Shocking News: FBI misused Patriot Act

I find it shocking that this took place considering how devoted the Bush administration has been to protecting our civil liberties.

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/fbi-misused-patriot-act-audit-finds/20070309032109990001

WASHINGTON (March 9) - The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.

And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said he was to blame for not putting more safeguards into place.

"I am to be held accountable," Mueller said. He told reporters he would correct the problems and did not plan to resign.

"The inspector general went and did the audit that I should have put in place many years ago," Mueller said.

The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.

The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct.

Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concludes.

At issue are the security letters, a power outlined in the Patriot Act that the Bush administration pushed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The letters, or administrative subpoenas, are used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. They allow the FBI to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records about their customers or subscribers - without a judge's approval.

 

Who cares?

There have been no terrorists attacks in the United States since 9/11

Rinse and repeat as necessary.

 

And, of course, Fredo attached one of his "signing statements" to the renewal of the Patriot Act that said he was, of course, above the law. And then Alberto Gonzales fetched a stick and they all went home.
WPE

 

Knock me over with a feather.

 

You America-hating sissies are the reason we're all going to hell in a handbasket. Hope you're proud of yourselves.

 

Is it a green-and-yellow handbasket because I can't find it anywhere.

 

It's red. Red as in commie.

If you've washed it it might be pink which is appropriate too.

 

Why would any Communist be in favor of a radical Islamist agenda?

 

Don't fairies wear pink?

Whatever. Demonstrably.

 

V.I. Lenin: theocracy's friend. Stalin: Islam's butt-boy. Shit, I think there's a Shia splinter-sect in Goatturdistan that thinks former Albanian dictator Enver Xosha was the 12th Imam. That "atheist state" thing was just to confuse the West.

 

It worked.

 

Whatever happened to the rule of law these people some vigorously claim vs illegial immigrants and perjury (except when Scooter does the fibbing).