New FBI Rules Would Make Domestic Surveillance Even Easier

Washington Post:

The Justice Department will unveil changes to FBI ground rules today that would put much more power into the hands of line agents pursuing leads on national security, foreign intelligence and even ordinary criminal cases.

The overhaul, the most substantial revision to FBI operating instructions in years, also would ease some reporting requirements between agents, their supervisors and federal prosecutors in what authorities call a critical effort to improve information gathering and detect terrorist threats.

The changes would give the FBI's more than 12,000 agents the ability at a much earlier stage to conduct physical surveillance, solicit informants and interview friends of people they are investigating without the approval of a bureau supervisor. Such techniques are currently available only after FBI agents have opened an investigation and developed a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or that a threat to national security is developing.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[Babysnake]

Got to have these new rules in place so when the republicans steal the election, they will be able to crack down on the upset american people better.

[Yermammy]

Thanks guys for caving on FISA. Not only are the Telco giants partying their asses off, it got King George off the hook. THIS is what I was warning you idiots about (you know who you are). Welcome to the future that YOU endorsed.

[KCFreedom]

Fascism. Coming to us, one baby step at a time.

Betcha MSM will keep a lid on this, like they usually do.

[jaydon2]

The people of the US condemned Hussein and his use of spies to keep his people in line. The US condemned the KGB and their spying and restrictions of liberties of the Russian people. The US was doing battle with the Stasi for recruiting their citizens to spy on their neighbors, fellow East German citizens. We fought a war against the Nazi SS.

And the media didn't want to lose TV revenue from the Olympics from Beijing so they didn't report on human rights violations by the government and they threw us a bone when they did on the street reporting and turned the camera onto the person who was shadowing the news crew and taking notes.

They were condemned for using tactics against their own people which is now being employed against the citizens of the United States by executive orders of the White House.

KGB, Stasi, SS, Communist Party Officials had one thing in common - they were run by political leaders determined to keep their party in power.

The FBI and, SS (Secret Service this time) were out in for the GOP convention keeping opposing political views away and out of the news. The Communist Party Officials did the same in Beijing about Tibet . The former KGB is doing the same to make Putin look good about Georgia.

Look around. Our government has become the enemy we hated in the Cold War and our government is using the same tactics our Cold War enemy used.

[Bush 08]

i thought thanks to the patriot acts, and lack of opposition to them, and lack of accountability for the telecoms..­. etc., that it was fairly easy to spy on the citizenry as it is...
perhaps they should gather some intel about the domestic terrorism known as totalitari­anism...

[CalliDem]

Obama to the RESCUE ... oh, wait a minute ... he supports spying ... my bad.

[kuffar]

I have nothing to hide, the FBI can listen as much as they want, I'm sure they will be boored to sleep. Only those who have something to hide will fear our country's efforts to make it safe from terrorists, foreign and domestic.

[wndrwrthg]

You are a direct threat to the well being of the constitution. Those of your ilk, those who so blithely revel in their ignorance of the realities of acts like this, should be the ones to be watched and monitered.

[xenophon]

Under CheneyBush law enforcement is all about enforcement, and not about protecting citizens in any way.

Who is a bigger threat to individual Americans lives, property, and well being? Terrorists? Or our own government?

All the terrorists want to do is kill us. Bang, bang, we're dead. Only takes two seconds.

Our own government wants to arrest us, hold us incognito, without charges, without lawyers, seize our assets, confiscate our homes, ruin our careers, kick our families out on the street, and may not even release us even if they discover they have made a mistake.

An NPR story recently told of a young man, a naturalized citizen, born in Morroco, who had the misfortune to cross the US border from Canada on 9-11-01.

He was detained and handed over to the FBI who kept him in a federal detention center near SEA-TAC International Airport.

After two months of being investigated the FBI cleared him of all suspicion of wrong doing, cleared his name. But they still kept him in jail for another four years and ten months. They never explained why. They're not required to.

[Liam]

"Such techniques are currently available only after FBI agents have opened an investigation and developed a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or that a threat to national security is developing­."

Yeah, because heaven forbid we let a little thing like "reasonable suspicion" or "freedom from unreasonable search and seizure" stop the FBI.

Because they've clearly handled the powers they got under the Patriot Act correctly.

Refresh my memory, how many times now have we gotten reports that they have misused "security letters" to obtain information they had not right to?

But it was all in the name of terrorism, so what if some of our American rights aren't really being adhered to any more.

Liam.

[white mende man]

When ever you talk on a cell phone your conversation is heard by not only you and the party you are talking to but by whomever your cell phone carrier is. This eaves dropping is not done to fight terrorism it is to snoop on whatever business dealings you are making for these people to get a jump on such deals... and I am not referring to small crappy deals either since most business people on the go use cell phones. This administration is only about money and how to accumulate money it has never been about fighting terrorism.

[white mende man]

Oh Hell! Why doesn't the congress just create a law for Bush to sign that states a CIA agent (snoop) will be assigned to every American citizen to make sure they are not planning any terrorist activities against this country.

[landoffools]

OF COURSE !

Give the bumbling, incompetent agents of FUBAR more individual powers !

[zizyphus]

They want to eliminate the restrictions put in place to prevent the kind of political espionage that Nixon committed in Watergate.

Let us not for get: 911 happened because our 16 intelligence agencies, our entire military, the FAA, and NORAD failed to protect our country.

At the time there were some restrictions on intelligence gathering as regards American communications, but this is not the root cause of the failure. The failure was the result of the complete and total corruption of every federal agency since the Republicans took control.

The White House did everything in their power to stonewall an investigation into 911. Remember that.

[Liam]

Oooh, good point, I hadn't even considered the Watergate aspects of this.

Thanks for a good post!

[cdnnewsjunky]

I didn't think you had any freedoms left to take away!

[white mende man]

ah! but we will pay thru the nose for the Iraqis to have them... well except Iraqi Government officials (sic).

[yappnmutt]

the fbi should be given even more power to protect the new american way. any dissent should be stifled by prosecution under new laws that make it illegal to question the new american way by making any criticism of the us gov't, its elected officials or employees a terrorist act punishable by hard time served north of fairbanks, alaska.