Reply #7: FBI May Have Broken the Law 1,000 Times in Surveilling Americans

[BushOut06]

Source: Wired

The FBI egregiously violated privacy laws and bureau rules to obtain telephone, e-mail and financial records on scores of Americans, according to an internal audit obtained by the Washington Post and reported today.

Although the audit only covers 10 percent of the FBI's national security investigations since 2002 -- raising the possibility of massive illegal behavior -- the results are chilling. Of the more than 1,000 violations revealed, around 700 involve telecoms or other communications companies, who glibly handed over information when presented with a National Security Letter by the FBI. The bureau improperly used NSLs to bypass the court approval that normally allows similar surveillance to take place.

Not that this bothered companies such as Verizon, AT&T and several ISPs. According to the Post, these companies not only turned over information the FBI was seeking but bonus material that no one had bothered to request.




Read more: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/fbi_may_have_br.html