FBI admits to wiretapping wrong numbers

[sabra]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9546933/

FBI admits to wiretapping wrong numbers
Patriot Act critics irked by mistakes made during terrorism investigations

WASHINGTON - 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.

[skooooo]

1. They've probably been tapping 1-900 sex phone lines...

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Beat me to it..... you dickens you.... :)

[tanyev]

3. Oopsie...their bad.

I hope they've suffered through a lot of conversations between teenage girls talking ad nauseum about boys, other girls, clothes and makeup.

[DBoon]

6. Sexist!

I bet they ACTUALLY suffered through middle aged dudes talking about football, hunting trips and prostate conditions.

[tanyev]

7. LOL!

Admittedly, I haven't met many FBI agents, but all the ones I have met probably would have been interested in chats about football, hunting and prostates. Having once been a teenage girl myself, I know first hand how excruciating those conversations can be. Those years can be very dramatic.

[MADem]

4. Gang that couldn't shoot straight

Yet ANOTHER example of gross incompetence, it is so frequent, it is getting to be the American norm.

[VegasWolf]

5. Oops! Didn't know that was the number of MoveOn.org we tapped! Our bad!

[Walt Starr]

8. TRANSLATION: The FBI goes on fishing expeditions n/t