[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 11:46:16 EDT
Subject: FBI Admits Mistakes in Security Wiretaps
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WASHINGTON (Sept. 30) - The FBI says it sometimes gets the wrong number when it
intercepts conversations in terrorism investigations, an admission critics say
underscores a need to revise wiretap provisions in the Patriot Act.
The FBI would not say how often these mistakes happen. And, though any
incriminating evidence mistakenly collected is not legally admissible in a
criminal case, there is no way of knowing whether it is used to begin an
investigation.
Parts of the Patriot Act, including a section on "roving wiretaps,'' expire in
December. Such wiretaps allow the FBI to get permission from a secret federal
court to listen in on any phone line or monitor any Internet account that a
terrorism suspect may be using, whether or not others who are not suspects also
regularly use it.
The bureau's acknowledgment that it makes mistakes in some wiretaps - although
not specifically roving wiretaps - came in a recent Justice Department
inspector general's report on the FBI's backlog of intercepted but unreviewed
foreign-language conversations.
The 38,514 untranslated hours included an undetermined number from what the FBI
called "collections of materials from the wrong sources due to technical
problems.''
Spokesman Ed Cogswell said that language describes instances in which the tap
was placed on a telephone number other than the one authorized by a court.
AP
FBI Director Robert Mueller has told Congress the powers of the Patriot Act are
vital in protecting America from a terrorist attack.
"That's mainly an instance in which the telephone company hooked us up to the
wrong number or a clerical error here gives us the wrong number,'' Cogswell
said.
He had no estimate of how often that happens, but said that when it does the
FBI is required to inform the secret court that approved the intercept.
The FBI could not say Friday whether people are notified that their
conversations were mistakenly intercepted or whether wrongly tapped telephone
numbers were deleted from bureau records.
Privacy activists said the FBI's explanation of the mistaken wiretaps was
unacceptably vague, and that in an era of cell phones and computers it is
easier than ever for the government to access communications from innocent
third parties.
"What do you mean you are intercepting the wrong subject? How often does it
occur? How long does it go on for?'' said James Dempsey, executive director of
the Center for Democracy and Technology.
David Sobel, general counsel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said
technological advances have made it harder, not easier, to "conduct wiretapping
in a surgical way'' because digital communications often carry many
conversations. "It's not like the old days when there was one dedicated line
between me and you,'' Sobel said.
The FBI has acknowledged errors in the past. An FBI memo from 2000, made public
two years later, described similar problems in the use of warrants issued by a
court that operates in secret under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
In 2002, an FBI official said the bureau averaged 10 mistakes a year in such
cases.
These warrants are among the most powerful tools in the U.S. anti-terrorism
arsenal, permitting secret searches and wiretaps for up to one year without
ever notifying the target of the investigation.
The court approved 1,754 such warrants in 2004.
The Patriot Act, passed 45 days after the Sept. 11 attacks, gave the government
sweeping powers in terrorism investigations, including allowing the use of
roving wiretaps. The authority also applies to espionage and other foreign
intelligence cases.
The FBI is not supposed to use material it collects either by mistake or from
people who happen to use phones that are tapped legitimately, but that
requirement doesn't satisfy some lawmakers.
"They have recorded the information, but they're saying, 'Trust us, we won't
listen to what we recorded,''' said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. "People ought to be
concerned.''
FBI Admits Mistakes in Security Wiretaps
Patriot Act Critics Troubled by Errors Made During Terrorism Probes
By MARK SHERMAN, AP
Versions of the Patriot Act renewal that passed the House and Senate during the
summer both contain the roving wiretap. It would expire in 10 years under the
House-passed bill and four years in the Senate version. Congressional
negotiators are expected to hammer out final details of the legislation
starting in late October.
The Justice Department fought congressional efforts to require investigators to
determine that the target of surveillance actually was using the tapped phone
or computer before they listened in. Some lawmakers said such a requirement
would reduce the chance that other conversations would be intercepted.
Administration officials argued that safeguards in the law already require the
government to discard those conversations. "Such a restriction would make it
harder to use multipoint wiretaps in terrorism and espionage investigations
than in drug trafficking and other ordinary criminal investigations,''
assistant Attorney General William Moschella wrote Scott.
Thomas "Rocky" Costanzo
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