GeheimStaatsPolizie reports
The FBI plays Big Brother
The FBI is behaving like Big Brother again, conducting surveillance on U.S. citizens without regard to the guidelines it is supposed to follow to keep its operations above board.
What's worse is that once these breaches were pointed out, the agency brushed them off as if they were no big deal. Newly released classified documents reveal that the FBI has secretly shadowed citizens for as long as 18 months, and that it did so without the proper legal permission or oversight. It also kept tabs on another target for five years, but didn't bother to tell the Justice Department the person had moved from New York to Detroit. That is a clear violation of rules, and also ominously evokes the bad old days when J. Edgar Hoover presided over an agency that too often ran amok.
There's a reason law enforcement agencies are required to get warrants. Warrants give them the authority to obtain information for investigations. But the muscleheads at the FBI didn't bother to update an expired warrant before they seized e-mails. Plus, they obtained bank records without proper authority and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search."
Thank goodness for the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for making public documents - heavily censored, mind you - that give a peek into domestic spying. At least 287 potential violations occurred from 2002 to 2004.
Thirteen cases were referred to the oversight board, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board whose duty it is to examine violations of rules and laws governing secret surveillance.
The documents show the need for greater oversight of secret surveillance within the country. The FBI's so-what, no-big-deal attitude is due in part to the Bush Administration throwing its weight around in this post 9/11 era. Besides, the documents confirm citizens' fear that their liberties are under attack.
Congress shouldn't let the FBI get by with brushing this off. If it does, the agency will think it can get away with greater breaches. It's time for the House and Senate to quit fighting over whether to establish new restrictions on the controversial USA Patriot Act. The FBI has proven once again just how much every agency needs civilian oversight, and a set of watchdogs, media and otherwise. AND
Calls for AFP, ACC to be scrutinised
Monday Nov 28 22:42 AEDT
Politicians need to keep a closer watch on two of Australia's major crime fighting bodies, a joint parliamentary committee says.
The committee wants parliament to be able to more closely scrutinise the activities of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).
It made the call on Monday as it outlined 18 recommendations from its major review of the Australian Crime Commission Act.
The committee said the ACC needed to be subjected to greater scrutiny amid fears the coercive powers held by the law enforcement agency could be used for general policing.
"The committee has taken a view that there is a risk that without the parliament addressing certain matters, there will be the potential that the powers of the ACC might be used for routine policing rather than specialised purposes for which the ACC was established," Labor MP and committee member Duncan Kerr said.
"That is for serious and organised crime."
Mr Kerr said there also had to be better scrutiny of the AFP.
"The Australian Federal Police has an expanding role and quite distinctly to the other organisations which have significant security implications for this nation, there is no oversight through a parliamentary body for the AFP," he said.
"Its expanding role and budget, its place in counter-terrorism deployment in the Solomon Islands, crime fighting in South-East Asia and, of course, its continuing and important work that it undertakes in the broad enforcement of federal law means that there is more reason than ever for the Australian Federal Police to be brought within the system of parliamentary scrutiny."
The FBI is behaving like Big Brother again, conducting surveillance on U.S. citizens without regard to the guidelines it is supposed to follow to keep its operations above board.
What's worse is that once these breaches were pointed out, the agency brushed them off as if they were no big deal. Newly released classified documents reveal that the FBI has secretly shadowed citizens for as long as 18 months, and that it did so without the proper legal permission or oversight. It also kept tabs on another target for five years, but didn't bother to tell the Justice Department the person had moved from New York to Detroit. That is a clear violation of rules, and also ominously evokes the bad old days when J. Edgar Hoover presided over an agency that too often ran amok.
There's a reason law enforcement agencies are required to get warrants. Warrants give them the authority to obtain information for investigations. But the muscleheads at the FBI didn't bother to update an expired warrant before they seized e-mails. Plus, they obtained bank records without proper authority and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search."
Thank goodness for the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for making public documents - heavily censored, mind you - that give a peek into domestic spying. At least 287 potential violations occurred from 2002 to 2004.
Thirteen cases were referred to the oversight board, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board whose duty it is to examine violations of rules and laws governing secret surveillance.
The documents show the need for greater oversight of secret surveillance within the country. The FBI's so-what, no-big-deal attitude is due in part to the Bush Administration throwing its weight around in this post 9/11 era. Besides, the documents confirm citizens' fear that their liberties are under attack.
Congress shouldn't let the FBI get by with brushing this off. If it does, the agency will think it can get away with greater breaches. It's time for the House and Senate to quit fighting over whether to establish new restrictions on the controversial USA Patriot Act. The FBI has proven once again just how much every agency needs civilian oversight, and a set of watchdogs, media and otherwise. AND
Calls for AFP, ACC to be scrutinised
Monday Nov 28 22:42 AEDT
Politicians need to keep a closer watch on two of Australia's major crime fighting bodies, a joint parliamentary committee says.
The committee wants parliament to be able to more closely scrutinise the activities of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).
It made the call on Monday as it outlined 18 recommendations from its major review of the Australian Crime Commission Act.
The committee said the ACC needed to be subjected to greater scrutiny amid fears the coercive powers held by the law enforcement agency could be used for general policing.
"The committee has taken a view that there is a risk that without the parliament addressing certain matters, there will be the potential that the powers of the ACC might be used for routine policing rather than specialised purposes for which the ACC was established," Labor MP and committee member Duncan Kerr said.
"That is for serious and organised crime."
Mr Kerr said there also had to be better scrutiny of the AFP.
"The Australian Federal Police has an expanding role and quite distinctly to the other organisations which have significant security implications for this nation, there is no oversight through a parliamentary body for the AFP," he said.
"Its expanding role and budget, its place in counter-terrorism deployment in the Solomon Islands, crime fighting in South-East Asia and, of course, its continuing and important work that it undertakes in the broad enforcement of federal law means that there is more reason than ever for the Australian Federal Police to be brought within the system of parliamentary scrutiny."
posted by professor rat at 9:29 PM
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