The Daily Background

Washington Post today:

The FBI reported more than 100 possible violations to an intelligence oversight board over the past two years, including cases in which agents tapped the wrong telephone, intercepted the wrong e-mails or continued to listen to conversations after a warrant had expired, according to a report issued yesterday.

In one case, the FBI obtained the contents of 181 telephone calls rather than just the billing records to which it was entitled. In another, a communication was monitored for more than a year after eavesdropping should have ended — although investigators blamed a third-party provider for the mix-up.

The findings were part of a semiannual report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine on problems related to the USA Patriot Act, the broad anti-terrorism law that is scheduled to be renewed today with President Bush’s signature.

Just to be clear, this is Patriot Act related, not NSA-Wiretapping related. In the end it doesn’t really matter though, as it’s still a case of the government screwing up while spying on people. One wonders how many cases there are total, besides these ‘more than 100 possible violations’. The article continues:

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said Fine’s report “is yet another vindication for those of us who have raised concerns about the administration’s policies in the war on terror.”

“Despite the Bush administration’s attempt to demonize critics of its anti-terrorism policies as advancing phantom or trivial concerns, the report demonstrates that the independent Office of Inspector General has found that many of these policies indeed warrant full investigations,” Conyers said.

Full.

Filed under: Patriot Act, Z-TDB Blog