By
Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
Tue Oct 25,11:08 AM ET
FBI agents have violated government policies by secretly conducting surveillance on U.S. citizens for more than a year without notifying Justice Department officials, according to declassified government documents released Monday.
FBI spokesman John Miller said Monday that the precise number of violations by agents could not be disclosed because some information on the bureau's surveillance activities in this country remains classified. However, the documents released by the Justice Department indicate that there have been several instances in which FBI agents have not informed their superiors at Justice about secret surveillance operations.
In one case documented in 2002, an unidentified target had been watched for nearly two years by agents in Indianapolis without the required oversight of Justice Department executives, the papers say. In a separate case in 2002, the documents say, agents' 15-month delay in reporting the status of their surveillance of a person in Detroit kept the department "from exercising its responsibility for oversight and approval."
The records were released Monday as part of a federal Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a civil liberties advocacy group. The findings were first reported by The Washington Post.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the FBI has dramatically increased its surveillance on people in this country, including U.S. citizens, as part of the bureau's new mission to prevent further attacks. Warrants that allow such surveillance of U.S. citizens are overseen by a secret court and a presidential panel whose activities are not made public. After obtaining such a warrant, FBI agents are supposed to follow Justice procedures designed to prevent abuses of such authority.
The release comes as Congress is considering restrictions to the USA Patriot Act, the post-9/11 law that made it easier for U.S. agents to conduct secret searches and surveillance. Miller said the papers reflected violations of long-standing Justice rules, not abuses of any authority granted by the Patriot Act. In a letter Monday to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, EPIC called for more congressional oversight of secret surveillance.
He was probably stalking his ex from high school...
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