FBI broke the law to spy on YOU


Who guards the guardians?
More and more I'm finding that the stuff in the headlines is stuff I've written about years ago. I'm seriously considering creating a kind of flashback entry. Let me show you what I mean.

Here's the current story and I quote from it like so:

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.

Flashback - Here's what I wrote on a closely related topic in May of 2005.

It's easy to see how this can be abused, look no further than the War on Drugs and the tactics used there. At one point, the DEA was going after garden supply stores because the stores weren't providing sales records on people who bought growlights and supplies for indoor gardening. Of course, that old canard about "why worry if you have nothing to hide" was trotted out.

Once the system exists, it can be perverted to any use. If you have done anything questionable, or even if a policeman or agent has a beef with you or something you have done, your records will be flagged and your freedom will be curtailed. It doesn't matter if it is a mistake or if you prove you are innocent. As anyone who has had tangles with the IRS can tell you, it's almost impossible to "clear your name." If you manage to get your record cleared one place, it can trigger "inquires" elsewhere. Just as mistakes with the DEA, INS, and FDA have triggered IRS investigations. Once in the "system," it assumes you are guilty without overwhelming and uncontested proof that you are innocent.

Now either I am crazy or the system is. The same things keep happening again and again. There are only so many ways I can write about them.

Flashbacks it is.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - February 1, 2010 at 01:53 PM  Tag


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