F.B.I. Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

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 F.B.I. 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 F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that 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,” Mr. 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 F.B.I. had frequently misused “national security letters,” which allow agents to obtain information like phone records without a court order.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/us/13fbi.html

[Webster Green]

1. Fuck the FBI.

Nothing more than a corrupt terrorist organization.

Wasting taxpayer money going through Raging Grannies garbage cans.

Hey FBI! Fuck you assholes!

Oh, agent Mike...fuck you too!

[EFerrari]

20. Vegans, peace grannies and Quakers -- watch your backs!

This is FBI's reward for screwing up the anthrax case twice. And Obama wants Mueller to stay on when his term ends.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I for one fully embrace the NEW POLICE STATE

where everyone that is not rich can breathe easier knowing that they have someone looking over their shoulder.

[napoleon_in_rags]

6. unbelievable.

that closing line: she rejected arguments that the F.B.I. should focus only on investigations that begin with a firm reason for suspecting wrongdoing.

Its breeding this idea of a class of people, who watch over everybody else even though they are not suspected of any crime at all. A class of overlords.

[OnyxCollie]

3. K&R. nt

[emilyg]

4. Oh joy. k/r

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. The old trash trick.

Agents have asked for that power in part because they want the ability to use information found in a subject’s trash to put pressure on that person to assist the government in the investigation of others.

When there's nothing easier than dropping something in somebody's trash when you walk by their house.

[rpannier]

8. My family livesin a small community where you can still burn your trash

If I ever move back to the states I'm burning mine no matter where I live (Kindling for fire or BBQ)

[Tripod]

7. How do we stop this?

OMG... Bull shit.

[nonperson]

10. It would take far more than anyone appears willing to offer

The mechanisms are so deeply entrenched we'd need an overhaul of our entire government and society to effect change. People always snoop. It's in their nature. These people snoop with the blessing of the state. This country is beginning to remind me of East Germany during the Stasi years.

I don't get it here in American today though. They're doing it openly, making headlines, but the majority of Americans seem to accept it all as normal. And it is normal.

"The new normal"

"The new world order"

[Tripod]

21. nonperson. great post!

You have been smart.

[woo me with science]

15. I'm pretty sure the President can't stop it. nt

[nonperson]

9. The ONE thing I dislke the most is authoritarian control freaks

They have no fucking idea what's best any more than you do. They just want everything done their way because they want everything done their way.

Technology is first and foremost a tool of the police state. It's the next best thing to reaching their ultimate goal of being inside your head.

[ixion]

11. And the war on We, the People rolls on

how very, very, very un-American.

[Hubert Flottz]

12. "You better stop,

Hey what's that sound,
Everybody look what's going down."

[No Elephants]

13. Silver lining--People have less and less reason to hate us for our freedoms.

"In this exclusive blog interview, Ellsberg says, “Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, would feel vindicated that all the crimes he committed against me–which forced his resignation facing impeachment–are now legal. “

Thank you, Presidents Bush and Obama and both Democratic and Republican Congresses.

[woo me with science]

14. C'mon people. Just be patient.

Do you want Palin in the White House??????

[woo me with science]

16. K&R nt

[cutlassmama]

17. nwo

[Lucian]

18. That's just great.

Like we're not being watched enough.

Why don't they just put telescreens in all of our homes?

:eyes:

[nebenaube]

19. They do, if you can afford one... n/t