Tag: warrantless electronic surveillance
Posted on Tue Jan 19, 2010 at 08:36:00 AM EST
Tags: warrantless electronic surveillance (all tags)
The Washington Post has obtained FBI internal memos and e-mails showing that the FBI illegally collected thousands of phone records from 2002 to 2006 by lying to phone companies and inventing fake terror emergencies. From the memos, and through interviews, it has learned:
E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.
A Justice Department inspector general's report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.
FBI General Counsel Valerie Peroni tells the Post the FBI violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Actby invoking non-existent emergencies to obtain the records. [More...]
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