FBI Illegally Gathered Phone Records From 2002-2006

The FBI broke the law by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist in order to persuade phone companies to provide 2000 telephone records.

E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.

A Justice Department inspector general’s report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed.

Top level FBI personnel up to the assistant director level approved these illegalities.

FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni said in an interview Monday that the FBI technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act when agents invoked nonexistent emergencies to collect records.

FBI say they’ve enacted safeguards in 2007 which have ended the problem. I’m sure we can trust them, aren’t you?

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.