Senate Questions Re-Write of FBI Investigation Guidelines

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brock N Meeks <bmeeks () cox net>
Date: September 23, 2008 10:44:52 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Senate Questions Re-Write of FBI Investigation Guidelines

Yes, our financial system teeters on the edge of a big, black abyss...  
meanwhile there is still that pesky little business to attend to  
called "everything else."

While Wall St. burns, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence  
(where only VIPs are allowed to peek behind the curtain of the  
'intelligence community'),  will conduct a hearing -- a PUBLIC hearing  
-- on new Attorney General Guidelines governing FBI investigations and  
the collection of domestic intelligence.  The Department of Justice  
first issued guidelines governing FBI investigations in 1974 and has  
loosened the guidelines virtually every time its allowed to open the  
books and pencil whip the rules.

And now Justice is again engaged in a substantial re-write.  CDT got a  
peek at a draft of the new guidelines.  The real news behind the re- 
write is that when the dust settles, the FBI will be permitted to  
engage in intrusive investigative techniques without having a tip that  
a crime may be committed and without having evidence of a  
particularized threat to national security.

Look for senators to question the witnesses about "assessments."  The  
new guidelines would permit FBI agents conducting an "assessment" to  
recruit informants to surreptitiously attend meetings and events, to  
misrepresent their identities while engaging people in conversation in  
an effort to elicit information, and to indefinitely surveil homes,  
offices and individuals, all without any evidence of crime.   
Traditionally, such intrusive investigative techniques were reserved  
for investigating when there was evidence of a crime or of a threat to  
national security; now they would be used to investigate whether to  
investigate. Go figure.

Here's some further background on the issue:  http://cdt.org/security/usapatriot/guidelines.php




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