Conflicts of Interest Within FBI By Pegging Mole Pay To Arrests?  Read more 

FBI, politicos renew push for ISP data retention laws

WASHINGTON—The FBI and multiple members of Congress said on Wednesday that Internet service providers must be legally required to keep records of their users’ activities for later review by police.

Their suggestions for mandatory data retention revive a push for potentially sweeping federal laws—which civil libertarians oppose—that flagged last year after the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the idea’s most prominent proponent.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told a House of Representatives committee that Internet service providers should be required to keep records of users’ activities for two years.  Read more 

I’ll just let Diane say it:

Last week I posted on FBI Director Robert Mueller’s attempt to defuse the impact of a pending Inspector General’s report on the agency’s improper use of “national security letters” to obtain records. He pointed out in testimony to Congress that the report covers a period before the FBI instituted reforms to stop the improprieties. Well, the report is now out, and I can see why Mr. Mueller made the effort. From an AP report published in today’s NY Times:

Top-level FBI counterterrorism executives issued improper blanket demands in 2006 for records of 3,860 telephone lines to justify the fact that agents already had obtained the data using an illegal procedure that is now prohibited, the Justice Department inspector general reported Thursday.

Glenn A. Fine also reported that in one case FBI anti-terrorism agents circumvented a federal court which twice had refused a warrant for personal records because the judges believed the agents were investigating conduct protected by the First Amendment. Fine said the agents got the records using national security letters, which do not require a judge’s approval, without altering or re-examining the basis of their suspicions — the target’s association with others under investigation. [Emphasis added]  Read more 

This just makes me laugh. I’ve cried plenty over the death of the Consitution, forgive me as I take a moment for some black humor and schadenfreude:

Lax FBI money controls lead to shutdown of surveillance, Justice Department audit finds

By LARA JAKES JORDAN , Associated Press
Last update: January 10, 2008
WASHINGTON -
Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.

shitting on the Constitution? A-OK! but it’ll cost ya

A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI’s lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said.

In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation “was halted due to untimely payment,” the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government’s most sensitive and secretive criminal investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.

“We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence,” according to the audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.  Read more 

Because I’ve got a biological sample I’d like to send them.  Read more 

I’m with Kevin Drum and Jim Henley in their befuddlement that this story, reported over the weekend, has kicked up so little dust.

Kevin brought it to my attention with a short post to that effect, one of the reasons he is invaluable. Others, like Jim, are beginning to pick up on it, and Mr. Henley supplies some fascinating background. With a story like this, the more the merrier; we need to get it noticed by the village, and the name, “Hagazy,” as well known as “Hamden.”

One reason it hasn’t broken big, a small blogger reported it, and yes, reported is the operative word, just like a real journalist. The “small” describes only the probable stats of the blog, “Psychsound,” not the blogger, Steve Bergstein, a lawyer with two blogs, both of them involved in this story. The other reason is that the village elders are quite uninterested in pursuing evidence that Bush & co is running one of the most corrupt and unlawful administrations in our history.

In fact, Bergstein, whose other blog, “Wait A Second,” tracks and analyzes the civil rights decisions that come out of the the Second Circuit Federal Appeals Court located in Manhattan, became involved in the story itself, by catching while it was happening, an act of censorship being practiced on the written decision itself, a redaction of a large portion in the name of protecting our national security.

Yeah, I suppose that could be said to compute, if you think that every dumb thing any part of your government does, like, for instance, how the FBI got a false confession from a visiting Egyptian, that he was part of the 9/11 conspiracy, who was ultimately proven to be innocent of owning the suspicious device found in the closet of his hotel room, needs to be shielded from scrutiny because otherwise the terrorists will win. Hint: They didn’t get the confession with a decoder ring, knowledge of which could allow Al Queda to profit from our technology.  Read more 

This is shocking, in a way. Or rather, you’d think racist, fear-addicted Republican types would make more of a stink over it. The money quote:

“This is gutting the criminal program. Incomprehensible. Just plain dumb,” said one recently retired top FBI official who requested anonymity.
…
FBI insiders, reciting a litany of concerns, such as public corruption, violent crime and mortgage fraud, say the criminal program already has been cut to the bone.

“They are beyond looking at any body fat,” one said. “They are lopping off limbs.”

But wait, it gets worse:  Read more 

AP:

A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court’s approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.

Excellent.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act “offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.”

Excellent.  Read more 

Just asking…

No doubt the story is even worse than WaPo lets on. Nevertheless:

FBI counterterrorism officials continued to use flawed procedures to obtain thousands of U.S. telephone records during a two-year period…

The flawed procedures involved the use of emergency demands for records, called “exigent circumstance” letters, which contained false or undocumented claims. They also included national security letters that were issued without FBI rules being followed. Both types of request were served on three phone companies.

“Exigent circumstances…” I love it. Sounds like some weasel-faced Federalist Society operative scribbling in the dimly lit dankness of Shooters’s bunker thought that one up, eh?

The exigency letters, created by the FBI’s New York office after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, told telephone providers that the FBI needed information immediately and would follow up with subpoenas later. There is no basis in the law to compel phone companies to turn over information using such letters, [Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A.] Fine found, and in many cases, agents never followed up with the promised subpoenas, he said.

Fine’s report said the bureau’s counterterrorism office used the exigency letters at least 739 times between 2003 and 2005 to obtain records related to 3,000 separate phone numbers.

“Related to” is awfully vague. Related through six degrees of separation perhaps?

FBI officials acknowledged that the process was so flawed that they may have to destroy some phone records to keep them from being used in the future, if the bureau does not find proof they were gathered in connection with an authorized investigation.

Actually, they can’t destroy them. Ashcroft’s order setting up the program under the so-called Patriot act mandates that they “shall” keep them, no matter whether they are flawed or not.

But Fine’s report made no mention of the FBI’s subsequent efforts to legitimize those actions with improperly prepared national security letters last year.

That’s bad enough. So much for the rule of law and the right to be secure in our papers and effects.

Now, the money quote:  Read more 

NPR quotes Bush on “solving” the problem of FBI abuse of National Security Letters under the so-called Patriot Act—without mentioning the Bush signing statement that said Bush wouldn’t comply with the Act’s reporting requirements for NSLs.

What’s the matter with these idiots at NPR?  Read more 

But read on. The FBI program that uses the letters is a “Friendster for Fascists,” which is the part of the story that’s getting buried. AP:

The nation’s top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions.

Krugman was right. Two words: subpoena power. Can anyone imagine these guys apologizing for anything—or the illegality even coming to light—if the Congress were still in Republican hands?

Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies.

I say, be bold! Prosecute the “bad apples”!

And now an early candidate for Understatement of the Year:  Read more 

I am shocked, shocked! to find this out:

The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.

The report, in classified and unclassified versions, remains closely held, but Washington officials who have seen it tell ABC News it documents “numerous lapses” and describe it as “scathing” and “not a pretty picture for the FBI.”

FBI Director Robert Mueller is scheduled to brief Congress on the report at noon.

The officials say the inspector general found the FBI underreported by at least 20 percent the use of the controversial provision, known as National Security Letters, NSLs, in required disclosures to Congress.  Read more 

Apt description from one Kossack.

I really don’t get why this hasn’t made the Democrats’ radar. It’s got it all: sex, drugs, treason, corruption by the Republican former Speaker…What we’re talking about is Republicans literally selling us out in the War on Terror, and squashing any whistleblower who makes noise about it, classic crime-and-coverup material. This is a total of three former FBI people trying to get some attention in all this. Pelosi? Reid? Where the hell are you people? “Large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder,” isn’t that worth some attention? The silence in all is this enough to make a girl wear foil.

Down, Rick! Down! No! Get offa my leg!

Bush heaves Foley over the side:

The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress called Sunday for a criminal probe into former Rep. Mark Foley’s electronic messages to teenage boys — a lurid scandal that has put House Republicans in political peril.  Read more 

Color me shocked, shocked to discover that we weren’t really told the facts at the outset of this case. Five years, and this is the best they can do? My regard for the FBI is just shaken, I tell you:

WaPo - Five years after the anthrax attacks that killed five people, the FBI is now convinced that the lethal powder sent to the Senate was far less sophisticated than originally believed, widening the pool of possible suspects in a frustratingly slow investigation.  Read more 

Titter. When your foil is too tight, just remember: you have a sense of humor, they don’t.

I’m picturing some E-4 Air Force blog intel analyst trying to connect the dots here. I think every one here writes some pretty off the wall stuff, so this must baffle them.  Read more 

Josh Marshall and Media Matters are heroically covering the mystery of why “respected AP reporter John Solomon” is working so very, very hard to smear Harry Reid. Sen. Reid, coincidentally Democratic Senate Leader, is said to be Just As Bad as Republicans! for going to a boxing match and then voting AGAINST the (Nevada state) agency which gave him the tickets.

But what about Reporter Solomon? AP has been a substantial voice of virtue throughout the Bush Interregnum, filing Freedom of Information Act suits like hail in Kansas on any number of issues. Why would one of their most respected staffers be doing this?

Go read this piece from 2003 from the Center for Public Integrity and decide for yourself:

WASHINGTON, September 17, 2003 — A month before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and all of the increased government secrecy that has ensued, the Justice Department secretly seized the home telephone records of respected investigative reporter and deputy bureau chief of the Associated Press in Washington, John Solomon. And earlier this year, the FBI opened and confiscated his mail.  Read more 

Obviously, I haven’t been paying much attention to the Jefferson bribe thang; I find it not mildly racist for our media to focus on his small time shennanigans while dozens of white politicians are busy making billions for their corporate pals and committing treason. It’s an obvious and time-honored ploy to hoist up a black politician for “corruption” when too much attention is being paid to real rape, murder and pillage perpetrated by rich white men. Jefferson is probably guilty, but he was also probably “in reserve,” being fed dirty money so that when needed, he could be the “next big scandal” and draw focus from his white peers. (No, strike that- Jefferson is an amateur compared to today’s Republicans.)

That said: oh, Denny! I really, really feel for you. I guess it isn’t the case that as a Republican, you can enjoy a properly constitutional relationship with the Executive branch after all:

The unprecedented FBI raid on Jefferson’s office triggered an extraordinary chain of events. Hastert, long one of the president’s staunchest allies in Congress, and his chief of staff, Scott Palmer, were immediately angered by the tactic. On Monday, Hastert pushed Bush strongly on the issue during a trip the two shared on Air Force One coming back from Chicago. “Hastert was white-hot,” said a senior administration official.  Read more 

Go read the whole thing, it’s a chilling testament to our system of “justice:”

Wedick couldn’t look Hamid Hayat in the eye. He had pledged to him months earlier that he was going to do everything he could to see injustice righted, even if it meant turning his back on 35 years in the FBI. “Hamid is a hapless character, but, my God, he isn’t a terrorist. The government counted on hysteria, the 1,000-pound gorilla, to be in the room. And it worked. Damn, it worked.”

He saw one juror holding back tears and made a straight line for her apartment. She wouldn’t let him in at first, talking through a crack. Two hours, four hours, finally she opened the door and told him what he suspected. She didn’t believe Hamid was guilty. So intense was the pressure from fellow jurors to convict him that she had to check into the hospital. Throughout the trial, she said, the foreman kept making the gesture of a noose hanging. “Lynch the Muslim,”  Read more