Pardon the sarcasm. The Justice Department's own audit of the Patriot Act has found that the FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States. The audit found that the FBI had under-reported the number of times it required businesses to turn over personal customer information under the Patriot Act for three years. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, who oversees the FBI, said the problems cited in the report are unacceptable and left open the possibility of criminal charges. He ordered further investigation. Don't hold your breath.
Moral leadership starts at the top and sets the standards for the rest of the organization. Mr. Gonzalez has been on a slippery slope on a lot of issues for some time now.
The Neocons (Cheney especially) have been concerned with regaining executive branch power that they perceive was lost in the post-Watergate days. There was a reason why so many checks on executive power were implemented at that time -- it's called abuse of power. J. Edgar Hoover was an FBI head so powerful and above the law that he kept secret files on millions of Americans, many of which are still surfacing now. For those of us who remember those days, it is just one reason why laws like the Patriot Act make us so nervous. We are supposed to be able to learn from history and learn from our experience.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. The next question should be about what they are are doing with that illegally obtained info. Is it a Nixon style Bush/Cheney enemies list?
Steve Bonomo at 12:48AM on Mar 10th 2007
2. Gonzalas's hasn't done anything wrong. He is a Bush cabinet memeber which makes him a target of the far left (secular progressives or SP's). The SP's have a powerful propaganda machine. Bush's own countrymen hate him (for the most part) due to the Iraq war. The SP's incessant pounding has his approval rating around 30% or so. Now take a look at Tony Blair, the number 2 man in Iraq. His approval rating by Bush's countrymen is at 79%. It makes me believe the SP's and far left Democrates don't really care about Iraq, they just want in the White House. And they apparently believe that a slow strangle of the troops in Iraq will help them in their pursuit of it.
CEalie at 8:12AM on Mar 13th 2007
3. "It isn't so"........Now that it's been said, let the FBI do it's job. They are capable people and spend plenty of time already taking flak from the "anti-govment" crowd. Just to remind those who constantly "politicize" every single "hic-cup" out of our Government, these offices are staffed overwhelmingly with Americans who for the most part do their jobs very well.
Jean at 7:07PM on Mar 14th 2007
4. Jean you fool the FBI isn't doing anything noteworthy or helpful. They have just become used to the power that they have and want to keep using it. There is only one thing that people in power fear, losing their power.
John Lestrange at 7:31AM on Apr 25th 2007
5. Tell that to your other "hate America' types, John. They're more likely to believe that hogwash. Most Americans are completely fed up with the poisonous, hateful "Bash America" crap right now. It's starting to look suspicious, really. This kind of hate-talk use to be reserved to America's enemies and the "boot-leggers" running moonshine. Moonshine's not made anymore, so that leaves.............
Jean at 12:10PM on Mar 15th 2007
6. How strange, my last post "use to be" #5, and now it's #4. Woo OOh Woo ooh Woo ooh!
Jean at 4:16PM on Mar 25th 2007