FBI Memo: Agents Can "Suspend the Law"

FBI Memo: Agents Can "Suspend the Law"

The FBI once taught its agents that they can “bend or suspend the law” as they wiretap suspects. But the bureau says it didn’t really mean it, and has now removed the document from its counterterrorism training curriculum, calling it an “imprecise” instruction. Which is a good thing, national security attorneys say, because the FBI’s contention that it can twist the law in pursuit of suspected terrorists is just wrong.

The undated piece of instructional material (.pdf) notes that “under certain circumstances, the FBI has the ability to bend or suspend the law to impinge on the freedom of others.” Those circumstances include “the ability to gather information on individuals which would normally be protected under the U.S. Constitution through the use of FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act], Title 3 monitoring [general law enforcement surveillance], NSL [National Security Letter] reports, etc.”

I'm surprised they had the balls to say it so outright. Sadly the basic premise doesn't surprise me, though.

What do you think?


R.C.
I want to remind everybody that no matter how I die, it was murder; if I am tried for a criminal offense, the odds of me having done it are almost too low to calculate; should I disappear without a trace, it was not voluntary...

hey, it's america, where nobody has any rights unless they own a percentage of the economy