F.B.I.officials:eavesdropping pointless intrusionson on Americans' privacy

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/17spy.html?ex=1295154000&en=f3247d208f184898&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends

By LOWELL BERGMAN, ERIC LICHTBLAU, SCOTT SHANE and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: January 17, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month. But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.

F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency that the unfiltered information was swamping investigators. The spy agency was collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americans' international communications and conducting computer searches of phone and Internet traffic. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americans' privacy.

As the bureau was running down those leads, its director, Robert S. Mueller III, raised concerns about the legal rationale for a program of eavesdropping without warrants, one government official said. Mr. Mueller asked senior administration officials about "whether the program had a proper legal foundation," but deferred to Justice Department legal opinions, the official said.

President Bush has characterized the eavesdropping program as a "vital tool" against terrorism; Vice President Dick Cheney has said it has saved "thousands of lives." But the results of the program look very different to some officials charged with tracking terrorism in the United States. More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, including some in the small circle who knew of the secret program and how it played out at the F.B.I., said the torrent of tips led them to few potential terrorists inside the country they did not know of from other sources and diverted agents from counterterrorism work they viewed as more productive.

[ewoden]

1. To quote a phrase from Monday . . .

We have sold our sould for DROSS!!!!!!

[dajoki]

3. i missed that one...

do you have a link?

[ewoden]

11. from Gore's speech, quoting a British intelligence officer on the

value of torturing prisoners.

[dajoki]

14. thanks...

i'll look it up.

[nankerphelge]

2. Best part...

"In response to the F.B.I. complaints, the N.S.A. eventually began ranking its tips on a three-point scale, with 3 being the highest priority and 1 the lowest, the officials said. Some tips were considered so hot that they were carried by hand to top F.B.I. officials. But in bureau field offices, the N.S.A. material continued to be viewed as unproductive, prompting agents to joke that a new bunch of tips meant more "calls to Pizza Hut," one official, who supervised field agents, said."

I wonder if it was just an analogy or if there were some actual calls to Pizza Hut at some point. Unbelievable. Of course, I'd hate for the stuffed crust technology to fall into the terrorist's hands.

[dajoki]

4. unf**king believable!!

[AX10]

5. It makes sense.

Why would you want to deal with useless information when you are working on a clearly pointed investigation? You wouldn't.

[dajoki]

7. you think...

someone could get it through *'s thick skull.

[peacetalksforall]

6. So that is what they were doing when Coleen Rowley sent in her

report.

[dajoki]

10. that would make sense now n/t

[Inland]

8. There is no trade off between liberties and security.

Like most security states, ninety nine percent of the security measures are just fucking with people and making work for bureaucrats.

I think it also feeds into Frank Rich's thought that Bush and Co. are so hoping for some sort of dramatic victory in the war on terror or SOMETHING that they are just looking for anything, anywhere.

[dajoki]

9. that is why...

they mention 9/11 every chance they get.

[Neil Lisst]

12. Great story. FBI rebukes NSA plethora of bad leads from spying.

From spying on Americans.

I'm glad to see it posted here.

I believe at the heart of the FBI and CIA are some true life-time professionals, who do have some sense of the limitations on government and why those are necessary. Usually, they see oversight from executive and congressional as limiting, and they resist that. But even more troubling to them is seeing an executive and congress who are less limiting than are the FBI and CIA.

[Raksha]

13. Sounds like the 21st century version of tilting at windmills!

What a friggin' waste of time...not to mention intrusive and illegal.