WASHINGTON, March 27, 2007
FBI Director Defends Patriot Act
Robert Mueller Tells Skeptical Senators FBI Can Use Anti-Terrorism Powers Properly
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FBI Director Robert Mueller urged the Senate Judiciary Committee not to revise the Patriot Act. (Getty Images)
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He appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Justice Department inspector general revealed abuses in the FBI's use of documents called national security letters to gather such data without approval from a judge.
"We're going to be re-examining the broad authorities we granted the FBI in the Patriot Act," Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Mueller.
Mueller urged the panel not to revise the law.
"The statute did not cause the errors," Mueller said. "The FBI's implementation did."
He said he instituted procedures to police the use of these letters. "What I did not do and should have done is put in a compliance program to be sure those procedures were followed," the FBI chief added.
He said he has now begun to do that, has ordered an audit to determine the full extent of the problem and to determine if any agents should be disciplined.
"We are committed to demonstrating to committee, the Congress and the American people that we will correct the deficiencies," Mueller said.
"I still have very serious qualms," Leahy replied.
Citing the inspector general report on national security letters and his previous reports criticizing FBI reporting of terrorist cases, of weapons and laptops losses, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said, "Every time we turn around there is another enormous failure by the bureau."
"There's another headline virtually on a daily basis," Specter added, citing a Washington Post report Tuesday that agents had submitted inaccurate data to a court that issues warrants for foreign intelligence surveillance.
"The question arises as to whether any director can handle this job and whether the bureau itself can handle the job," Specter said, proposing that the panel give serious consideration to establishing a separate domestic intelligence agency like Britain's MI-5.
Mueller said he had reduced the problem since learning of it in 2005 but noted that the warrant applications are very long and contain thousands of facts.
"I'm not impressed with your assertion that there are thousands of facts," Specter said. "That's your job. You asked for these powers; we gave you them. If these applications are wrong, you're subjecting people to an invasion of privacy that ought not to be issued."
The committee plans to hear April 17 from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is struggling to keep his job amid criticism of the NSL abuses and the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
"Last year the administration sought new powers in the Patriot Act to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate confirmation and to more freely use National Security Letters," Leahy said in opening remarks. "The administration got these powers, and they have badly bungled both."
In a review of headquarters files and a sampling of four of the FBI's 56 field offices, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found 48 violations of law or presidential directives during 2003-2005. He estimates there may be as many as 3,000 violations throughout the FBI that have not been identified or reported.
When Fine testified before the Senate panel last week, Leahy said, "In light of this report, we need to consider whether Congress went too far" in the Patriot Act in removing restrictions on FBI use of national security letters.
In a House Judiciary Committee hearing with Fine, Republicans and Democrats warned the FBI could lose that broad power.
If the FBI doesn't move swiftly to correct the mistakes and problems, "you probably won't have NSL authority," said Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., a supporter of the power.
In 1986, Congress first authorized FBI agents to obtain electronic records without approval from a judge, using national security letters.
The letters can be used to acquire e-mails, telephone, travel records and financial information, like credit and bank transactions. They can be sent to telephone and Internet access companies, universities, public interest organizations, nearly all libraries, financial and credit companies.
In 2001, the Patriot Act eliminated any requirement that the records belong to someone under suspicion. Now an innocent person's records can be obtained if FBI field agents consider them relevant to an ongoing terrorism or spying investigation.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 72 CommentsThe (UN) Patriot Act is right out of 1984 Orwell.
It should be called the Big Brother Act.
WE ARE ALL SLAVES IN A FASCIST COUNTRY.
"Those who would give up essential liberties for temporary saftey deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Very wise words from Benjamin Franklin. Words that we need to heed now, more than ever in our history.
Whoever voted to approve it had the wool firmly pulled over their eyes.
The FBI 'can' use those 'powers' appropriately, but did not.
Those 'powers' completely strip our Constitution of the beliefs we once held dear as a democracy.
President John F. Kennedy said it best.....
"Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."
-- President John F. Kennedy
I hope our governing bodies keep each other in check, as was designed in our constitution.....but I see the checks and balances eroding away in the fear and hysteria of 9-11, most cultivated by W and the folks who are pulling his strings.
So what if they spy on you and watch your every move? If you have nothing to hide, you will have no problems. As long as you have no cherished religious convictions, moral values, or conscience, you will be welcome at the party. You just need to adjust your thinking and behavior to please your masters.
The only people who are worried are the ones who have reason to worry. The enemies of the State are the ones who don't want to be controlled by the State. Doesn't it make sense that the State would destroy them? Come on, people, quit complaining about getting what you deserve!
Even the major Democratic party candidates for president voted for it, or support it, including Senator Barack Obama. (some want minor changes to it, but they still support it!) Here's what Barack Obama said "Giving law enforcement the tools they need to investigate suspicious activity is the right thing, and the Senate showed earlier this year that it can be done with the oversight of our judicial system so we do not jeopardize the rights of all Americans and the ideals America stands for. We should not let the PATRIOT Act expire at the end of this year...."
It's obvious we can't depend on the politicians to fix this. Without outrage from the American people on the threat on thier liberties from thier own goverment, nothing will change! We supposedly are fighting in Iraq and Afganastan to bring freedom and democracy to those countries. Then why is our goverment trying to deny those very same rights to it's own citizens?
Even the major Democratic party candidates for president voted for it, or support it, including Senator Barack Obama. (some want minor changes to it, but they still support it!) Here's what Barack Obama said "Giving law enforcement the tools they need to investigate suspicious activity is the right thing, and the Senate showed earlier this year that it can be done with the oversight of our judicial system so we do not jeopardize the rights of all Americans and the ideals America stands for. We should not let the PATRIOT Act expire at the end of this year...."
It's obvious we can't depend on the politicians to fix this. Without outrage from the American people on the threat on thier liberties from thier own goverment, nothing will change! We supposedly are fighting in Iraq and Afganastan to bring freedom and democracy to those countries. Then why is our goverment trying to deny those very same rights to it's own citizens?
Posted by Yukinfahoo at 02:46 PM : Mar 27, 2007"
Noooooooo! Don't talk about Hitler and the Enabling Act! If too many people find out how Hitler became dictator of Germany, the plan won't work here.
If you detail how the Nazis overcame their opposition, you will have G-men from the current regime on your doorstep in the middle of the night. You will start to think you are living in 1930's Germany.
You will wake up in a secret CIA prison being tortured and no one will ever know where you disappeared to. You will feel so betrayed and disillusioned when you discover that it can and did happen here.
No, your freedom wasn't worth dying for when you had it. It certainly isn't worth dying for now that it is gone.
THis is what happens when you have a bunch of thugs in the White House - clear abuses of power which were sanctioned by a too meek Congress also run by thugs and mugs.
Turned science into 1950's sci-fi moon landing.
9/11 and the war on terror is Holloween every day. Ghost planes and that Azzam is a killer! The Osama bunker with the little cartoon Shiek sitting on top...lmao!!!! 911 written in the smoke cloud. Chasing down filmers and photographers with a drone, blowing up every van in NY... get 'em they got the film!
Unreal!
Now we can type anything on the MSM sites and you sensor the 911 "TRUTH" sites?
My brain will have to do acrobatics to figure this one out. Think stupid right?
SearingTruth
"Who would say freedom is not free, with the price being freedom itself."
SearingTruth
"The safest and most secure type of society is one with machine gun toting security police on every corner, empowered with full authority to detain, search, torture, and convict citizens at will. You will find almost no public dissidence in this type of society, where the only crimes are committed by the government itself."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
I see, so from now on everyone who breaks the law just has to say they're sorry and won't do it any more then they can go free? Tell it to the judge!
With a major attack on the World Trade Center less than several years eariler, one would think that they would have been on top of that situation. After all, that was a part of their job, that being, besides spying on Americans.
SearingTruth
"And then, in the face of truth, they wept and fled in lament of their own misfortune."
SearingTruth
"It's time to empty our secret prisons. Let us free the innocent, and justly convict the guilty."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
The modern system hasn't proved to provide a better alternative. Just better weapons to kill. What is the sense in curing a million only to bomb 2 million?
"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."
-- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961
www.a-human-right.com/effective.html
The modern system hasn't proved to provide a better alternative. Just better weapons to kill. What is the sense in curing a million only to bomb 2 million?
And for those who think we had to fear the other animals, think again. They knew who to fear when we used to easily kill them. Why do animals also scream if they are trapped? Other cats come to get a cat out of a tree? You've become so duped by the elite con artists, you think the real world exists only on TV. Soon you will lose your comunication with nature and be as lifeless and programmable as a computer.
Posted by scott4261 at 02:10 PM : Mar 27, 2007
My interpretation of Mr. Franklin%u2019s famous words:
Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety are spineless cowards.
fredgrad2000
What does any of that have to do with abandoning the Constitution of the United States of America?
For 225 years we had fought many enemies far more powerful than those we fight today without abandoning our Constitutional form of government.
In fact, wielding the moral right and might embodied within our Constitution had always naturally defeated any enemy espousing tyranny and oppression.
The abandonment of our Constitution has nothing to do with "terrorism", and everything to do with Bush and his henchmens belief that America should be a fascist nation. They have a much nicer word for it though, of course. They call it the "Unitary Executive". Which means exactly what it says. They believe the President is a dictator, and not subject to the Judicial or Legislative branches of our government.
They are wrong.
And the impeachment, for high treason, of Bush and Cheney will put an end to this drive by the neo-cons to turn America into just another good old-fashioned police state.
ST
"Those who perceive the foundations of tyranny within the Constitution are indeed blind."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
%u201CIt is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government. When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny.%u201D
-- Thomas Paine
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be
-- James Madison
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
-%u2013 James Madison
"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom."
-- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961
-- Thomas Paine
...
GunOwnerDan
Indeed fellow patriot. Awesome post.
ST
"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others."
James Madison, Federalist No. 58, 1788
"The natural cure for an ill-administration, in a popular or representative constitution, is a change of men."
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 21, 1787
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
history proves that you have MUCH more to fear from an out-of-control government than you do from some group of extremist religious nuts.
No terrorist on earth can ever destroy America and our freedoms, but the GOVERNMENT SURE CAN!
notblue
Indeed. The Republicans should never have disposed of the one tool that had defended our freedom for 225 years, The Constitution of the United States of America.
ST
"Republicans threw out the one tool we had that has naturally defeated our foes for over 225 years - The Constitution of the United States of America.
We need to restore it, despite all their objections."
SearingTruth
"Some believe that freedom makes our country less secure."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
Uhm.. your precious leader, George Bush has already seen to it that our freedoms have been taken. BTW, the threat of Radical Islam has been real since the beginning of time. It is not going away now and in FACT is actually INCREASING. Tell me notblue, is Radical Islam GROWING or SHRINKING? if you say SHRINKING then it is YOUR head which is in the sand. It's growing and growing leaps and bounds world wide and SPECIFICALLY because of the actions of your leader, George Bush and his cronies.
So tell me, are we WINNING this war on terror? Are we (democrats) emboldening the enemy? Or is it perhaps your leader's War-without-reason-in-Iraq doing that? Certainly seems that the enemy is becoming more and more emboldened and has been for the past several years. WHY are you so BLIND as to see that?
My friends, sometimes the most difficult thing about fighting evil is realizing that it actually exists, and then unambiguously and forcefully calling it what it is.
History shows time and time again that one of evils greatest strengths is its ability to disguise itself as good, or at least a temporary necessity, until that last fatal moment when its revelation becomes clear, indisputable, and inescapable.
So today let us take a clear and unadulterated look into the mirror at ourselves.
Just six years ago we were one of the most respected and admired defenders of democracy and human rights in history. Respected not only by our friends, but even begrudgingly by most of our enemies. In fact, even the fantastic power of our military paled in comparison to the overwhelming might of our moral authority.
Today we are a nation that operates secret prisons occupied by anonymous inmates, illegally abducted and held indefinitely without charge or representation. We are guilty of torture. We are guilty of murder. We are guilty of preemptive war of conquest. We are guilty of the wholesale surveillance of our population, suppressing all hope of privacy and free dissent. And we are guilty of disgracing our nation through the abandonment of even our most basic precepts of morality.
If this is not evil, then nothing we have ever fought against is evil, and nothing we have ever fought for is good.
Excerpt from A Future of the Brave
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
Do you know what allows freedom to exist in America? Freedom can be traced back to our CONSTITUTITION(especially our Bill Of Rights).
Terrorists prefer unarmed victims so in order to fight terrorists we have our SECOND AMENDMENT.
The true enemies of liberty will try their hardest to destroy our second amendment and the rest of our Bill Of Rights. That includes Islamic fascists AND a corrupt government.
Enough said!
FBI Director Robert Mueller
Was something left unsaid?
"...because if we had implemented it correctly, we would have all of you nay-sayers and anti-Bush enemy combatants locked up in our new Super-Max, Super-Secret prison were we could torture you until you croaked. You certainly wouldn't be talking about this in public and embarrassing Herr Bush. By the way Mr. Reporter - were are your papers?"
Did Nixon and Hoover rise from the dead when I wasn't paying attention.
Only a year ago, Republicans controlled all three branches of government. We didn't have to put up with such scrutiny and dissent back then.
Posted by notblue at 05:43 PM : Mar 27, 2007
That's ridiculous. You just stated outright that our troops suck. Again, it's you republicans who hate the troops. The troops are FIGHTING and fighting VALIANTLY in this illegal war that your leader George Bush started (Bush declared war, not Iraq). Americans have the will to fight, but not to the point of shunning the rest of the world. The WORLD MATTERS. So answer the rest of my comments to you NotBlue. WHY do you support this war when it's creating MORE terrorists than were EVER there before???
It is not our inaction that emboldens our enemies, it is our depth of fear.
sshard
Indeed fellow patriot.
ST
"A tyrants only ally is fear."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
If you are this frightened that you are willing to destroy all that makes this republic of ours then you aren't fit to call yourself an American - it's that plain and simple.
Think about this - Al Queda wants to destroy America - and you and Bush are working with him to do that - Bin Laden hates and fears our democratic republic, our freedoms, our citizens rights, our constitution and our bill of rights -- so what do you accomplish by destroying them before he can??? Bush did Bin Laden's work in Iraq for him and now you want him to do Bin Laden's work for him here at home too??
SearingTruth
"It is an old tale. Catastrophe assaults the senses of a free nation. Fear, a tyrant's only ally, is seized. Democracy, a despot's greatest foe, is assaulted. The people, liberties only defense, are subdued. All in accomplice of those sworn, upon death, to protect them."
SearingTruth
"We have become the evil we fought."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com
We need to round up all republicans, neocons, etc. and send them all to re-educashun camps to teach them how to be politcaly corect. WE CANNOT TOLERATE DESENT, we need to imprison all conservatives until they convert to OUR way of thinking. When everbudy is politicaly corect and thinks like us, then we can all get along
Re-distribute monie from rich and give to the pour, that's what the rich diserve for wurking so hard. It isnt fare that people who wurk hard get payd more.
COMMUNIZE HEALTH CARE FIRST SPARKY, then energy, then corporations so that everbudy works for the state.
There is no god, only the state, WE know it takes a village, sparky!
Long live the gloreus peeples republic of amerika
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