FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011803982.html

by prat • 17 years ago

31 11 17 years ago

washingtonpost.com

jpwagner• 17 years ago

who will watch the watchmen

ciscoriordan• 17 years ago

Journalists, the ones who still have jobs.

kingkilr• 17 years ago

I remember being in 8th grade in 2004 and writing an essay arguing that the FISA courts were antithetical to our notions of liberty, even if they didn't actually break the law. Little did I know that FISA warrants were the least of my worries.

nazgulnarsil2• 17 years ago

I'm sure this kind of thing is rare.~

azm2• 17 years ago

5 years, multiple thousands of almost illegal intercepts, 'blanket' PIs to cover up the unauthorized intercepts.

Surely redefining 'rare' is not the answer.

nazgulnarsil2• 17 years ago

um, I guess the sarcasm punctuation mark is not common parlance round these parts. though I guess </snark> or something would be more universally understood.

mcav• 17 years ago

As unfortunate as the situation may be, wiretapping/spying/searching will probably always happen at high levels of government regardless of the law. I don't know of any way to stop it, or that it's even possible to see if it would subsequently have been stopped.

bediger• 17 years ago

Right, but at least let's not do really stupid things like build-in wiretapping capability, or have "law enforcement keys" or something like that.

It would probably help to have decently encrypted telephone protocols, instead of merely outlawing listening devices.

ebrenes• 17 years ago

I must confess I was incredibly amused every time they used "technically violated", "technical violation" or other euphemisms for breaking the law. They either followed the law or they broke it and should face the appropriate punishment (if any).

It just strikes me like the author is trying to minimize the impact by appealing to the use of technicality as "only appealing to a specialist" or in this case some "legalist". It's a disservice to the protection of civil liberties by minimizing the importance of crimes committed against said liberties.

nfnaaron• 17 years ago

Yeah, but they're the FBI so their intentions were good. </sarc>

FBI broke law for years in phone record searches

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