Secret FBI rules allow agents to obtain journalists’ phone records with approval from two internal officials — far less oversight than under normal judicial procedures.
The classified rules, obtained by The Intercept and dating from 2013, govern the FBI’s use of national security letters, which allow the bureau to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the news organization being targeted. They have previously been released only in heavily redacted form.
Media advocates said the documents show that the FBI imposes few constraints on itself when it bypasses the requirement to go to court and obtain subpoenas or search warrants before accessing journalists’ information.
The rules stipulate that obtaining a journalist’s records with a national security letter (or NSL) requires the signoff of the FBI’s general counsel and the executive assistant director of the bureau’s National Security Branch, in addition to the regular chain of approval. Generally speaking, there are a variety of FBI officials, including the agents in charge of field offices, who can sign off that an NSL is “relevant” to a national security investigation.
There is an extra step under the rules if the NSL targets a journalist in order “to identify confidential news media sources.” In that case, the general counsel and the executive assistant director must first consult with the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
But if the NSL is trying to identify a leaker by targeting the records of the potential source, and not the journalist, the Justice Department doesn’t need to be involved.
The guidelines also specify that the extra oversight layers do not apply if the journalist is believed to be a spy or is part of a news organization “associated with a foreign intelligence service” or “otherwise acting on behalf of a foreign power.” Unless, again, the purpose is to identify a leak, in which case, the general counsel and executive assistant director must approve the request.
“These supposed rules are incredibly weak and almost nonexistent — as long as they have that second signoff they’re basically good to go,” said Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which has sued the Justice Department for the release of these rules. “The FBI is entirely able to go after journalists and with only one extra hoop they have to jump through.”
A spokesperson for the FBI, Christopher Allen, declined to comment on the rules or say if they had been changed since 2013, except to say that they are “very clear” that “the FBI cannot predicate investigative activity solely on the exercise of First Amendment rights.”
The Obama administration has come under criticism for bringing a record number of leak prosecutions and aggressively targeting journalists in the process. In 2013, after it came out that the Justice Department had secretly seized records from phone lines at the Associated Press and surveilled Fox News reporter James Rosen, then-Attorney General Eric Holder tightened the rules for when prosecutors could go after journalists. The new policies emphasized that reporters would not be prosecuted for “newsgathering activities,” and that the government would “seek evidence from or involving the news media” as a “last resort” and an “extraordinary measure.” The FBI could not label reporters as co-conspirators in order to try to identify their sources — as had happened with Rosen — and it became more difficult to get journalists’ phone records without notifying the news organization first.
Yet these changes did not apply to NSLs. Those are governed by a separate set of rules, laid out in a classified annex to the FBI’s operating manual, known as the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, or DIOG. The full version of that guide, including the classified annex, was last made public in redacted form in 2011.
The section of the annex on NSLs obtained by The Intercept dates from October 2013 and is marked “last updated October 2011.” It is classified as secret with an additional restriction against distribution to any non-U.S. citizens.
Emails from FBI lawyers in 2015, which were released earlier this year to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, reference an update to this portion of the DIOG, but it is not clear from the heavily redacted emails what changes were actually made.
In a January 2015 email to a number of FBI employee lists, James Baker, the general counsel of the FBI, attached the new attorney general’s policy and wrote that “with the increased focus on media issues,” the FBI and Justice Department would “continue to review the DIOG and other internal policy guides to determine if additional changes or requirements are necessary.”
“Please be mindful of these media issues,” he continued, and advised consulting with the general counsel’s office “prior to implementing any techniques targeting the media.” But the email also explicitly notes that the new guidelines do not apply to “national security tools.”
Allen, the FBI spokesperson, told The Intercept in an emailed statement that “the FBI periodically reviews and updates the DIOG as needed” and that “certainly the FBI’s DIOG remains consistent with all [attorney general] guidelines.”
Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that the “use of NSLs as a way around the protections in the guidelines is a serious concern for news organizations.”
Last week, the Reporters Committee filed a brief in support of the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s lawsuit for the FBI’s NSL rules and other documents on behalf of 37 news organizations including The Intercept’s publisher, First Look Media. (First Look also provides funding to both the Reporters Committee and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, and several Intercept staffers serve on the foundation’s board.)
Seeing the rules in their un-censored form, Timm, of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said that the FBI should not have kept them classified.
“Redacting the fact that they need a little extra signoff from supervisors doesn’t come close to protecting state secrets,” he said.
The FBI issues thousands of NSLs each year, including nearly 13,000 in 2015. Over the years, a series of Inspector General reports found significant problems with their use, yet the FBI is currently pushing to expand the types of information it can demand with an NSL. The scope of NSLs has long been limited to basic subscriber information and toll billing information — which number called which, when, and for how long — as well as some financial and banking records. But the FBI had made a habit of asking companies to hand over more revealing data on internet usage, which could include email header information (though not the subject lines or content of emails) and browsing history. The 2013 NSL rules for the media only mention telephone toll records.
Another controversial aspect of NSLs is that they come with a gag order preventing companies from disclosing even the fact that they’ve received one. Court challenges and legislative changes have loosened that restriction a bit, allowing companies to disclose how many NSLs they receive, in broad ranges, and in a few cases, to describe the materials the FBI had demanded of them in more detail. Earlier this month, Yahoo became the first company to release three NSLs it had received in recent years.
It’s unclear how often the FBI has used NSLs to get journalists’ records. Barton Gellman, of the Washington Post, has said that he was told his phone records had been obtained via an NSL.
The FBI could also potentially demand journalists’ information through an application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (or FISA court), which, like NSLs, would also not be covered by the Justice Department policy. The rules for that process are still obscure. The emails about revisions to the FBI guidelines reference a “FISA portion,” but most of the discussion is redacted.
For Brown, of the Reporters Committee, the disclosure of the rules “only confirms that we need information about the actual frequency and context of NSL practice relating to newsgathering and journalists’ records to assess the effectiveness of the new guidelines.”
For decades journalism has been turned to Leftist Collectivism in university classrooms around the country – producing activist agenda management
rather than facts illuminating truth.
Now the fully compromised Collectivist Media whines about government attention to their subversive intent from the few centers of nominally fact based administration still intact.
You reap what you sow.
Do these documents show if the California journalist who died in a car crash during the early Edward Snowden releases was being spied on this way?
1) This was about the ‘rules’ and ‘guidelines’. Ie, what’s possible and what they can do (and do do — absolutely).
2) This was the FBI. If there were any ‘black’ involvement, the FBI almost certainly wouldn’t be aware of it, from my understanding. As far as I know, agencies engage in compartmentalization, especially when it comes to national security measures; conspiracies with that many moving parts and awareness are difficult to manage at that level.
3) As far as I know, the FBI doesn’t kill people — but I think we’re all aware there are more secretive agencies that have a history of doing this in the past (and likely are still doing it). I wouldn’t be surprised if those agencies did things on our own soil that were not only forbidden but also ‘forbidden’, forbidden, and verboten. And I doubt an FBI agent would know about it or have involvement in it (though my guess is if this was what happened, then at least some of the intelligence would have been gathered through procedures such as what is outlined in these leaked documents and other things we aren’t blessed with the knowledge of.
4) Perhaps it’s ignorant of me, especially at this point, but I still believe the *majority* of FBI agents would feel bad about killing someone or driving someone to suicide, unless it was someone they considered a terrorist (and I’m convinced a lot of them aren’t, but paranoia, even by government agencies and agents, isn’t uncommon, from what I’ve seen). I think a lot of them are misguided and trying the best they can but often not hitting the right marks. OTOH intelligence agencies and private intelligence corporations seem to play much harder, faster and loose — and they seem to have no sense of humor. Ask anyone who’s undergone a criminal investigation vs someone who’s undergone a national security investigation how they’re treated.
5) That said, I think when it comes to the counterespionage and counterterrorism branches of FBI and the like, they’ve probably been conditioned to seeing everyone as an enemy. I just don’t think their idea of how to deal with it involves killing (even if I’m sure they’d be happy to see certain people dead). See (4) and (3), etc.
6) Never underestimate an angry government — or angry governments (see 5 Eyes). Unlike ‘regular’ people, they have long memories (as in, never goes away) and very Nash-like mindsets. So everything I said could be wrong, and it’s possible I just give them the benefit of the doubt to try to fuck with their heads the same way they try to fuck with ours. Or maybe I’m just so busy analyzing them trying to analyze us that I can’t focus on anything BUT the man behind the curtain, or what-have-you. Curse/blessing of being an engineer.
Either way this article seems to be about exciting new ways to interpret laws. What happens to intelligence from that point on is, I’m sure, an even MORE interesting story, and I think one that the powers-that-be WOULD go out of their way to not let get out. I just think it’s probably naive for any of us to assume that the people who gather the intelligence for things that WOULD NOT be used in a court of law would want those who play unfair but who DO want to see things used in a court of law to know anything about it. I just don’t know (and I doubt even most people in the FBI know (no, I’m not a federal employee, far from it)) where one thing would end and another would begin. I do suspect those circles are very very small though. And I doubt they get well-documented except to those with a very definite need to know.
This may be a strange question but has anybody considered the feasibility of challenging the illegal hacking of journalists and other people by NSA, FBI, et al as breaches of 3rd Amendment rights, not just freedom of speech? It seems to me if the DoJ, FBI, NSA et al like to play hard and fast with wording, we should be able to; if an agency makes use of our machines to, for instance, hack other countries or serve as proxies (as the NSA has been shown to do, see Snowden documents), and they’re basically sitting in various journalists’ machines using their resources, could this not be used as an additional challenge? I mean obviously it’s a stretch and far too hopeful, but can’t one call that an intrusion of and quartering in one’s virtual home?
Privacy is a fundamental right unless the Gov can demonstrate with compelling evidence the necessity for violating this right in order to protect the welfare of the sovereign. If I were a lawyer taking up this case I would ground my arguments in the common law.
I agree but clearly they don’t. It’s my understanding anything novel vis a vis the Constitution can go to the Supreme Court. Clearly our current challenges aren’t really doing much for us (and don’t have much to do with the instance of them using our machines for their own uses — not just the surveillance aspects).
BTW to whomever leaked this: Thanks for doing so.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH FREEDOM IS SLAVERY ” and we will have the Jack Boots kicking in their doors and the People shot in the Street. ” M Thatcher “We came, he Died, we left. . . (laughter)” Hillary Clinton reference to Quaddafi ” We Love the Under Educated ” Donald Drumph Republican Nominee for POTUS 2016
Who tells the FBI to spy on journalist?
http://media.breitbart.com/media/2016/07/GettyImages-538715254-640×479.jpg
who cares. just don’t burn my steak or short-pour my drinks.
Your steak? You mean the mutilated carcass of an innocent non-human animal? And then people wonder why there is violence and injustice in the world.
That’s the best 4th of July joke. Lulz…
The post Constitutional era expands. This combined with NSA spying and the NDA indefinite detentions authorized every year since 2011 means we are devolving into an extra “legal” police state.
Most journalists are liberal Democrats, supporters of President Obama and are getting just what they deserve life in a police state. America a country with secret courts, secret search warrants, secret FBI protocol for going after its citizens. Not a lot difference between us and the governments of China and Russia. Have a happy 4 of July and enjoy Independence Day.
I am so grateful for the immense courage displayed by all those associated with the Intercept; you have brought the light of truth to shine upon the dung heap of evil doers in this world. And, you individually and collectively have done this at great personal risk to yourselves over and over again.
Praise for all you have done seems far too weak an expression as you deserve so much more.
This is sad. I was taught the writers of the Constitution put the Bill of Rights in the order of their importance. The First Amendment gives the five basic rights that should be granted to each person:
Religion
Speech
Freedom of the Press
Freedom of Assembly
Right to Petition
The Founding Fathers expressed that they believed these rights were inalienable. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, politicians and the Judiciary are slowly destroying them all.
Until the lambs(voters of all ilk) turn to lions this will continue.
Many who aren’t active supporting agents of our police state have relatives who are. They consider their contribution patriotic and beyond reproach. The fact that it’s unconstitutional, and therefore unAmerican, totally escapes most. Those who acknowledge that fact don’t give a rat’s ass.
J. Edgar smiles!
Anyone not believing we already live in a police state is a fool.
Plenty of fools in the US. Many of them are AOK with the police state, they keep voting for it, along with the deniers.
Why would the FBI spy on journalists? They work for the same side.
Exactly. But the propagandists mush be kept in line at all times. Just ask Terry Hastings.
Incompetence. Insanity. Inbreeding. Not necessarily in that order.
Most “journalists” have nothing to worry about…most of them are Dimocrats anyhow. The fbi just throws that out there like they give a rip
This is why we celebrate Independence Day. Independence from trifles like the Constitution of the United States.
When I realized that the government basically does whatever it wants, and is only limited by what they cannot get away with, then I understood that if you want to keep things secret, you don’t talk about it on any electronic communications. You park a plane idling at the end of a runway, and you do your business there. Can you imagine what these people will do once they get the guns out of the law abiding citizens?
Here’s the craziest part: About half of Americans think Edward Snowden is a traitor who shouldn’t have leaked anything.
These are the Americans our government values most.
You mean you found someting that they cant do. I mean after all they have proof that Holder and Obama ran guns across the border. It is well known and we know that Hillary illegally used a personal server to avoid the rules of transparency and signed a document saying she knew it was not allowed and also deleted emails illegally. The list goes on so if you know something that they cant do . Please enlighten me. Also don’t tell me they could not kill someone. The Clinton’s just recently added another one of the colleagues that died strangely. Or doesn’t the name Vince Foster, Ron Brown along with three hundred of their closes friends.
Has anybody else noticed all the secrecy, secret courts and now secret rules proliferating in Obama’s most transparent administration in history?
So the very people that the media has helped install into government, are still helping today, are now spying on them. Forgive me if I don’t shed a tear for leftist wannabe dictators getting a taste of their own medicine.
There is an alternative:
TRUMP 2016
Oh, you think the entire system that has been molded for domestic surveillance and eventual oppression is suddenly going to roll up the carpet and go home?
The whole system has been built around this model, it’s been going on long before the “leftist wannabe dictator” got in office and it isn’t going to change under the next embarrassment.
There is a system in place that unless you want a REAL dictator in office, the next person will have to deal with that system and work within and by the rules of the system that is in place.
I wish everyone was as smart as they think they are. You’re hugging a dream, the same BS dream sold to the followers of the current embarrassment.
Let me get this straight: You’re complaining about leftist dictators on an article about freedom of the press, but then you follow up by recommending a candidate who shits on that very right with his policy proposals and the way his campaign treats journalists? That makes sense…
I was a sys admin and a member of the SPJ.
Why did Marcy Wheeler decline a role at the Intercept?
https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/07/01/shaping-traffic-and-spying-on-americans/
Intercept earlier this week, Peter Maass described an interview he had with a former NSA hacker he calls Lamb of God — this is the guy who did the presentation boasting “I hunt SysAdmins.” On the interview, I agree with Bruce Schneier that it would have been nice to hear more from Lamb of God’s side of things.
But the Intercept posted a number of documents that should have been posted long, long ago, covering how the NSA “shapes” Internet traffic….
….The other reason this is important is because of the possibility the NSA could deliberately shape traffic to take it out of FISA-controlled domestic space and into EO 12333-governed international space, a possibility envisioned in a 2015 paper.
I am beyond flipping irritated that there was never an open comments section on that article — or some of the other articles that, imho, most need comments from time to time. I wish that when people like Maas et al decided to close/never open comments they’d at least say why. Was it because the person said they wouldn’t talk otherwise? If that’s the case don’t we kind of deserve to know? It seems intellectually disingenuous to say ‘so and so was willing to talk to us’ and painting them in a rather… generous… light… and then offer no chance to at least comment on the article. If the idea is to get more people willing to talk by not challenging their version of things, isn’t that intellectually dishonest as well? No offense to Mr Maas but if there was ONE article I *would have really* wanted to comment on in the past month or two, that was the one. Blah.
More about nothing. Media reporting on themselves and how their disclosure of classified material should be protected simply because they are the media. The media is NOT immune from the rules everyone else must follow and if they chose to represent someone that has broken the law then they themselves are as guilty. I’m all about protecting rights but this continuing theory that every law enforcement entity is out to get the people is a conspiracy theory dreamt up by the media.
If you want to report something news worthy, how about coming down on Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter about how your personal information is continually stolen from every electronic device and smeared across the internet. Oh that’s right, people don’t care about that. It’s only bad when the FBI or NSA or some other government entity does it.
More crap to make the Snowden supporters look like they’re really interested in protecting America!
“I’m all about protecting rights but this continuing theory that every law enforcement entity is out to get the people is a conspiracy theory dreamt up by the media.”
The MSM (perchance to dream) has ignored 95 % of the related stories that have come out of the Intercept, Der Spiegel, the Guardian, the NYT, and the Washington Post along with most every foreign outlet Glenn seeded documents to.
OK, allow me to re-phase it then, The Intercept is trying to create a conspiracy that all law enforcement are anxiously awaiting your call to your grandmother to see what she’s up to! Get over yourselves. If you’re not going to complain about all the willing participants of the electronic media world, then don’t complain about law enforcement that is trying to keep you safe. I refuse to buy the notion that the ‘state’ is coming after us all! That’s a crock. If you’re not breaking the law, then most likely, they’re not tracking or listening to what you are doing!
Flush out your head gear. The NSA records EVERY phone call and electronic interaction that occurs in the country, completely illegally.
Johns Grandmother is a libertarian outlier, a malcontent , a lone wolf, and an iconoclastic rabble rouser and union activist with socialist leanings. Shes a Gray Panther, a member of Earth First and Occupy Oakland every one of which is being monitored 24/7 by Federal Bureau of Investigation. Who knows what shes capable of with the help of her conferederates?
So over the hills and through the river to Grandmothers house they go John.
Imagine your grandmother says she’s going to attend a rally to help gather support to oppose Trump gaining the Republican nomination. It’s collected, transcripts, and stored. No one listens to it or reads it. No one in law enforcement or intelligence really cares. Why would they? But then imagine Trump wins the presidency. It’s not unthinkable that he, once president, might order the NSA or Secret Service to review all collected intelligence and compile a list of anyone who opposed him. Now your grandmother is on a list. Now that call matters. And she didn’t break any law.
It’s not a theory, it’s American culture. It’s why we demanded a bill of rights. Treating every law enforcement entity (or the government more generally) as if it’s out to get you is like an insurance policy. You don’t really receive any benefit until you can make a claim, and once you can, if you don’t already have a policy, it’s too late.
“They” do, and have. Also, you agree to let them do that when you use their services, and you can choose not to use them. You don’t get an option of opting out of government surveillance. And they also have the power to arrest, detain, and charge you with crimes. The stakes are a bit higher.
fuckwit psycopath
The kooky conspiracy theory is your assumption the FBI and NSA is interested in protecting anything beyond their own profits.
“Oh that’s right, people don’t care about that. It’s only bad when the FBI or NSA or some other government entity does it.”
Correct. At least in the context of constitutionality rather than EULAs.
When your job is to report what your masters in the Whitehouse tell you to, then you must expect to be kept on short leash.
Since they’re all left wing political hacks for the most part – maybe they’re looking for the corruption within.
The Left only pretends to care about Unconstitutional invasions of privacy and violations of the Constitution when they are not in power to control it, fascists all.
Spoken like a true idiot who does not even have a remote idea as to the definition of fascism.
Society needs the media to be independent from and a check and balance of the government’s power. However the media has become highly corrupt and politicized and a fourth branch of the corrupt government. How we see the government turning on the media and the media is too stupid to realize what is happening. Don’t forget that in a revolution the journalists are one of the first groups to be eradicated.
Too bad there isn’t a section of the Constitution that mandates a Warrenton for such searches and seisures….
The FBI has some things to answer considering the handling of the secret meeting between Slick Willey and Lynch.
Was the FBI complicit in trying to cover up this meeting? Why is the FBI saying they are not going to release the findings of their investigation of the Hilderhog’s multiple felonies until after the election?
The Communists now have the White House, the Justice Department, the State Department, and the Defense Department. If the Hilderhog is elected in November, they will have the Supreme court and the Communist takeover of the United States will be complete after 70 years of dumming down the populous so they could make this a Communist Dictatorship. Why do you think Obama is going to be living 2 miles away from the White House like a buzzard in a tree waiting for a wounded animal to die.
There are some aspects I’m unclear about. What is the lifetime of these NSLs. Do they extend in perpetuity? So, each year they are adding to the number of NSLs currently extent?
How does my ISP maintain a record of my browsing history in the first place? Can my ISP use or sell my browsing history for its own purposes? What if I use a VPN? Does that affect the ability to get my browsing history? Is it related to nameservers or sniffing incoming IP headers?
Anyway, at best modern reporters are nibbling around the edges of the US security state. What is really needed is another Church commission. Although, the Media could try to make restoring FOIA a central part of the current presidential campaign.
Hillary’s email server scandal is a good way to inject a discussion about FOIA into the presidential campaign. Ask Trump about whether Hillary Clinton was trying to skirt the FOIA laws. Ask Trump if he would restore FOIA to its original scope and intent. Is restoring FOIA central to “taking back our country?”
FOIA stands for the Freedom Of Information Act.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_States)
All of your internet traffic goes though them, they just need to log it. Using https when available helps hide what you’re doing (which page you’re viewing, any data you send), but they still know which machines you’re connecting to, and when.
Yes, it shifts this capability to the VPN provider. Most claim not to log your traffic. All the ISP knows is when you connect to the VPN, for how long, and about how much data went over the tunnel.
Outside of ISIS I can’t think of another group that needs spying on percentage wise.
You miss the point, Terry. We are ALL potentially ISIS.
See how easy that was?
Mr. Timm is well intentioned, but completely wrong. If journalists are tipped off on how easily the FBI can obtain their records, they may switch en-masse to superficial election coverage rather than in-depth investigative reporting. This would have a negative effect on the quality of the mainstream media. Rather than the incisive analysis and exposure of the ulterior motives of pubic figures to which we are accustomed, it could become celebrity focused click bait.
If that happens, The Intercept will be to blame.
Pubic figures aside—and there are plenty of those—there is no one to blame but you, Benny. YOU tipped us off to the connection, which otherwise journalists are too selfishly career-obsessed to notice.
It’s all downhill from here.
Spy? All the FBI has to do is visit the DNC website and get the media’s news feed of the day.
Great work, Cora.
Neo-Stasi tactics will obviously silence journos and whistleblowers…
From Church Committee, 1975: “the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny… no way to fight back”
http://alolyo.blogspot.in/2016/07/neo-stasi.html
Yes. It’s neo-Stasi. Yes it is. However, lets now have that conversation about the segment of American politics who want the surveillance vs. the legal rights of the American who can refuse what they want.
Let’s start putting the magnifying lens on the persons, political groups who are just happily going along for the tidy-bowl ride into short term thinking of long term political officials and short term sycophants who indulge them at public expense. Some of them, no, a lot of them are journalists who don’t necessarily suck at their job because they are doing what they were paid to do- report on variations of the same 2 stories. They are okay, until they aren’t. So so many are okay with it though.
They aren’t paid to go to bat for public interest. They’re paid to sell lattes and microwave cooking infomercials during the breaks. Independent media, whomever they are, don’t have good examples of ‘spine’. Journalists suck at sticking up for others. They’re damn fine at saving their own asses though.
So great job, Cora. Now they all have fucking skin in the game. We’ll see who is going to step up and whose going to stay in the lap of the people creating this FIXABLE problem. You have a lack of leadership but you do have a lot of power. Everyone wants to see your law group spread out their wings and peck the eyes out of the surveillance state.
THERE ARE OTHER LAWS THEY ARE IGNORING AND THEY IGNORE THE LAW.
This is what politicized law looks like folks. If its not working for you, get off your asses and do something about it.
Neo Stasi tactics will obviously silence journos and whistleblowers…
From Church Committee, 1975: “the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny… no way to fight back”
http://alolyo.blogspot.in/2016/07/neo-stasi.html
quote”The FBI issues thousands of NSLs each year, including nearly 13,000 in 2015. “unquote
This redefines the word absurd. How can there possibly be that many people being investigate in SECRET. Absurd is an understatement. This redefines the word STASI. The ghost of King George must be rolling on the floor in gut splitting laughter.
What does King George have to do with that?
I’d think the Dulles Bros would be a better fit.
If the FBI is investigating a ring of criminals and their contacts, they can’t wait until they know for sure that a particular individual will be of interest to them and — only then — issue the NSL. They probably make a list of the people likely or possibly involved in the affair and get approval in advance.
Privacy is nice and important, but we want to prevent terror acts like those in Turkey and Brussels and in the US homeland, too. Tying the hands of the investigative authorities won’t help.
And they don’t get a search warrant because…? Really, splain that to me.
They do, but wholesale. It’s the only practicable way given the number of people under surveillance.
As a side comment, let me just say that it is unrealistic to think that the convenience of electronic communication is going to be costless in terms of privacy. If your postal service snail mail was subject to monitoring, why should you expect your Facebook page and email messages to be free from scrutiny? Welcome to the 21st century.
the Istanbul airport opened in little over 4 hours. Claimed nearly 300 casualties. I didn’t see anything convincing except maybe smoke bombs above ceilings. Same with Orlando. We’re being fooled but those awakened can see through it. It sounds cynical but look at what is being reported even with censors. Judge Napolitano claimed loud and clear on Fox News that nobody died at Orlando until SWAT entered at 5:15am. The former judge is implying that the original story is BS and that the whole thing was staged. Look at Angel Colon, shot 6 times, fresh-faced in street clothes, doing rehab on shattered leg 2 days later. C’mon!
http://www.globalresearch.ca/fbi-transcript-shows-nobody-died-in-orlando-shooting-until-swat-teams-entered-the-building-judge-napolitano/5533563
But we can’t get Hillary’s emails or the emails pertaining to Lois Lerner and the IRS scandal……amazing.
There are no ‘journalist’ just socialist operatives. Everyone knows that…
Josef Stalin would be proud.
Frankly, the 4th Amendment (RIP) was never strong enough. It should have stated, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against ANY searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”
Law enforcement can and should make due with only publicly available information.
I presume your post is satire? Just checking.
That’s probably what the framers’ thought when they wrote ‘shall not be infringed.’
And the funniest thing about this is the majority are supporting democrats and Hillary who are the ones pushing to censor them, strip away due process and ramp up domestic spying without warrants.
You wanted this, so don’t be crying when you find out you’re not part of the “chosen elite” but instead are targets just like everyone else.
Aww, poor journalists. So enthusiastic about attacking the US Constitution and removing people’s Second Amendment guaranteed Civil Rights by spreading misinformation for the government. Funny how the government then seeks to attack the First Amendment (freedom-of-the-press etc) and suddenly the journalists get terribly upset!
I have no pity for them.
Let them suffer blatant attacks on Liberty with the rest of us.
more likely some “journalists” are enjoying all of this.believing this administration will “reward its friends and punish its enemies”.i don’t think they are off the mark by much.
I so agree.
YEAH ! Amen
Is anyone surprised by this?
I’m rather surprised it hasn’t been going for longer… a lot longer…
What makes you think it hasn’t?
Can’t feel bad.
The media is just another arm of the Left. It would be nice to see a few of them doing jail time.
The FBI has no credibility at all with anyone that I know. Add LL and Slick Willies accidental tourist meeting. Hillary is without a doubt the most corrupt to ever run for President.
Global Agenda ~
Hillary Clinton
What difference does it make?
Too corrupt to fail
The only reason to spy on someone is if they’re not predictable. Hey journalists stop flattering yourselves. The FBI already knows how predictable your behavior is. pcfreetees.com
Reduce their budgets hit them it will hurt the most & do the most good for the American taxpayers & the public at large . Time to teach them a lesson, you break the law you too will pay the price.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.” Thomas Jefferson.
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
Just like the bad guys, time for throw away phones. Also, pay cash when meeting with informants, to include filling the gas tank.
But, if they do, they may find themselves on the No Fly List!
It’s no big deal…there are so few true journalists left. Seriously though, all you so-called journalists who are in the tank for the left, this is what you get. Are you going to tolerate it? Sure – because you’re sheep, doing nothing more than reprinting PR releases from the administration.
Welcome to the Occupation.
Sorry just a test.
So tell us why a warrant isn’t used, as our Constitution calls for?
This is exactly why it’s a bad idea to give the govt/law enforcement the authority to deny constitutional rights or other freedoms on the basis of mere suspicion that they don’t have to disclose to anyone. It’s hypocritical that Hillary has a fit about her own email communication and goes to extremes to shield it from scrutiny but has no problem supporting the invasion of privacy into others’ communications.
Don’t worry liberals, only conservative journalists will be targeted.
The desire for privacy is not exclusive to journalists. Why grant them the privilege just because they can whine louder than most? And who know if Putin or Un sees stuff that we deem too private for our eyes? You guys should just stop complaining and carry on with life. That way you will enjoy it more.
It’s not a privilege, it’s a constitutional right.
Logic demands that when nothing is left of the constitution then everything must be to the right and no center exists.
It’s a privilege to have any constitution at all. Ask the Syrians if you see any hanging around, but employ caution getting too close. They neither value their own constitution nor yours – not all, but many of them.
“It’s a privilege to have any constitution at all”. Do you even understand what a privilege is? A privilege is an extra something for doing something special or achieving something. Everyone on planet earth is a VICTIM to Governments worldwide. When every single person on planet earth is born, they are a slave to the Government of the grounds they are born. This is no privilege just because some governments act like you actually have choice and Freedom. It’s a huge joke and your logic is. We are all victims to these criminal gangs. Just because slave (X) might get beat worse than slave (Y) , this does not make slave (X) privileged.
* this does not make slave (Y) privileged.
God bless your slaves. I am talking about free people. We all have a constitution, regardless. Some short, some tall, some large, some small. Just make sure you run like mad if you hear any Allahuakbars, because if you stick around your constitution is likely to evaporate.
I do want to add my thanks to Cora for a great report. We need to DEMAND some transparency and respect for our Bill of Rights.
This is VERY troubling as it clearly attacks Freedom of the Press. Now we all know that there are problems with msm, but this behavior certainly isn’t helping. And these may also may have a chilling effect on more independent journalism. What will it take for folks to really wake up?
Article by Trevor Timm published today by Freedom of the Press Foundation about this
@Kitt –
THANKS, Kitt. Trevor Timm is fantastic and is one of my favorite columnists.
ZZZZzzzz… Still asleep….
“it makes a mockery”
Yes, it’s a mockery that anyone with half a brain cell still believes anything they are being told by anyone in government, especially a journalist. Most journalists have nothing to worry about because they are only pretending to be journalists. Another day, another article skirting the elephant in the room. This story is so outdated it could have been told over a decade ago. Strange, it’s groundbreaking news to be told something so old, yet still haven’t addressed what’s under the tip of the iceberg. At this rate, it will be another 15-20 years before we get any current news. Ohh well, i’ll wait for the next ground breaking article in the next few days shocking everyone with half a brain cell as they state “we didn’t know,” “they promised they weren’t doing it.”
YAWN…
@fgt4urights
Hey, Ass Hole, your constant stalking of me and littering and cluttering the comment threads by so often posting your same old tripe immediately following one of my comments is very strange behavior. One need not be a therapist, or whatever, to recognize that. Why don’t you please knock it the hell off? Find a new hobby to feed your illness.
Look at the pathological liar using big words again like “Ass Hole.”
Poor Kitt, the victim feeling stalked, but what this pathological liar won’t tell you it was Kitt who was doing the stalking as i never made ANY initial contact with this person who obviously needs Mona’s help as Kitt appears to be delusional needing meds thinking he/she is being stalked. Screaming victim doesn’t make your lie true Kitt as the evidence is on this site of who was the one stalking and making rude statements as it was you. I can re-post your comments on you contacting me and you now claim victim. HaHa, you’re a pathetic lap dog and much more pathetic victim. ZZzzz… Go back to sleep as your pathetic rants will be addressed and you will know who i am.
With Generals and SRPs like Hercules and Kitt it is not so surprising the US has such a difficult time winning wars and hiding the Stasi’s warts.
“Another controversial aspect of NSLs is that they come with a gag order preventing companies from disclosing even the fact that they’ve received one.”
This is the part that alarms me most, as it confirms that law enforcement are often nothing more than (incredibly powerful) spiteful children with no respect for the Constitution and its tone.
The undeserved stress this puts on the subject to rat someone out and not be able to alert the target must be awful for any recipient with a conscience. This is no way for a government to behave.
@Maisie –
I feel very much the same way. ESPECIALLY what you wrote in your last paragraph.
The world (99.9% is now (beginning to) chanting
“” and the land of the 1%”
– Alejandro Grace Ararat.
are you still singing the land of the free?
The funny thing about the majority of journalists in the United States is that they go along with the rules, they sing the song that’s asked of them. No FBI harrassment is required.
“The disobedient dog, you have to beat it to get it to do what you want. But the well-trained dog, it does what you want it to, and then begs for a treat.” – anonymous.
Classic example: the 2002-2003 NYTimes ‘reporting’ on “Saddam’s WMD threat” vs. the disobedient Turkish journalists who exposed the ties between the Erdogan government and ISIS terrorists, particularly in relation to the supposed 2013 “Syrian government chemical weapons attack”
Now, there is a lot of evidence that it was not the Syrian government who carried out that 2013 chemical weapons attack that Obama and Cameron tried to flog into a mandate for a broad military assault on Syria – as hyped by the U.S. State Department. This includes this source:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line
Read down to the comment by Ted Postol, MIT weapons expert (with whose work I am very familiar)
American journalists, by and large, are best described as “tools” – Turkish journalists, who expose such truths, are imprisoned by their government. That’s the difference, isn’t it?
Sure, there are a few exceptions – but not many. The only bright point in this story is that the Obama-Cameron effort to hype the Syrian “WMD threat” – a replay of the Bush-Blair 2003 Saddam “WMD threat” line – went down like a ton of bricks. Too bad, war pigs, you lost that round! And you’re going to lose the next one, too.
Duhh..They have been using Journalists on their payroll to spin, spy and obfuscate ..Just like the CIA.. For 50 years..What is News about this ..
It’s about bullying the ones either not on their payroll, not ones they want on their payroll, or not ones who’d be predictable enough to be scared as hell about their loss of rights, liberties and freedoms. It’s not just useful as an investigation technique — it’s most useful as a way to bully, terrify, and jackboot their way to a unified ‘message’ — especially important now that ‘journalism’ isn’t as centralized and stories can break out like hot zones and fly out of control.
Scare the hell out of the world and you limit the number of people who can get people to listen to something semi-manageable. Go further and get as much dirt as you can on those people and even if something does go out of control, you have a way to slam them over the head, directly or indirectly, later, and get them back into a place where you can manage or at least overtake them, storywise.
It’s not just about spinning, spying, and obfuscation. It’s about making sure you have less of it to do in the first place and getting ahead of stories in the process. The result winds up being a bunch of journalists who also don’t even know they’re serving the desires of the state — not just a bunch of ones that do — and a small number of ones who, they probably hope, will be so afraid of what their governments can do themselves (or by proxy) that they’ll constantly monitor how far they’re willing to go to take a stand against an overreaching police state.
At any rate, as ‘consumers’ of the news, we’re failing as a populace. Yet, given what we have to work with it’s very difficult for people to get true stories anyway. I think the internet has ‘helped’ much of the populace to be less critical thinkers in the first place; people believe they’re better informed, so they’re more willing than ever to shout louder. It’s a dangerous combination of factors, and not helped by our educational system’s emphasis on memorization instead of critical thinking and analysis (and that winds up leaving us, also, with more credulous ‘journalists’ than good, decent ones — even tho the credulous ones probably DO think they’re telling the truth).
Excellent article Ms. Currier. What a surprise, the PR front of the Administration says we’re going to protect the journalists from government monitoring, while back behind the curtain they make sure the FBI can still just monitor them based on judgement calls the FBI makes. 13k of the judgement call NSL’s in 2015 alone? Holy cow that’s alot. More sunlight is needed here.
Journalists dealing with subjects that might reflect badly on the Administration should assume they are working in 1970’s East Germany – they’re phone / smartphone / email / internet connection is being monitored continuously and watched for anyone trying to talk about things that would look bad for the party, er I mean the administration.
We are dealing with something much more sinister than the East German Stasi of the 1970’s. And it has much more popular support, money, and technology than its model.
Ms. Currier, you’re mentally ill like those paranoid US diplomats with the wild fantasies about bizarre and childish Russian Zersetzung tactics being used against them. See Mona for quick online diagnosis. She’s an expert in the field.
You seem to believe that domestic surveillance is some form of fantasy. Do you remember anything from 2013? This man named Edward Snowden, you know, the famous NSA whistleblower? Well he released thousands of documents on the surveillance state of the U.S. When the Patriot Act went into effect in the wake of 9/11, it allowed them to surveil persons of interest. These people would have been suspected of terrorist plots against America. What they didn’t tell us was that they were surveilling everyone. Everyone as in every U.S citizen. They were collecting metadata which is every phone call, email, text message, photograph, social media post. They were collecting everything. In 2013, the White House held two independent commissions to review the surveillance program. They found that since the program went into effect, they did not prevent a single terrorist attack. To think that the government decided to stop all surveillance programs after the leak would be naive. Its no surprise that they continue to monitor everything that everyone does.
Yeah, i just seen that story, but that could never happen here. Our politicians are not corrupt and in fact we are living in the most transparent times in history. The Constitution has been extended and the “freedom act” was passed to give you more freedoms than you know what to do with. Your government, at all levels are risking their lives for you, to protect you and keep you safe because they care more about you than you care about yourself. This is another reason why they need your guns so you won’t harm yourself. History never repeats itself and all wrong doings from the past like Cointelpro have ended. The government was very sorry it happened in the first place. We are lucky to be living in a time where both parties have the most moral and ethical leaders we can choose from which makes it a hard choice of who to pick. Maybe the one with the most flags surrounding them as they would be the most patriotic??
Mona is actually an expert in mental illness and diagnosing clinical cases over the internet. In under 3 sentences i was diagnosed with having mental illness according to her and her services are free on this site so no need to drive or pay high fees which is a plus. She spots and calls out mental health cases with 100% accuarcy within seconds, she’s that good. Highly recommended.
Ah, yes, the story slowly but surely seeps out–How to Make People Look (and Feel!) Crazy, Cause Them Extreme Stress, and Drive Them from Their Jobs and Homes:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/sep/23/russia-targeting-western-diplomats
Think it can’t happen in the U.S. of A? Ha-ha-ha-ha. My belly laugh of the day.
Great link, was meaning to get this once i heard of it. Title is off though as it should read “Hello!! This is happening right here in front of your face on wide scale is anyone going to expose or report on it?”
Denial is a serious disease which many are inflicted with.
There was once a journalist who was about to drop a big important story. His car burst into flames and he died. I’m sure there were no “secret police” following him or knowing about the major story he was going to drop.
His wife flatly declared there was absolutely nothing suspicious about his death. Makes one wonder about her since money is thicker than blood.
@Stan –
… maybe she’s just scared?
and down goes democracy
Persecution of Journalists and Whistle Blowers by STASI coordinated out of DHS Fusion Centers.
DEW’s are lethal.
U.S. deadly use of covert technology on innocent civilians.
The FBI has some things to answer considering the handling of the secret meeting between Slick Willey and Lynch.
Was the FBI complicit in trying to cover up this meeting? Why is the FBI saying they are not going to release the findings of their investigation of the Hilderhog’s multiple felonies until after the election?
The Communists now have the White House, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Defense Department and the DHS. If the Hilderhog is elected in November, they will have the Supreme court and the Communist takeover of the United States will be complete after 70 years of dumming down the populous so they could make this a Communist Dictatorship. Why do you think Obama is going to be living 2 miles away from the White House like a buzzard in a tree waiting for a wounded animal to die.
To add to what you stated, the FBI ordered journalists not to film or take pictures of meeting. Civil Liberties or rights just get disguarded apparently. Also same FBI now ordering agencies who responded to Pulse Orlando shooting to deny records request from media and report who is asking for information. Makes it much easier to hide, cover-up and for the public to completely forget about events or truth.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/FBI_asks_agencies_who_responded_to_Pulse_to_deny_records_requests/52382/0/38/38/Y/M.html