27B filed a request Friday for the FBI to produce copies of the contracts it signed with three large telecoms, post-Patriot Act, in order to get phone call records in response to agent's self-issued subpoenas faster.  Those contracts created a cozy relationship that agents quickly abused to get records without even jumping through the few administrative hoops required for so-called "National Security Letters," according to a recent internal audit.

27B is asking the FBI for "expedited processing."  A copy of the Freedom of Information Act request is here (.pdf).

Photo: NickD

The FBI is under scrutiny for asking phone companies for telephone records using fake emergency letters and then not following up with the required legal documents. In a pre-emptive response, the FBI halted the rule-breaking by telling agents that emergency letters no longer had to be followed up, according to this story yesterday from the Washington Post's John Solomon.

The new rules rely heavily on a provision of law that allows phone and internet companies turn over records to the government without legal liability if the companies believe there is an emergency.  Civil liberties advocates say that provision was originally intended to allow phone companies to turn over records when they found a problem, but that law enforcement has long abused the loophole to get information without a

New York cops traveled the world to spy on protestors before the GOP convention in 2004, jetting from Montreal to Miami to scores of other cities, including some in Europe . The NYT broke the story yesterday.

The NYPD spent countless tax dollars to have its Intelligence Division create hundreds of secret files on people who planned to get rowdy at the convention. The files also include information on hundreds who didn't -- actors, churchgoers, environmentalists, death penalty opponents, anyone, really, who might be opposed to elements of the GOP platform.

Now the city is asking a court to keep the spy records sealed because the news media will "fixate upon and sensationalize them." Come on. That's ridiculous. We wouldn't do that.

Photo: Daniel M

The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), a massive central database the government uses to store information on terror suspects and generate watch lists, has grown from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to around 435,000 today, according to an analysis in The Washington Post yesterday.

The Post story, which digs into how TIDE works, raises a number of questions about how information is gathered and used by federal agencies, which usually contend that their investigations are focused, purpose-driven and hold little likelihood of pulling innocent people into their scope. But the TIDE system also operates like "a vacuum cleaner for both proven and unproven information, and its managers disclaim responsibility for how other agencies use the data."

Continue reading "Terror Database Threatens to Overwhelm" »

FBI Broke Law Using Patriot Powers, Former FBI Agent Says

By Ryan Singel March 19, 2007 3:53:03 PM

The FBI's misuse of a key Patriot Act power was both intentional and criminal, and is symptomatic of the department's over-reliance on ineffective data-mining methods, according to Mike German, a former FBI special agent who now works as the ACLU's National Security Policy Counsel.

The devil is in the details of March 9's Justice Department's 200-page report on the FBI's misuse of so-called National Security Letters and the most damning details were left out of the executive summary and subsequent news accounts, German told reporters in a conference call Monday. That report found that the FBI acquired information on 143,074 persons from 2003 to 2005 and that of a sample of investigations audited, some 22% included possible violations of the law.

NSLs are self-issued subpoenas that allow investigators in terrorism and espionage cases to require phone companies, banks, credit reporting agencies and ISPs to turn over records on Americans. Those records are then fed into three computer systems, including a shared data-mining warehouse known the Investigative Data Warehouse.

"There's this idea that data mining is going to be the answer," German said. "The FBI has bought into this snake oil. You have agents who are doing collection rather than investigation."

Continue reading "FBI Broke Law Using Patriot Powers, Former FBI Agent Says " »

The FBI, already taking flak for the abuse of national security letters used to spy on Americans, admitted to The Washington Post today that its agents "repeatedly provided inaccurate information to win secret court approval of surveillance warrants in terrorism and espionage cases."

Warrants issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allow for physical and electronic surveillance and are some of the most secretive and loosely vetted investigative tools available to federal law enforcement. But time and time again the FBI supplied the court with bad data to obtain warrants, according to the Post and an internal bureau audit last year. FBI agents even used information from deactivated informants. The errors were bad enough that FISC's chief judge complained to the Justice Department.

The FBI has chalked its mishaps up mostly to sloppiness and lack of internal oversight. But the extent to which the FBI has violated civil liberties and run roughshod over the law -- thousands of cases over several years -- suggests the bureau's problems go beyond mere incompetence.