Trust us, we're from the government Part Duex


The FBI just raised the stakes
And people wonder why I don't trust government when it comes to electronic surveillance. The FBI not only broke the law, but they hid their actions from Congress.

The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.

And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said he was to blame for not putting more safeguards into place.

"I am to be held accountable," Mueller said. He told reporters he would correct the problems and did not plan to resign.

"The inspector general went and did the audit that I should have put in place many years ago," Mueller said.

The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.

In the Robert Redford movie Sneakers, one of the few "hacker" films that was actually mostly accurate, there is a great line.

"Too many secrets."

It's a great film, if you have not seen it you should. It's the only film where you will see Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykrody and River Pheonix. It holds up to modern viewing fairly well and the computers don't look too dated. Anyway, back to the entry.

The more secrets that a government keeps from it's citizens, the less accountable it is.

I am not even talking about Congress.

I am talking about the citizens.

Think about it. We've got secret commissions deciding what they can tell you about secret privacy protections on your data. They can't even tell you what those protections are.

Meanwhile, a law enforcement agency does everything it can to skirt the law and the will of Congress.

This will get passed off as part of the corruption of the Bush White House. But it is not. Hardly anyone talks about the secret FBI investigations "requested" by the Clinton White House. Or the IRS audits that Clinton political operatives arranged.

It's a government problem. Government is not your friend. Government can't be trusted with secret powers.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - March 9, 2007 at 12:47 PM  Tag


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