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Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy For the FBI To Spy On Journalists (theintercept.com)
schwit1 shares with us a report on a 11-part series led by The Intercept reporter Cora Currier: Secret FBI rules allow agents to obtain journalists' phone records with approval from two internal officials -- far less oversight than under normal judicial procedures. The classified rules dating from 2013, govern the FBI's use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain information about journalists' calls without going to a judge or informing the news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in heavily redacted form. Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas or search warrants before accessing journalists' information. The rules stipulate that obtaining a journalist's records with a national security letter requires the signoff of the FBI's general counsel and the executive assistant director of the bureau's National Security Branch, in addition to the regular chain of approval. Generally speaking, there are a variety of FBI officials, including the agents in charge of field offices, who can sign off that an NSL is "relevant" to a national security investigation. There is an extra step under the rules if the NSL targets a journalist in order "to identify confidential news media sources." In that case, the general counsel and the executive assistant director must first consult with the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's National Security Division. But if the NSL is trying to identify a leaker by targeting the records of the potential source, and not the journalist, the Justice Department doesn't need to be involved. The guidelines also specify that the extra oversight layers do not apply if the journalist is believed to be a spy or is part of a news organization "associated with a foreign intelligence service" or "otherwise acting on behalf of a foreign power." Unless, again, the purpose is to identify a leak, in which case the general counsel and executive assistant director must approve the request.
Yet they force us to play.
make everything easy.
trumps fault!!!
The rules aren't what makes it easy; the rules are used to justify it. The fact that "call records" are a thing that someone else stores for you, is what makes it easy.
A modernized phone system would lack the capacity for anyone to be able to do this, regardless of any rules.
I mean it must be the fault of either Trump or Bush
More insentive for each and all to speak their mind
If you're not a cop, you have no rights.
Trump used the time machine hidden on Putin's secret moon base to go back in time and convince Obama to empower the FBI with this power. Evil Trump, again!
Because we all know that the Obama administration was The Most Transparent and Most Open and Most All Good Things ever, ever in history, ever. And that Hillary Clinton was a big fan and was going to continue his policies. Except for Trump's secret time travel leverage. Evil Trump!
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
...this is why I don't understand when people talk about "Trump's war on the media." The government has been at war against the media for decades.
yes.... let the hate flow though you
So how exactly is this Trump's fault? I mean, he's had a week to straighten it out and it's not like he's been up to anything else in the meantime!
NSL's have more fuckery involved than just journalists. This isn't new, and many have been speaking up for a long time. Everyone needs to respect the bill of rights and constitution. I know some here enjoy bashing the second as well as being advocates of the 4th, but all need to be respected regardless of which American football team you pull for. NSL's should be illegal. Put your Obama and Trump bashing aside and unite for a common goal.
They are not really journalists. Now if they were objective truth seekers and reported the honest, unbiased facts then I would be really upset!
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
How exactly to they decide what news organizations are considered...well, news organizations, and by extension which people are considered journalists? Because if they set the bar low enough, then this is basically everyone. For example, by commenting on /. (a site that claims to provide news), am I contributing to the reporting of the news and therefore considered a journalist? What about someone with a blog, in which they report news about their own life or a topic of interest? For that matter, if facebook is a news site...
The potential for overreach seems laughably high with this policy, even by US domestic spying standards.
If you don't like what I said, rather than mod me down might I suggest you supply a rational (pref. fact based) argument refuting my point?
> 1452
You racist. I did nazi that coming.
Am I oblivious to the US Constitution? How can you have "secret rules", not approved/ratified/signed/passed/whatever in and by a public law.making body such as the upper house, the lower house, an executive order (am I missing something here?)? Aren't all these supposed to publicize new laws to those that vote? So people actually know what the guys they voted for are doing, and, you know, actually know if they are following the "most recent law"?
Because the way I see this, when you have ad hoc "secret rules" applied by justice or intelligence bodies, that is the definition of abuse of power (or spying, which is basically "abuse of power" for non-judicial purposes). One thing is to know there are gag orders put in place to companies - those gags were approved publicly, so the people basically "know companies might or might not be screwing with your privacy rights", but such a thing as "secret rules" would turn that to "every government executive body or law enforcement might or might not be screwing with your _rights_" (as in "all rights", that's how broad it becomes).
The existence of such rules mean, in essence, there can be rules like, for instance "allowing your or your entire family's execution because you ate a pretzel this morning without giving tip and a police officer didn't like it"; or milder, yet stupider things like "ban you from Netflix because you watch too much foreign movies". It gets that stupid.
Your tears are delicious, libtard.
Well, thank you, Donald J. Trump!!! Oh, wait...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
A force that used its powers to target journalists' phones has been told off by the UK regulator on the issue.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk...
The reality is rather more complicated than your feeble attempt at a joke might suggest. Not really blaming you. I wanted to think of some humorous aspect of the entire situation and came up drier than your attempted witticism.
President Obama inherited a mess. The roots of the problem go back way before 2013, 2008, or even 2000. The entire governmental system has become hopelessly distorted by partisan politics. The founders hated political parties and understood the risks of putting party ahead of country. They probably would have outlawed political parties if they could have figured out any way to prevent the leopard from changing its spots, but at least they tried to isolate the sickness and keep it out of the judicial branch. Most prominently, that's why federal judges were appointed for life.
A lot of people would point at Bush v Gore as the breaking point, but I actually think that was just the harvest. The seeds were planted decades before. Maybe Ike deserves the negative credit for trying to defuse two of his political adversaries by putting them on the Court? Or FDR for his attempts to pack the Court, though at least he failed in his bum's rush approach and had to wait for time to do its little ravaging act? Or maybe we should just jump all the way back to Marbury v Madison and President John Adams?
Anyway, at this point I think whatever Obama did badly, #PresidentTweety is about to do worse.
Nobody expects the Email Inquisition.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Keep it up, nominate a full tilt red in 4 years. Guarantee another 1461.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
From a liberal? Don't hold your breath, friend.
So open! So Transparent!
"Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy For the FBI To Spy On Journalists"
If the rules are "secret", there are no rules.
Headline should be: "FBI Now Able To Do Whatever The Fuck They Want In Order To Spy On Journalists"
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
It's his fault because as we know, Trump doesn't exactly like the NSA, CIA and FBI - he's said he plans to cut their budget and their power - they've lent credence The Onion type stories about him, he's called their competence into question.
Because Trump doesn't like them and intends to cut their budget, they'll have less ability to engage in mass surveillance. Therefore - oh sorry, gotta run, but I'm sure you can see where this is going, how it's Trump's fault. Obama wouldn't have allowed his agencies to do that if Trump wasn't going to piss them off later.
San Franskinny http://www.sanfranskinny.com/
Are we not ALL citizens entitled to the same constitutional protections of our inalienable rights? Why the heck is it special for journalists and why are we not all equal under the law?
Thus, once again, perfectly proving his point.
Your stupidity makes me feel smarter.
Thank you, Mr. President, for restoring civil liberties, privacy, and the rule of law, like you promised! It's why we voted for you!
And we will remain as faithful to your party as you have been to us, the people!
they leaked the goods and now we have to find future leakers faster, by monitoring journalists. talk to a journalist and get investigated
Home of secret law, land of safe cowards.
Thank God Trump is president.
I can't imagine where we might be headed if we had someone in office who might abuse this power.
All this talk about fake news, and the gubbiment is all up the skirt of the traditional media.
encrypted drop boxes for setting up contacts with sources...
really weird when you have to use spycraft to protect your sources from your own government agencies...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
war in Lybia
war in Syria
war in Ukrain
Well done, had she become president, she would have blown up the whole world, with the American people lured into the war by CNN.
A nice couple indeed...
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Do you realize that ISIS has seen the Doofus of the U.S. (D.O.T.U.S.) travel ban as an act of aggression? He took no military action, but he did pick on a group of people that did not deserve it (Muslims who are already U.S. residents or who have been vetted and are not a threat) that have a tenuous association to people (arguably the same religion, though those in ISIS are obviously extremists and probably only use Islam as cover) who really are enemies of the U.S.
At the same time, D.O.T.U.S. has painted a target on the backs of Christians in north Africa and the Middle East. If enough of those people are hurt or worse by pissed-off people in those places, what is the D.O.T.U.S. going to do? Given his thin skin and poor reasoning, I wouldn't be surprised to see him take military action.
At the same time, I don't see him doing anything to stop Syria. Unfortunately, Ukraine is lost. Lybia is over. He talks about building up the military. Why? If all the military was withdrawn to the U.S. there should be plenty of armed forces to protect the nation. He obviously thinks military action is necessary for something.
Were Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, etc forced to play?
There is a certain level of incompetence or willful malice in the use of NSL and secret rules. Even if you are in the FBI and you don't have a moral objection to spying on everyone without a warrant you must know that this behaviour is going to drive people to use end-to-end encryption and anonymizing networks. Many journalists are already doing this, soon most email will be end-to-end encrypted. Thank you NSA and FBI for ruining future law enforcement's ability to collect evidence.
Ever wonder why you are constantly being urgered to go on the internet or logon or follow us or like us or send email or hook up with us on socisl media? Its because its all part of a government initiative to gather as much ingormation as possible. Originally it was to gather intel on terrorists but now its political. There are no brave politicians and thwre are no brave citizens who stand up for their brother if there is no incentive for their own cause. When your own football team commits a foul how many people protest the call on behalf of justice? Youve been conditioned to ignore injustice when its committed by your own.society is lost to the corporate greed like the NFL and political pigs like Zyrump.
Who cares about ISIS...
'The Trump' is trying to bring the inflow of all kinds of uncontrollable people back under control in order to prevent ISIS-members to even enter the country.
If his rule had been in place previously, 9/11 likely even wouldn't have happened.
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Technically, all the intel agencies, including the mil ones, can access and hack any email you have older than 180 days and any social media posts on any platform.
Welcome to East Germany.
Grats, dudes!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You do realize that the 911 attackers were NOT from the countries that Trump just banned, right?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks
The FBI will reinterpret the rules. Thus:
"NSL requires the signoff of the FBI's general counsel and the executive assistant director..."
Here is one plausible way this could happen:
1). A "general counsel" is just an explicitly identified "counsel", i.e. all "counsels" are general unless they are specialists, and only specialist counsels need to be expressly identified;
2). Counsellors give counsel. A therapist is a counsellor, and thus a therapist can be one of the signatories. So too can a horoscope reader, a psychic and a fung sui master;
3). The "executive assistant director" requirement will be met by the "Executive Assistant" to the Director. And since the policy doesn't say what kind of Director, any Director will do. As in, the Director of a movie, TV show, or music video;
4). The "signoff" requirement will be verbal hallway meetings, phone conversations and similar. You only have to get the signatories to say, "yes I will signoff on that" and you have met the standard;
5). The definition of "journalist" used to be problematic. However in the days of citizen journalists, bloggers and so forth, "everyone" is now a journalist, and therefore there are no limits on who can be investigated for "sources".
The Three Letter Agencies: Dedicated to upholding the Letter of the Law!
Z^1
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.