Denver Post Calls FBI "The Keystone Cops"
Posted on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 07:27:36 PM EST
Tags: FBI, FISA, wiretapping (all tags)
Leading with this week's news that telephone companies shut down FBI wiretaps because the agency failed to pay its bills, an editorial in today's Denver Post compares the FBI to "keystone cops."
In addition to the telephone bill embarassment, the Post points out:
The late payments were part of a larger pattern of loose practices when it comes to tracking money sent to field offices for undercover operations.
It's one of several scandals the agency has endured in recent years. A 2002 audit showed hundreds of guns and laptops could not be accounted for. Last year, the Justice Department's inspector general told members of Congress the FBI may have violated policy or law more than 3,000 times as it collected telephone, bank and credit card records using national security letters. (The letters are essentially administrative subpoenas that can be issued by the agency without court review.)
With FISA hearings again on the horizon, the Post says we should be paying attention to the FBI's problems: [More...]
In the coming weeks, Congress will debate the reauthorization of FISA, which gives the FBI and other agencies unprecedented latitude to spy on communications without oversight. The so-called FISA updates sunset Feb. 1, and that's a good thing. The changes were billed as revisions to keep with up the digital age, but in reality gave the administration broad new powers to spy without getting a warrant, even a secret one through FISA.
It's difficult to justify entrusting more power to what are supposed to be the country's top-flight investigators when the agency comes off looking like a bunch of Keystone Cops.
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