Posted on 03/07/2008 3:46:01 PM PST by mad_as_he$$
According to FBI director, Robert Mueller, the FBI collected personal data by improperly using national security letters in 2006. The widespread abuse program to gather confidential data on people in the United States continued into 2006.
Mueller said Wednesday before an oversight hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, that breaches of privacy in counter-terror investigations, which were known to have occurred from 2003 through 2005, also occurred in 2006.
A pending report will detail the FBI's continued misuse of national security letters.
The breach occurred in part, by banks, telecommunication companies and other private businesses giving the FBI more personal client data than was requested, according to Mueller.
The FBI's use of the letters has grown dramatically, mainly due to powers granted to the federal law enforcement agency under the USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism law Congress approved after the Sept. 11 attacks.
(Excerpt) Read more at halflifesource.com ...
I am one of those. I do believe that individual agents have abused their powers, but since Hoover I feel they have gone out of their way - at the expense of good agents' careers - to prevent themselves from being viewed negatively... "PC gone wild" is one way I've heard it described.
The agents I know are good people. I imagine that any organization is bound to have their stars (psssst, and turds).
Tell that to Randy Weaver and his family. But I'm sure glad you feel like they've gone above and beyond.
Yes, I too looked for a transcript and couldn't find one. Ping me if you see one. Thanks.
And you think that Bush, Chertoff, TSA, homeland security and Mueller himself are innocent? Government bureaucrats are government bureaucrats and have always been such. Our founding fathers had great fear of them for a reason. The Sandy Burglers and Hillarys are bad enough, but the GS7's hired on a high school equivalency program, who outnumber our famous miscreants 10,000:1 are far far worse a danger.
In this imperfect world, I would be somewhat more willing to put up with FBI encroachments on our rights if I thought they were working harder on behalf of our country and protecting us against our enemies.
Law enforcement is always a two-edged sword, and judicial remedies will always be a two-edged sword as well.
Clinton was deliberately malignant in his corruption of the FBI. I think Bush is merely feckless. I don’t think he has deliberately left these clintonoids in place, because they have frequently succeeded in undermining him and his administration. They have cost him a great deal politically.
Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances are against “The President’s Warrantless Domestic Spying Program” (their words) as well as the most egregious provisions of the grossly misnamed “Patriot” Act. Members include the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, American Policy Center, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Free Congress Foundation, Libertarian Party, Gun Owners of America, and the Second Amendment Foundation.
In the Boehner v. McDermott case the Court didn’t say the recording of the conversation didn’t violate federal law. The court only found that McDermott could not be found liable under the Federal Wiretap Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2511(1)(c) and (d) et seq “use and disclosure” prohibition, primarily because McDermott did not act unlawfully when he obtained the illegally recorded tape from the Florida couple, and because the tape was of public importance. The fact that recording the conversation violated federal law was stipulated in the case and the court never said the recording was legal.
The Justice Dept filed charges against John and Alice Martin for recording that call. The Martins were charged with violating federal Communications Privacy Act and agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with investigation into how recording wound up in hands of a reporter.
Neither the Boehner case nor the Bartnicki case made it legal to violate the Federal Wiretap Act, the Communications Privacy Act or the Fourth Amendment. Bush’s insistence that the corporations get immunity makes it clear that he knows they violated the law when they cooperated with the illegal demands of the spy agencies. People and agencies who did nothing wrong don’t need immunity.
I have no problem being in agreement with American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Free Congress Foundation, Gun Owners of America, and the Second Amendment Foundation against Bush. I sure as hell trust those groups more than him, especially when it comes to protecting the Bill of Rights.
Bush lost all credibility on that score when he signed the McCain/Finegold attack on the First Amendment, which he acknowledged while campaigning that as president he had an duty to veto.
James Madison’s warning is especially relevant to the situation we are in today. He said: “The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
A more modern admonition comes from Justice Charles Evans Hughes writing in 1934. “Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the government were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency.”
We should also heed Justice Louis D. Brandeis wise admonition: “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent.”
In the not too distant past, most Americans valued freedom and liberty more than life. That isn’t the case today.
I was in a hotel the night before the start of the Guns Rights Policy Conference when Bush gave his speech announcing creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security and calling for legislation that became the grossly misnamed “Patriot” Act. I watched the speech in the bar.
There was a WWII veterans’ reunion in the hotel at the time and sever of those guys were also in the bar. At one point one of the veterans said we were watching the start of the rapid erosion of our freedoms. A young guy said something about the president had to keep us safe even if we had to give up some freedoms.
One old veteran jumped up and waived a hand with three fingers missing at the young man and said: “I didn’t leave my fingers in France and my brother didn’t die in Italy to keep your sorry ass safe. We did it to keep you FREE!”
I cheered the old man and picked up his bar tab. He understands what America is all about. Unfortunately, except for a young man also there for the GRPC, the people preferring safety to freedom were all younger than 50 and only us older guys preferred freedom to perceived safety. I’m sorry for my grandchildren. They will never know what it is like to live in a free country because we are not leaving them one.
There are sins of omission and sins of commission. Eight years isn’t a long time in an FBI agent’s career with the Agency. Most of the problems with the FBI are caused by senior agents who run the agency and were appointed by earlier presidents, including Jimmy Carter as well as Clinton. Clinton promoted the ones who were willing to work with him in his corrupt activities.
What Sessions has failed to do is to take back some sort of directing control over the agency—much the same as the better known problem with high-level traitors in the CIA that continually leak to the press and stab Bush in the back.
I don’t excuse Bush. After 8 years he bears a heavy responsibility for letting this sort of treason continue. But it is more a question of his neglecting his duty rather than deliberately bringing about this state of affairs, since it not only hurts the country, it has also hurt him, politically.
I and my FBI friends agree that what happened at Ruby Ridge was a travesty. There can be no reasoned exceptions or "howevers."
Because I'm critical of that eposide (and Waco) does not mean I'm going to ostracize my good friends in the Bureau who -in my experience- have always tried to do what is morally and lawfully right.
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel07/nsl_transcript030907.htm
Ask your friends how Hillary got ahold of, and misused, several hundred FBI files on her political enemies without someone in the FBI coming forward.
Who said it wasn't an anonymous agent that let on the the fact that the Clintons were file checking? (I don't know how it was exposed).
My only argument with you is that you seem to be willing to condemn the entire organization as some evil entity because of the actions of a few agents. Imagine you applied the same criteria to the U.S. Military!? I can only base my opinions on the personal interactions I have had. I realize I won't sway your opinion and I'll respect them. However I'm not changing mine either FRiend.
No, I condemn the agency because of an entire pattern of abuse
Like I said, I don't expect to change your mind.
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