While the ACLU is filing suit against the Bush administration for its secret wire taps of American citizens under violation of the 1st and 4th amendments. While Rush Limbaugh is still out there spreading the lie that the FISA court rejected a FBI request to tap Jose Padilla, the article draws attention to how the N.S.A. program might even be counter productive by drawing F.B.I. agents away on wild goose chases.
Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends By LOWELL BERGMAN, ERIC LICHTBLAU, SCOTT SHANE and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: January 17, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month.
But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.
F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency that the unfiltered information was swamping investigators. The spy agency was collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americans' international communications and conducting computer searches of phone and Internet traffic. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americans' privacy.
As the bureau was running down those leads, its director, Robert S. Mueller III, raised concerns about the legal rationale for a program of eavesdropping without warrants, one government official said. Mr. Mueller asked senior administration officials about "whether the program had a proper legal foundation," but deferred to Justice Department legal opinions, the official said.
President Bush has characterized the eavesdropping program as a "vital tool" against terrorism; Vice President Dick Cheney has said it has saved "thousands of lives."
But the results of the program look very different to some officials charged with tracking terrorism in the United States. More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, including some in the small circle who knew of the secret program and how it played out at the F.B.I., said the torrent of tips led them to few potential terrorists inside the country they did not know of from other sources and diverted agents from counterterrorism work they viewed as more productive.
(Full Story)
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2 comments:
Just after 9-11, some cops thought they were written a free pass with the Patriot Act.
Citizens that lodged complaints against judges, prosecutors, police, and other officials got arrested on false charges and fixed trials were sent to prison.
Cops even felt comfortable hiring hitmen to kill citizens lodging complaints against them.
The climate is that bad. Look at all the abuse that is happening in Connecticut.
Drive while Black from Hartford into Wethersfield or West Hartford which are primarily White suburban neighborhoods and get arrested for being on the wrong turf.
Try looking up the names Steven G. Erickson, Phil Inkel, Ritt Goldstein, and others or go to www.freespeech.com or starkravingviking.blogspot.com
While I disagree that 9/11 gave cops free reign to harrass blacks (that is a much earlier problem), I have seen first hand the issue of driving while black in the wrong neighborhood.
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