

FBI broke law for years in phone record searches - prat
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011803982.html

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kingkilr
I remember being in 8th grade in 2004 and writing an essay arguing that the
FISA courts were antithetical to our notions of liberty, even if they didn't
actually break the law. Little did I know that FISA warrants were the least of
my worries.

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ebrenes
I must confess I was incredibly amused every time they used "technically
violated", "technical violation" or other euphemisms for breaking the law.
They either followed the law or they broke it and should face the appropriate
punishment (if any).

It just strikes me like the author is trying to minimize the impact by
appealing to the use of technicality as "only appealing to a specialist" or in
this case some "legalist". It's a disservice to the protection of civil
liberties by minimizing the importance of crimes committed against said
liberties.

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nfnaaron
Yeah, but they're the FBI so their intentions were good. </sarc>

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mcav
As unfortunate as the situation may be, wiretapping/spying/searching will
probably always happen at high levels of government regardless of the law. I
don't know of any way to stop it, or that it's even possible to see if it
would subsequently have been stopped.

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bediger
Right, but at least let's not do really stupid things like build-in
wiretapping capability, or have "law enforcement keys" or something like that.

It would probably help to have decently encrypted telephone protocols, instead
of merely outlawing listening devices.

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nazgulnarsil
I'm sure this kind of thing is rare.~

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azm
5 years, multiple thousands of almost illegal intercepts, 'blanket' PIs to
cover up the unauthorized intercepts.

Surely redefining 'rare' is not the answer.

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nazgulnarsil
um, I guess the sarcasm punctuation mark is not common parlance round these
parts. though I guess </snark> or something would be more universally
understood.

~~~
azm
Whoops! I guess it is rare...

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jpwagner
who will watch the watchmen

~~~
ciscoriordan
Journalists, the ones who still have jobs.

