<
FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com
(DV) Gerard: True to its History, the FBI is Still Violating Civil Liberties


HOME 

SEARCH 

NEWS SERVICE 

LETTERS 

ABOUT DV CONTACT SUBMISSIONS

 

True to its History, the FBI is Still Violating Civil Liberties
by Gene C. Gerard
www.dissidentvoice.org
March 27, 2006

Send this page to a friend! (click here)

 

According to a report released last week by the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) violated procedures for wiretapping and other methods of obtaining intelligence more than 100 times in the last two years. The department’s inspector general regarded some of the violations as “significant,” including wiretaps that were broader than what a court had approved, and wiretaps that were allowed to go on for weeks, even months, longer than had been authorized. Given the bureau’s history, this shouldn’t be surprising. The FBI was created for partisan political purposes, and has blatantly violated civil liberties since its inception.  

In 1919 the Attorney General of the United States, A. Mitchell Palmer, exacerbated public fears of Communism in order to generate publicity for his candidacy in the upcoming presidential election. Coming only two years after the Russian Revolution of 1917, there was widespread hysteria in America concerning Communists and other supposed radicals. Attorney General Palmer capitalized on this by creating an antiradicalism division in the Justice Department. He selected a young government attorney named J. Edgar Hoover to lead the new division.

Hoover’s division became the FBI In 1919, the bureau staged the first of what became known as the “Palmer Raids.” Agents invaded the offices of suspected radical political organizations and labor unions. These raids rounded up thousands of legal aliens who had committed no crime, but were suspect only because of their political beliefs (many were Communists or socialists) or their immigrant backgrounds (many had Russian or German ancestry). Since they lacked U.S. citizenship, many were deported without indictment or even a trial.

The only evidence of domestic terrorism that the raids netted were blueprints that the bureau maintained were for a bomb, intended to be used to overthrow the government. It was eventually discovered that the blueprints were actually for a new and improved record player. Despite a lack of evidence that the suspected radicals were actually a threat, in January 1920 the FBI staged its infamous “New Year’s Raids.” This time, in addition to entering offices, the agents invaded thousands of people’s homes, largely without search warrants. 

Approximately 6,000 individuals in 23 states were arrested and jailed. Most were never charged with any crime, and were denied legal counsel. It’s ironic, of course, that the nation’s chief law enforcement agency was denying American citizens of their constitutional rights. Arrests were made on the basis of subscribing to Communist newspapers, reading Russian novels, eating in restaurants that served foreign cuisine, and simply because someone “looked like a radical,” according to published sources. 

Almost 85 years later, little appears to have changed in the FBI According to the Justice Department’s report, the inspector general identified 108 instances of violations in 2004 and 2005 regarding wiretaps and other methods of obtaining intelligence. The report also found violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which governs how and when the federal government can eavesdrop on domestic communications. In 2004, 48 percent of the FBI violations trampled on FISA, and this figure surged to 69 percent last year.

The inspector general’s report also revealed that the duration of the violations grew over the last two years. This was the case regarding the “overcollection” of intelligence data, in which the FBI collected more evidence than a court had authorized. In one such instance, the bureau obtained the complete content of 181 telephone calls related to an intelligence investigation, but a court had only authorized the bureau to obtain billing records.

This was also the case with “overruns,” in which the FBI allowed a wiretap or other method of obtaining intelligence to run longer than a court had approved. In one instance, a wiretap lasted 373 days longer than it had been approved for. The average duration in which overcollections and overruns were permitted before the bureau stopped them was 22 days in 2004, and 32 days in 2005.

The spokesman for the FBI, John Miller, attempted to justify these violations of civil liberties by arguing that some violations are inevitable “given the scope and complexity of national security investigations.” However, it’s more likely that the bureau is simply perpetuating longstanding practices. The Justice Department would do well to view its report as a serious comment on the blatant lawlessness within the FBI, and to demand serious reforms within the bureau. It’s long overdue.

Gene C. Gerard has taught history, religion, and ethics for 14 years at several colleges in the Southwest, and is a contributing author to the forthcoming book Americans at War, by Greenwood Press. He writes a blog for the world news web site OrbStandard at: www.orbstandard.com/GGerard.

Other Articles by Gene C. Gerard

* Another Unsavory Judicial Nomination
* Out of Touch with Military Reality
* The US and Iran: Birds of a Feather
* Bush Administration Ignored Coal Mine Safety Issues

* Tax Shelters Disguised as Health Care Reform
* Tax Breaks for the Wealthy
* Bush Chose Iraq Over America’s Homeless
* Bush Abuses Recess Appointment Power
* Another Brownie in the Making
* Pharmacists Can’t Say No to Contraception
* Any Soldier Will Do For the Pentagon
* Kansas Attorney General is Bush’s Kind of Guy
* VA Seeks to Punish Iraq War Veterans
* Soldiers Shouldn’t Serve as Police Officers
* Republicans Require Health Insurance for Immigrants Only
* Poverty Increases as Incomes Decline Under President Bush
* As in World War II, The President Should Limit Oil Profits
* Supreme Court Nominee John G. Roberts and the Voting Rights Act
* The Flag Should Not Infringe on the First Amendment
* President Bush Must Address Outsourcing
* Consumer Confidence Decline Surprises Only the Bush Administration
* Conservative Ideology Hinders U.S. AIDS Policy
* The Record of Judge John Roberts
* Gay Marriage Critics Are Misguided
* Democrats Can Succeed Without the Filibuster
* Turkey is Not a Role Model for the Middle East
* Violations of Civil Liberties are an American Tradition
* The Economy Turned the Corner and Is Headed in the Wrong Direction
* Bush Administration Promotes Global Conflicts by Rewarding Allies
* Bush Administration Attempts to Influence Global HIV/AIDS Policy
* Conservatives, Judicial Impeachment, and Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
* Appeals Court Nominee Janice Rogers Brown Merits the Filibuster
* Zimbabwe’s Very American Election
* Appeals Court Nominee Thomas B. Griffith is a Poor Choice
* President Bush’s Use of Pardons Isn’t Very Compassionate
* E.P.A. Nominee Supports Testing of Chemicals on Human Subjects
* Military Policy on Gays is Costly and Dangerous
* Bush Administration AIDS Policies Continue to Fall Short
* Bush’s Judicial Nominations are Hardly Mainstream
* Bush’s Budget is at Odds With His Rhetoric
* Iraq’s Election Will Not Guarantee Democracy
* The Politics of SpongeBob

HOME