They spy on us

[tblue]

Guidelines expand FBI's surveillance powers

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials released new guidelines Friday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intelligence within the United States, alarming civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers who worry that they invite privacy violations and other abuses.

The new road map allows investigators to recruit informants, employ physical surveillance and conduct interviews in which agents disguise their identities in an effort to assess national security threats. FBI agents could pursue each of those steps without any single fact indicating a person has ties to a terrorist organization.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey said the guidelines are necessary to fulfill the FBI's core mission to predict threats and respond even before an attack takes place. The ground rules will help the bureau become "a more flexible and adept collector of intelligence," as independent commissions urged after the strikes of Sept. 11, 2001, Mukasey said in a statement Friday.

The guidelines, which harmonize five different road maps dating back more than a generation, take effect Dec. 1. That is two months later than initially planned, and authorities said the delay was a concession to privacy advocates and Arab American groups who expressed concern that their members could be subject to racial or ethnic profiling.

Justice Department leaders rewrote a key section of the guidelines concerning agents' infiltration of groups and attendance at demonstrations. Under the new language, agents would be able to investigate the likelihood of violence stemming from a planned demonstration for as many as 30 days, with renewals subject to supervisory approval.

Congressional staff members said the revisions were superficial, and the American Civil Liberties Union immediately condemned the road map. Critics had asked Justice Department leaders to wait until a new president takes office, an approach that administration officials rejected.

http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_10632483

[Iwasthere]

1. HELL NO!!

This can't stand. Can they do that? And demonstrations? WTF?

[tblue37]

2. Here's a K&R for ya, cuz! nt

[RufusTFirefly]

3. Yes they do. And the chilling effect is probably even more effective than the spying.

Shades of the Soviet Union.

[Irish Girl]

4. They'll just keep taking more and more

I posted a thread yesterday from the Wall Street Journal about how Homeland Security was approved by Congress to spy on within the United States via satellite.