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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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4

Loose FBI Rules Raise Privacy Fears

People are unfairly targeted, complain Muslim groups

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(Newser) – The FBI has been given far too much leeway to gather information on individuals and groups, charge Muslim and civil liberties organizations. Guidelines in a newly disclosed FBI manual allow the bureau to probe people or organizations without any factual evidence against them. Agents are given broad powers to proactively seek information and to use race and religion as factors in choosing whom to monitor, reports the New York Times.

"The FBI should be focused on following actual leads rather than putting entire communities under the microscope,” said a lawyer from a Muslim group which sued for release of the manual. She complains that the FBI has singled out Muslim-Americans as agents provocateurs and infiltrated mosques. The FBI's general counsel counters that the guidelines give agents the necessary flexibility to investigate potential threats, and are in line with the bureau's drive to become a more intelligence-driven agency.

An FBI agent escorts an unidentified man from the apartment of terror suspect Najibullah Zazi in Aurora, Colo., last month.
An FBI agent escorts an unidentified man from the apartment of terror suspect Najibullah Zazi in Aurora, Colo., last month.   (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
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The FBI has been told that we need to determine who poses a threat to the national security—not simply to investigate persons who have come onto our radar screen.
- FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni

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4 comments
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yummines
Oct 29, 09 2:39 AM CDT
makes sense what the lawyer is saying. getting the lead on a "suspicious person" should not start with religion, race, or even sexual orientation. they should be "suspicious" by acting suspicious, and race and religion should have nothing to do with it. Reply
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Deebles
Oct 29, 09 2:45 AM CDT
Please, If there is a sole out there who can read anything--the CIA opened your mail all through the sixties. The FBI was so into the the radical groups of the sixties that they couldn't prosecute Ayers because an FBI plant gave him the fricking explosives. Your security system has been up your butt forever--don't you dare believe that they're just starting now. Want to understand your FBI--google the Black Panthers and Jean Seaberg. That is just the tiniest tip of what the FBI has been doing forever. After JFK died, Truman wrote an op-ed in the Times and tried to explain why he invented the CIA--you'd think a happy Democracy wouldn't need one--he said I just wanted a consolidated daily briefing. Central Intelligence--consolidated--he had no idea that they would rule the world-or run the poppy trade in Afganhistan--it costs more money in chemical products to turn a poppy seed into opium than the GNP of the whole country, yet, they ship OPIUM not seeds to Iran, Pakistan and Russia. Don't you find that in the least bit odd? Or, have you lost the ability to see a tree in the forest that has become our lives? Reply
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IN RESPONSE:
Netstorm2k9
Oct 29, 09 7:23 AM CDT
Well, duh. The government is zealous about protecting itself and making a profit for those who invest in it. It's a corporation with a public charter that just happens to own a continent. Duh.
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Ucantusethatname
Oct 30, 09 6:52 AM CDT
Muslim attacked and killed 150 persons in Nigeria in February 2009. A Muslim mob attacked a Jewish center at Toronto University in February 2009. Muslims attacked a church and looted Christian homes in Egypt in June 2009. A Muslim mob attacked Pakistani Christians in September 2009. Muslim terrorists murdered more than 100 women and children with a car bomb in Pakistan in October 2009. Most important, 19 Muslims murdered more innocent persons on September 11 than the number of American criminals executed since 1945. Thus, the FBI lacks any justifiable reason to regard Muslims as potential sources of violence—persons who pose no greater threat to the nation's security than residents living in retirement homes. Reply
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