FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

www.washingtonpost.com

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is an interesting, but I don't understand why they did this. Did a bunch of FBI officers want to track there girlfriends? Did it have to do with other cases and they just used it as a short cut? In the lower part of the article it does state this

Among those whose phone records were searched improperly were journalists for The Washington Post and the New York Times, according to interviews with government officials.

Hope to see more on this.

www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Another link on this story from Fox News:
Report: FBI Illegally Collected Phone Records.

Blows my mind that they think they could get away with this. I believe that they were using the system to take short cuts instead of going through the proper legal channels.

I, too, am looking to see what comes out of this.

reply to post by TLomon


What do you mean THINK? They DID get away with it. Didn't you hear, it was to keep us safe. Yea, that's right, keeping the people safe. They're ALWAYS looking out for our best interests.

Originally posted by TLomon
I, too, am looking to see what comes out of this.

I'm not confident there will be any backlash for the FBI beyond an embarrassing story here...the retoactive immunity for the illegal wiretapping still has me fuming when I think about it...

Good to see you back around TLomon...

[edit on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:31:47 -0600 by MemoryShock]

reply to post by MemoryShock


Has there ever been? They get away way with more then they should. some agents are given the boot from time to time, but anything major gets swept under the rug.

Originally posted by TLomon
Another link on this story from Fox News:
Report: FBI Illegally Collected Phone Records.

Blows my mind that they think they could get away with this. I believe that they were using the system to take short cuts instead of going through the proper legal channels.

I, too, am looking to see what comes out of this.

"Blows my mind that they think they could get away with this."

Really?!?! Have you learned nothing from ATS?

Originally posted by TLomon
Blows my mind that they think they could get away with this.

It does?

This is pretty much par for the course in America anymore.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation gives America it's lowest ranking for communications privacy. Only three other countries are shown in black -- Russia, China and North Korea.