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FBI to Bill of Rights: Drop Dead
Posted by Ernest Miller on Friday, August 23 @ 08:08:30 EDT Civil Liberties
The New York Times (reg. req.) leads with an extremely disturbing story claiming that the FBI has, in at least 75 cases, been abusing its wiretap and electronic surveillance powers (Secret Court Says F.B.I. Aides Misled Judges in 75 Cases). The Washington Post also has the story (Secret Court Rebuffs Ashcroft: Justice Dept. Chided On Misinformation). At issue are wiretapping and electronic surveillance orders approved by America's secret tribunal, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Created in 1978, the Court meets in secret to approve covert surveillance and search warrants for intelligence gathering. The court issues warrants on much less evidence than is required for criminal wiretaps, authorizing surveillance in circumstances that in the criminal context would violate the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The reason this is supposedly constitutional is that the government is supposed to use this information not for criminal trials, but foreign intelligence gathering (to prevent terrorism, for example). This amazing report by the NYTimes shows that the FBI has been abusing this power to conduct criminal investigations, ignoring the Constitution and acting as a domestic secret police force.

What is even more amazing is that the criticisms of the FBI come from FISC itself, which for nearly two decades never turned down a government request for surveillance. The Court's criticism came in the form a decision that rejected a secret request made by the Justice Department this year to allow broader cooperation and evidence-sharing between counterintelligence investigators and criminal prosecutors. Barbara Comstock, a DOJ spokesperson, said that the Court's "decision unnecessarily narrowed the Patriot Act and limits our ability to fully utilize the authority that Congress provided us" to use information gathered for intelligence purposes in criminal prosecutions. Unbelievable.

For more information on wiretapping, see the Center for Democracy and Technology's wiretapping page (CDT Wiretapping Issues).

UPDATE 1030 ET
Read the opinion (FISA Opinion [PDF]).

 
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