SECRET RULES MAKE IT PRETTY EASY FOR THE FBI TO SPY ON JOURNALISTS

[askeptic]

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/30/secret-rules-make-it-pretty-easy-for-the-fbi-to-spy-on-journalists/

SECRET FBI RULES allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under normal judicial procedures.

The classified rules, obtained by The Intercept and dating from 2013, govern the FBI’s use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in heavily redacted form.

Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas or search warrants before accessing journalists’ information.

The rules stipulate that obtaining a journalist’s records with a national security letter (or NSL) requires the signoff of the FBI’s general counsel and the executive assistant director of the bureau’s National Security Branch, in addition to the regular chain of approval. Generally speaking, there are a variety of FBI officials, including the agents in charge of field offices, who can sign off that an NSL is “relevant” to a national security investigation.

....
Why does it seem that the FBI is always trying to make an end run around the Constitution?

[merrily]

1. Government is allowed any secrets it wants; citizens are not allowed any secrets that

government decides they should not have.

Exactly as:citizens of a new nation that had just revolted against government intended when they insisted on a Bill of Rights before agreeing to a U.S. Constitution that gave even supposedly limited powers to a federal government.

[randome]

2. "...in addition to the regular chain of approval."

Interesting there is no explanation of what that is. It's such an empty sentence that it could even mean someone outside the FBI. But it doesn't sound like "few constraints" if multiple signatures are needed. Maybe more sign-offs are needed but the article doesn't bother to explain how many are needed now.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]