Eggen, Dan. "FBI Reports on Missing Laptops and Weapons." Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2007, A6. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]Materials arranged chronologically.
Eggen, Dan. "FBI Reports on Missing Laptops and Weapons." Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2007, A6. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
According to a report released on 12 February 2007 by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, the FBI had 160 laptop computers lost or stolen from February 2002 to September 2005. At least 10 of these contained sensitive or classified information. In the same timeframe, the Bureau also had 160 missing weapons, including shotguns and submachine guns. "The results are an improvement on findings in a similar audit in 2002, which reported that 354 weapons and 317 laptops were lost or stolen at the FBI over about two years."
Johnston, David, and Eric Lipton. "U.S. Report to Fault F.B.I. on Subpoenas." New York Times, 9 Mar. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
On 9 March 2007, the Justice Department’s inspector general will issue "a scathing report criticizing how the F.B.I. uses" national security letters "to obtain thousands of telephone, business and financial records without prior judicial approval.... Under the USA Patriot Act, the bureau each year has issued more than 20,000" such letters. "The report is said to conclude that the program lacks effective management, monitoring and reporting procedures." National security letters "were once used only in espionage and terrorism cases, and then only against people suspected as agents of a foreign power. With the passage of the Patriot Act, their use was greatly expanded and was allowed against Americans who were subjects of any investigation. The law also allowed other agencies like the Homeland Security Department to issue the letters." See also, John Solomon and Barton Gellman, "Frequent Errors In FBI's Secret Records Requests: Audit Finds Possible Rule Violations," Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2007, A1.
Singel, Ryan. "Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates." Wired, 29 Aug. 2007. [http://www.Wired.com]
According to nearly a thousand pages of documents released under FOIA, the FBI's surveillance system, the Digital Collection System Network or DCSNet, is a "sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device." DCSNet "connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected."
Liptak, Adam. "Judge Voids F.B.I. Tool Granted by Patriot Act." New York Times, 7 Sep. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
On 6 September 2007, Judge Victor Marrero of the Federal District Court in Manhattan "struck down the parts of the recently revised USA Patriot Act that authorized" the FBI "to use informal secret demands called national security letters to compel companies to provide customer records." He "ruled that the measure violated the First Amendment and the separation of powers guarantee."
Bohn, Kevin, and Kelli Arena. "With 300,000 Names on List, Terrorist Center Always on Alert." CNN, 25 Sep. 2007. [http://www.cnn.com]
At the Terrorist Screening Center, "a highly secure" facility "in a classified location in northern Virginia," dozens of operations specialists use a "secret terror watch list" to respond to queries about possible terrorists. Officials said that "the consolidated watch list has 300,000 names.... The center's director, Leonard Boyle, said about 5 percent of the names on the list are U.S. citizens.... The majority of calls to the center come from border agents, Boyle said.... [T]he 4-year-old center ... is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by FBI personnel, along with others on loan from various government agencies."
Shenon, Philip. "C.I.A. Officer Admits Guilt Over Hezbollah Files." New York Times, 14 Nov. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
On 13 November 2007, Nada Nadim Prouty, "[a] Lebanese-born C.I.A. officer" who previously worked for the FBI, "pleaded guilty ... to charges that she illegally sought classified information" from FBI computers about the radical Islamic group Hezbollah. Prouty "also confessed that she had fraudulently obtained American citizenship." She "faces up to 16 years in prison." The plea agreement "appeared to expose grave flaws in the methods used" by the CIA and FBI "to conduct background checks."
See also, Michael Isikoff, et al. "Dangerous Liaisons: Nada Prouty Worked for the FBI and CIA. Now There's Worry She's Not Who They Thought She Was," Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2007, 35; and Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen. "Ex-FBI Employee's Case Raises New Security Concerns: Sham Marriage Led to U.S. Citizenship," Washington Post, 14 Nov. 2007, A3.
Weiner, Tim. "Hoover Planned Mass Jailing in 1950." New York Times, 23 Dec. 2007. [http://www.nytimes.com]
According to a collection of cold-war documents declassified on 21 December 2007, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover "had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began." The names of the individuals to be arrested "were part of an index that Hoover had been compiling for years. 'The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven per cent are citizens of the United States,' he wrote."
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