Sol Invictus
01-21-2010, 06:14 PM
Justice department to accuse FBI of invoking crises to obtain details of more than 2,000 calls, Washington Post reports
Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 20.06 GMT
The US justice department is preparing a report which concludes that the FBI repeatedly broke the law by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist to obtain more than 2,000 telephone call records over four years from 2002, including those of journalists on US newspapers, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post.
The bureau also issued authorisations for the seizure of records after the fact, in order to justify unwarranted seizures.
The Washington Post said the emails show how counter-terrorism *officials inside FBI headquarters breached regulations designed to protect civil liberties.
The FBI's general counsel, Valerie Caproni, told the Washington Post that the agency violated privacy laws by inventing non-existent terrorist threats to justify collecting the phone records. "We should have stopped those requests from being made that way," she said.
Read More Here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/19/fbi-terror-emergencies-phone-calls)
Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 19 January 2010 20.06 GMT
The US justice department is preparing a report which concludes that the FBI repeatedly broke the law by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist to obtain more than 2,000 telephone call records over four years from 2002, including those of journalists on US newspapers, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post.
The bureau also issued authorisations for the seizure of records after the fact, in order to justify unwarranted seizures.
The Washington Post said the emails show how counter-terrorism *officials inside FBI headquarters breached regulations designed to protect civil liberties.
The FBI's general counsel, Valerie Caproni, told the Washington Post that the agency violated privacy laws by inventing non-existent terrorist threats to justify collecting the phone records. "We should have stopped those requests from being made that way," she said.
Read More Here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/19/fbi-terror-emergencies-phone-calls)