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Title: FBI expands agents’ investigative power (Secret sneak and peek)
Source:
The Salt Lake Tribune
URL Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/ ... nts-fbi-search-bureau.html.csp
Published: Jun 12, 2011
Author: The New York Times
Post Date: 2011-06-12 23:43:00 by Hondo68
Keywords: search databases, use surveillance teams, attorney general guidelines
Views: 2162
Comments: 3
Washington • The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents — allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention. The FBI soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, according to an official who has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its contents. The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist activity. The FBI recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former FBI agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing. "Claiming additional authorities to investigate people only further raises the potential for abuse," German said, pointing to complaints about the bureau’s surveillance of domestic political advocacy groups and mosques and to an inspector general’s findings in 2007 that the FBI had improperly used "national security letters" to obtain information like people’s phone bills. Valerie E. Caproni, the FBI general counsel, said the bureau had fixed the problems with the national security letters and had taken steps to make sure they would not recur. She also said the bureau — which does not need permission to alter its manual so long as the rules fit within broad guidelines issued by the attorney general — had carefully weighed the risks and the benefits of each change. Some of the most notable changes apply to the lowest category of investigations, called an "assessment." The category, created in December 2008, allows agents to look into people and organizations "proactively" and without firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity. Under current rules, agents must open such an inquiry before they can search for information about a person in a commercial or law enforcement database. Under the new rules, agents will be allowed to search such databases without making a record about their decision.
Poster Comment: Looks like unlimited search powers with no permission from anyone, for any imagined reason. They're following AG Eric Holder's "guidelines", which he pulled out of his azz.
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#1. To: hondo68 (#0)
Where are all the Leftists that were screaming about the Patriot Act when the Bush Administration was using it to listen in on foreigners' overseas phone calls? How come they have no problem when it's Americans inside the U.S. borders, who supposedly have a Constitution to protect them from this kind of tyranny, whose freedoms are being trampled?
Probably hanging out with the bushbot statists who loved constitution/BOR shredding when an R was doing it, but hate it now that a D is doing it.
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
The right did a great job of allaying their fears...
America...My Kind Of Place... "I truly am not that concerned about [bin Laden]..." "THE MILITIA IS COMING!!! THE MILITIA IS COMING!!!"
#2. To: Happy Quanzaa, *The Two Parties ARE the Same* (#1)
Where are all the Leftists that were screaming
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#3. To: Happy Quanzaa (#1)
--GW Bush
--Sarah Palin's version of "The Midnight Ride of Paul revere"
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