompetent that local management, the more likely they are to do this sort of thing (because they have more fuckups they're trying to hide).

- FOIA requests tread on someone's turf. Every manager has turf, represented by budget and personnel. When you make an FOIA request you commandeer some of that budget and a certain amount of personnel for a period of time. This is annoying to someone who views himself as the absolute ruler of his particular fiefdom.

- general incompetence means that searches will miss documents even if they aren't difficult to find. The best government workers (in my experience) are the low-level schmucks whom no one pays attention to even though they're almost entirely responsible for keeping their department afloat, but even so a good many of these people are in government because they can't cut it in any other job. It's a crapshoot whether the person or persons designated to actually do the searching will be one of the competent ones or one of the morons.

These behaviors aren't specific to government, of course. You see them in any large organization, including corporations. But they are more prevalent in government simply because government a) makes the laws and has little to fear, and b) government has a secure revenue stream backed by the threat of violence. Remember, your ability to vote politicians in and out of office means nothing to these people since it'll have no effect whatsoever on them personally; they'll still be employed at the end of the day regardless of who you put in charge of the government as a whole. In a very real sense they aren't accountable to anyone.

Max

What could possibly be the problem?

[astrodawg]

If they have done nothing wrong, what do they have to worry about?

I can see some good reasons for this (read)

[i41Overlord]

Yes, this action could be viewed as the government wanted to conceal stuff, etc.

But let me bring up a not-so-exciting reason for this. There are people out there who are lunatics and have nothing better to do but to barrage the government with FOIA requests to "uncover" whatever government/alient conspiracy is being waged against them this week.

A small number of people probably consume a huge, totally disproportionate amount of government resources. These aren't people who simply are working on a valid case and want info, these are people who probably submit FOIA requests every month to find out how the president's dog is controlling their mind with a secretly implanted transponder acquired by aliens.

Have you ever met a schizophrenic person? I have, and you CAN NOT convince them that the government/aliens/Jesus is not after them and waging a secret war against them. They are often very intelligent, but they have little to no concept of reality and let me tell you- they have no lack of motivation or persistence. They'll bug the gov with FOIA requests repeatedly.

Here's a link that I saw on another reply on this thread that demonstrates this clearly:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/schwarz.html

"A second case, Schwarz v. United States Department of Energy, Civil Action 99-3234, named an additional 72 federal entities, various subdivisions, and many individuals, a total of 807 separate defendants.21 Plaintiff's FOIA requests in that case related to the Rathbuns, their attorneys, L. Ron Hubbard, an independent or special counsel, Germans, schools in a submarine village in Great Salt Lake, and Rosemarie Bretschneider."

^This is just ridiculous, but a lot of government resources were consumed coming up with that report. Someone with a valid case probably had to wait because the government office was busy trying to disprove this wacko. A school in a submarine village in the Great Salt Lake? At what point can we all agree that a request needs to be ignored?

apply cop mentality to this problem

[Alien Being]

The FBI is required by law to make documents available. They claim that there's too much info to be able to do that. Well, I guess they should have thought of that before they started spying on so many innocent people. They have no excuse.

There's no excuse for the Patriot act either. I guess it's not just a Republican thing because the Dems are all too willing to go along with them. Wake up America. Stop waving the flag long enough to see where we're headed.

The executive and legislative branches of the federal government have sold us out. The "terrorists" who founded this country warned us that this could happen. It's our duty to fix it, but I'm not optimistic that we can. We can protect ourselves from foreign enemies. It's the enemies in Washington we're powerless against.

Screw you George Bush. I hope some shell-shocked veteran comes back from Iraq and blows your lying, born-again head off. How's that for "supporting the troops"?

If The Oklahoma Federal Detention Death Case

[Master of Transhuman]

is the one I think it is (and it may not be), the FBI has good reason to hide its records of that death.

The inmate was beaten to death by two guards. The BOP refused access to the site by the Oklahoma City coroner who got a court order and went in anyway. Using blood detection instruments that illuminate blood stains, the word was the "cell lit up like a Christmas tree." The FBI was called in, then proceeded to cover up the case by removing the bloodstained prison clothes and throwing them in the trunk of an agent's car, who proceeded to drive around with them for a month until he had to complain to his supervisor that the clothes were "stinking up his car". The DOJ called the Oklahoma state Attorney General and threatened to cut off law enforcement funding unless the case was dropped. The family pursued the case which eventually wound up on federal court. There, the judge decided that despite the FACTS that the BOP lied about the circumstances and the FBI mis-handled the evidence, the inmate "committed suicide".

Yeah, right...US "justice" prevails...

This is not the first time the FBI has covered up instances of BOP abuse of prisoners as a favor to a fellow federal law enforcement agency. There as a prison riot in a midwest Penitentiary in October 1995 which entailed numerous instances of brutalization of inmates by corrections officers. The FBI came in and seized vidotapes of the incidents which had been made by the officers (the BOP mandates videotaping incidents so they can be used to defend officers when accused of brutality). When the FBI "crime lab" got through with those tapes, the quality was sufficiently bad they could not be used as evidence in the inmates' federal complaint against the officers. The inmates' legal team recommended settling. The officers walked.

Anything who thinks the FBI operates like Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (if you're old enough to remember that show) or Scully and Mulder (for you younger nerds) hasn't got a clue.

Not supprising though

[zora]

If you check out the robots.txt you will notice that it is not there, but a look at the most recent listing from the archive will show

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

I guess that they don't wany anyone archiving their site, but it is just part of a much larger picture, Just check out the Whitehouse robots.txt file.

# robots.txt for http://www.whitehouse.gov/

User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin
Disallow: /search
Disallow: /query.html
Disallow: /help
Disallow: /360pics/iraq
Disallow: /economy/iraq
Disallow: /firstlady/newborn/iraq
Disallow: /government/images/iraq
Disallow: /president/statevisit/window/iraq
Disallow: /president/ridge/iraq
Disallow: /911/911day/iraq
etc...

Pretty much anything that mentions iraq is Disallowed