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Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the watching-the-watchers dept.

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."

12 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. What are the chances... by brian0918 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What are the chances that anyone will ever - ever - be arrested over this?

    1. Re:What are the chances... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What are the chances that anyone will ever - ever - be arrested over this?

      Arrested as a product of the illegal activity, or arrested for performing the illegal activity?

      The former has probably already happened, the latter is probably unlikely (summary says no criminal misconduct).

      You didn't really think they would get in trouble for abusing the law we've all been saying has huge potential for abuse, did you?

      While they might make policy that says internally they need to do things correctly in the future, I doubt that will prevent them from obtaining information on a whim because it's expedient. But, I'm a cynic about such things, hopefully I'm wrong. :-P

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:What are the chances... by brian0918 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Being woefully ignorant of the proper legal routes you're supposed to take doesn't exempt you from being held responsible if and when you don't take those routes. This article just says that they didn't intentionally break the law, but I don't see any difference.

    3. Re:What are the chances... by jandrese · · Score: 5, Informative

      In fact that's part of the PATRIOT act: You're not even allowed to find out if they've been abusing the act. Whistleblowing abuses of the PATRIOT act is a crime under the PATRIOT act.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    4. Re:What are the chances... by j-turkey · · Score: 5, Funny

      In fact that's part of the PATRIOT act: You're not even allowed to find out if they've been abusing the act. Whistleblowing abuses of the PATRIOT act is a crime under the PATRIOT act.

      The first rule of the USA PATRIOT act is that you do not talk about the USA PATRIOT act...

      ;)

      --

      -Turkey

    5. Re:What are the chances... by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sibel Edmonds, while employed at the FBI as a translator, determined that the FBI employed spies for various Turkish organized crime groups as translators who concealed important evidence in FBI investigations.

      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.

      --
      Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
    6. Re:What are the chances... by StarfishOne · · Score: 5, Funny

      Section 1984 of Chapter 15 of the US Code

      One has to love all those tiny synchronicities that are floating by in this funny Universe.. ;)

  2. Re:no surprise there by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The thing is, people work in agencies, and people have agendas, and people sometimes make mistakes.

    Cops screw up all the time, with the best of intentions. I know an officer who made a traffic stop, and searched the trunk based on an exhaust leak he noticed (they can bypass the right to an unlawful search in cases like these, safety trumps it). Trunk had two kilos of cocaine, perp gets off because the judge decided the search was unlawful.

    A lot of these guys really are out there trying to catch the bad guys, or just trying to get ahead in their careers. We all take shortcuts in our jobs and to reach our goals, and when you're on the street, with a bust so close you can feel it - and the only thing stopping you is what you percieve as "beurocratic red tape", it's easy to slip up.

    I'm not defending them, just offering some more rational explanation other than "da govment is out to get us". It's people that screwed up, in the end.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  3. This is what happens when you ignore human nature by StewedSquirrel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The simple fact is that human nature tends to cause us to use power whenever we can. This is the reason that there are checks and balances in our government. Some smart guys realized a few hundred years ago, that a position with unchecked power will eventually be abused by a person seeking personal gain.

    This is a fact.

    This is a truth of humanity.

    Laws such as the patriot act, which remove checks and balances and allow individuals or small groups of like-minded individuals to act unilaterally in a way that is damaging to the rights of other citizens is a gross violation of this principle and is evidence to a loss of touch with what our government is put in place to do.

    While protecting the people is a primary goal of a government, protecting the people must weigh protections both on the freedom and liberty of people against the PHYSICAL protection of people.

    Unfortunately, our society is so sheltered from physical trauma, we have grown risk-averse in a disturbing way.

    A few hundred years ago, when most people did not reach 60, and 1/4 of children died before adolescence, we had a realistic view of how important liberty is in our society. People dealt with death and destruction, as it was part of nature. Liberty, however, was not a constant and had to be protected at all costs.

    Today, people take liberty for granted and so fear death and destruction that they will throw away their liberty for temporary saftey.

    This is the trap which our founding fathers warned us against. They saw its power and also its danger.

    We need to open our eyes to that truth as well.

    Stew

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
  4. Re:no surprise there by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know an officer who made a traffic stop, and searched the trunk based on an exhaust leak he noticed (they can bypass the right to an unlawful search in cases like these, safety trumps it). Trunk had two kilos of cocaine, perp gets off because the judge decided the search was unlawful.

    That's probably because that judge knows a load of bullshit when he hears it. I mean, seriously, he decided to search the trunk because he noticed an exhaust leak?!?! Give me a break.

    -Eric

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  5. Re:And yesterday Captain America was shot to death by CyberLord+Seven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ain't that the truth. I was surprised to learn earlier this week that Rumsfield and Cheney were both in the Nixon Whitehouse.

    --
    We have always been at war with Eurasia!
  6. Re:no surprise there by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 5, Funny

    "That's probably because that judge knows a load of bullshit when he hears it."

    The judge was probably pissed because his regular delivery didn't arrive :-)

    --
    Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!