Has a certain ring to it, doesn't it?
"FBI knows its surveillance regulations, director tells Congress" by Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press | July 29, 2010
WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress yesterday that he does not know how many of his agents cheated on an important exam on the bureau’s policies, discussing an embarrassing revelation that raises questions about whether the FBI knows its own rules for conducting surveillance on Americans....
The test was supposed to ensure that FBI agents understand new rules allowing them to conduct surveillance and open files on Americans without evidence of criminal wrongdoing....
In Columbia, S.C., agents said they got approval to print the test in advance and use it as a study guide, according to a letter to the inspector general from the FBI Agents Association. The head of the policy office later said that wasn’t true, the letter said....
What do you do when the FBI lies, huh?
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.
The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records’’ — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval.
Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history....
Well, now you know that I know.... and where are we?
Have you read any of the stuff?
One senior administration government official, who would discuss the proposed change only on condition of anonymity, countered that “most’’ Internet or e-mail providers do turn over such data....
Oh, they already do, so....
Senior administration officials said the proposal was prompted by a desire to overcome concerns and resistance from Internet and other companies that the existing statute did not allow them to provide such data without a court order.
“The statute as written causes confusion and the potential for unnecessary litigation,’’ Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said.
The administration has asked Congress to amend the statute, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, in the fiscal year that begins in October.
Administration officials noted that the act specifies in one clause that Internet and other companies have a duty to provide electronic communication transactional records to the FBI in response to a national security letter.
Otherwise known as a fishing expedition.
Related: Will Congress Stop Abuse of National Security Letters
Well, that's going to happen when you don't know your own rules.
But the next clause specifies only four categories of basic subscriber data that the FBI may seek: name, address, length of service, and toll billing records.
The officials said the transactional information at issue is the equivalent of telephone toll billing records, which the FBI can obtain without court permission.
Then WHY would they need EXPANDED POWERS?
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