Posts in "FBI"

By Cody London at 3:04PM

May 23, 2010

"Wicked Problem"

Dennis Blair

Last semester I took a history course on the CIA in the third world. One of the problems presented by the professor concerning the overall intel apparatus of the United States was that there was not a "grand master" intelligence head. The head of the CIA was originally going to be that spearhead, organizing and collaborating amongst all law enforcement/intel agencies toward the ultimate goal of a "safe(r) society" -- but that hasn't happened. The professor's rationale was that the blunders of the past could have been averted if it weren't for the lack of collaboration and central authority in our intelligence community.

Today apparently the intelligence community is a "wicked problem." Recently Obama ousted Dennis Blair the director of intelligence and now no one is jumping at the opportunity to feel that vacancy -- not surprisingly given the recent mishaps and missteps with regards to the failed attempts from the crotch bomber and the Times Square bomber.

FBI illegally collected phone records

As reported in today's Washington Post,

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

The records were obtained using post 9/11 "rules" that allowed the FBI to get phone records in the case of an "emergency." The FBI was required to obtain authorization for the phone records after the fact, but according to the cases cited by the Washington Post, the authorization in many cases was never even asked for.

Sure has been a banner week for the FBI.

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By Jeff Frazee at 4:28PM

Jan 17, 2010

FBI FAIL!

ABC News reported on Thursday:

Using sophisticated digital enhancement techniques, the FBI today published "aged progressed" mug shots of Osama bin Laden and 17 other top terrorists wanted by the U.S.

The Drudge Report displayed this image on its front page and linked to the ABC News report.

Bin Laden Fake

Today, we find out the "sophisticated digital enhancement" used by the FBI is a fraud and a poor attempt at Photoshop. Surprise!

"The FBI used a photograph of a Spanish lawmaker as part of a digitally enhanced Osama bin Laden wanted poster," reports CNN. [Spanish lawmaker, Gaspar Llamazares, pictured on the right]

As expected, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson said, "That was not normal procedure. It was completely unintentional and the FBI is looking into it to prevent it from happening again." He goes on to say, the error occurred when an FBI "technician who put together the digitally enhanced image found an image (of hairline and wrinkles) that suited his purposes, and used it."

Pure propaganda. How many times does government have to apologize and promise never to make mistakes again before we lose all belief in government?

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By Barry Kuzay at 12:01PM

Oct 13, 2009

FBI biometric photo scanning at the DMV

AHuxley at Slashdot reports:

DMV

The FBI is getting fast new systems to look at local North Carolina license photos via the DMV. As the FBI is not authorized to collect and store the photos, they use the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. The system takes seconds to look at chin widths and nose sizes. The expanded technology used on millions of motorist could be rolled out across the USA. The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System is also getting an upgrade to DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans.

Slashdot is a great site for those who love technology, but more importantly, it seems to be run by libertarians. (They ran quite a few stories on Ron Paul during the presidential campaign.)

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By Bonnie Kristian at 11:37AM

Sep 24, 2009

The FBI is stalking you...even though the DHS told them not to.

Newly declassified information has revealed some concerning activity on the part of the FBI:

A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store...

In other words, the FBI is keeping track of a lot of information about private citizens and obtaining it without warrants. Moreover, the Bureau wants to quadruple the staff of the tracking program to allow them to better keep an eye on all the terrorists this is supposedly going to catch.

The best part of this story is that even the Department of Homeland Security has said (albeit about a different specific program, but it's basically the same thing) data mining for terrorists is an ineffective plan which could lead to violations of privacy -- yes, that DHS, the one which runs the TSA, or airport security. And if those guys are concerned about privacy violation, this data mining stuff must be bad...I thought that's what the Fourth Amendment was supposed to be for?

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