Hey, why let the NSA have all the fun:
WASHINGTON, March 8 — The Federal Bureau of Investigation found apparent violations of its own wiretapping and other intelligence-gathering procedures more than 100 times in the last two years, and problems appear to have grown more frequent in some crucial respects, a Justice Department report released Wednesday said. […]
The inspector general’s findings come at a time of fierce Congressional debate over the program of wiretapping without warrants that the National Security Agency has conducted. That program, approved by President Bush, is separate from the F.B.I. wiretaps reviewed in the report, and the inspector general’s office concluded that it did not have the jurisdiction to review the legality or operations of the N.S.A. effort.
But, the report disclosed, the Justice Department has opened reviews into two other controversial counterterrorism tactics that the department has widely employed since the Sept. 11 attacks.
In one, the inspector general has begun looking into the F.B.I.’s use of administrative subpoenas, known as national security letters, to demand records and documents without warrants in terror investigations. Some critics maintain that the bureau has abused its subpoena powers to demand records in thousands of cases.
In the other, the Office of Professional Responsibility, a Justice Department unit that reviews ethics charges against department lawyers, has opened inquiries related to the detention of 21 people held as material witnesses in terror investigations.
Well, another not-a-surprise, considering all the stories we have seen over domestic federal spying on anti-war and peace activists. The original NSA story is (as predicted) turning out to be just the tip of the iceberg. The Justice department bureacracy is fighting back against the Bush administration’s police state tactics, just as the Intelligence Community fought back against the Iraq war lies and deceits, and the abuse of the NSA. What will be the result?
Well, you know who I’m rooting for.
