Under Obama, F.B.I. given more powers to Invade Your Privacy

Imagine the lefty outrage if this was happening under Bush. It’s not happening under Bush, this is happening under Obama. Bush may have started the invasion of privacy mess but Obama is taking it to another level.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.

Wonder how many people that oppose Obama’s dictatorship have been “srutinized?”

The F.B.I. soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, according to an official who has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its contents. The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist activity.

The F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing.

The 4th Amendment means nothing to the police state.

“Claiming additional authorities to investigate people only further raises the potential for abuse,” Mr. German said, pointing to complaints about the bureau’s surveillance of domestic political advocacy groups and mosques and to an inspector general’s findings in 2007 that the F.B.I. had frequently misused “national security letters,” which allow agents to obtain information like phone records without a court order.

Valerie E. Caproni, the F.B.I. general counsel, said the bureau had fixed the problems with the national security letters and had taken steps to make sure they would not recur. She also said the bureau, which does not need permission to alter its manual so long as the rules fit within broad guidelines issued by the attorney general, had carefully weighed the risks and the benefits of each change.

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F.B.I.: Hezbollah has $2.4 Million Dollar Bounty on the head of Pastor Terry Jones

How can this be? These people are from the ‘religion of peace.” They would never threaten to kill, behead, rape or stone anyone. This is so rare.

That is how a left-winger thinks. In the real world, these cave-dwelling terrorists will kill for any reason. Remember the Danish cartoonist who drew Mohammed wearing a bomb? Now these same backwards thinking religious ideologues have a bounty on the head of the Florida pastor who dared to burn their book of hate.

ABCNews reports:

Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who supervised the burning of the Koran last month, said he’s not backing down after receiving death threats.

Jones said he feels no responsibility for the violence sparked by his church’s action, including the violent protest at a United Nations complex in Afghanistan Saturday that left at least 11 people dead – and 20 killed in weekend violence.

The Muslim appeasing western media has attempted to blame this on Jones. Notice the burning happened last month while the murdering happened last week.

…Of Saturday’s violence, Jones said it proved his point.

“We wanted to raise awareness of this dangerous religion and dangerous element,” Jones said. “I think [today's attack] proves that there is a radical element of Islam.”

…While Jones does not plan on any future Koran burnings, the death threats are streaming in.

“Right now we have a little over 300 threats, today 10 threats have come in,” Jones said.

Some threats are so specific that they name date time and place.

The FBI said Hezbollah has a $2.4 million bounty on his head.

Such peaceful people.

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Hey Lefties…Obama’s DOJ told FBI to delay Miranda rights of suspected “operational terrorists”

This should get those terrorist protecting lefties panties in a bunch. Looks like Obama’s Department of Justice has informed the F.B.I. to delay the reading of Miranda rights to suspected ‘operational terrorists.’ Now we all know that if this was happening under Bush, all hell would be raised but since it’s happening under Obama, lefties will turn a blind eye.

From the NYTimes:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has instructed agents to interrogate suspected “operational terrorists” about immediate threats to public safety without advising them of their Miranda rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present.

A three-page F.B.I. memorandum, dated Oct. 21, 2010, also encouraged agents to use a broad interpretation of public safety-related questions. It said that the “magnitude and complexity” of the terrorist threat justified “a significantly more extensive public safety interrogation without Miranda warnings than would be permissible in an ordinary criminal case.”

“Depending on the facts, such interrogation might include, for example, questions about possible impending or coordinated terrorist attacks; the location, nature and threat posed by weapons that might post an imminent danger to the public; and the identities, locations, and activities or intentions of accomplices who may be plotting additional imminent attacks,” the memo said.

…The practice of reading Miranda warnings to terrorism suspects arrested in the United States has led to political disputes. In particular, Republicans, seeking to portray the Obama administration as soft on terrorism, criticized the reading of a Miranda warning to the main suspect in the failed bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.

Obama administration officials said the warnings had not prevented interrogators from gaining intelligence from such suspects, and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, testified in July 2010 that agents were already using a broad interpretation of the public safety exception to the Miranda rule in terrorism cases.

Still, in May 2010 Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. floated the idea of seeking legislation that would ask courts to interpret the public safety exception to allow lengthier questioning of terrorism suspects before the warning. The administration never produced such a proposal. But the October memorandum shows that the Justice Department decided on its own to encourage agents to take a broad interpretation.

Ok lefties, start explaining this away.

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Obama using Gifford’s Shooting to push for “gun reform”

Oh look. Obama is going to use the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) to push for more regulations. He is calling for stricter background checks, but you can be sure he has ulterior motives.

I will cut through the wordy op-ed Obama wrote and get down to his ‘gun reforms.’

…• First, we should begin by enforcing laws that are already on the books. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System is the filter that’s supposed to stop the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun. Bipartisan legislation four years ago was supposed to strengthen this system, but it hasn’t been properly implemented. It relies on data supplied by states – but that data is often incomplete and inadequate. We must do better.

The NICBCS  is maintained by a federal agency called the F.B.I. If the F.B.I. fails to do a complete background check and sends a thumbs-up back to the state, that person is allowed a permit to purchase a gun. This is Obama’s attempt to blame the states for federal failure. However, the F.B.I. claims that 75% of those ruled ineligible to purchase a firearm was due to “mental instability.” Goes against Obama’s claims.

• Second, we should in fact reward the states that provide the best data – and therefore do the most to protect our citizens.

Reward states? This sounds like someone wants to confiscate taxpayer dollars to ‘reward’ states. It looks like most of these ‘rewards’ would go to red states, since those states with the highest crime rates are blue. Chicago, Detroit, L.A., New Orleans and Washington D.C. would be heartbroken.

• Third, we should make the system faster and nimbler. We should provide an instant, accurate, comprehensive and consistent system for background checks to sellers who want to do the right thing, and make sure that criminals can’t escape it.

I don’t know all the procedures but here in N.C., anyone who wants to purchase a firearm must go to their local Sheriff’s Department and fill out a gun permit form, which also requires you to be finger printed. The Sheriff’s Department then sends this information to the F.B.I.’s NICBCS. Oh, there is also a 5-day waiting period (Brady Act) for anyone who wants to purchase a handgun but gun control advocates tend to leave out this information.

As we know, where Obama can’t legislate, he will regulate.

You can check what your state’s handgun laws are here.

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Guess what religion? Gunman who killed 2 American Soldiers shouted “Allahu Akbar”

If you’re ever in a place and you hear “Allahu Akbar,” chances are something bad is about to happen. Again, this is brought to you by one of the followers of the religion of peace.

ABCNews.com reports:

A gunman shouting “Allahu Akbar” opened fire on a bus carrying U.S. airmen in Frankfurt, Germany, killing two and wounding two others before his gun jammed and he was subdued, officials said.

An ethnic Albanian from Kosovo was taken into custody and the FBI was heading an investigation because U.S. citizens were killed and to determine whether the shooting was an act of terrorism.

Hint to the F.B.I.: He shouted “ALLAHU AKBAR.” Let me save you time and from the politically correct. It was terrorism.

President Obama made an unscheduled appearance to say, “I am saddened and I am outraged by this attack” and U.S. investigators would work with German authorities and “spare no effort” to ensure that “all of the perpetrators are brought to justice.”

He added that the killings were a “stark reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices” of American servicemembers.

It’s also a stark reminder that those who follow Islam continue to terrorize the world.

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Not So Much Breaking News: FBI files shows Cold-Dead Ted Kennedy was a Communisty Sympathizer and All-around Sexual Pervert

The Liberal Lion was a communist sympathizer and sexual pervert

It looks like Communists enjoy spreading other things, not just people’s wealth. Judicial Watch forced the F.B.I. to release the redacted parts of earlier released Kennedy records.

From Judicial Watch:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained previously redacted material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file of the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, who died in August 2009 from brain cancer. Judicial Watch obtained the records pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit originally filed on June 9, 2010 (Judicial Watch v. FBI (Case No. 10-963)).

The documents include a December 28, 1961, State Department memo describing a tour of several Latin American countries taken by then-Assistant District Attorney of Suffolk County Kennedy. This document as it was originally made public was almost completely redacted. After an initial challenge by Judicial Watch, a version with fewer redactions was released. Judicial Watch continued to argue that the blackouts were baseless and, after six more months, the FBI relented. Among the statements previously withheld but now made available to Judicial Watch:

• “While Kennedy was in Santiago he made arrangements to ‘rent’ a brothel for an entire night. Kennedy allegedly invited one of the Embassy chauffeurs to participate in the night’s activities.”
• “[I]n each country Kennedy insisted on interviewing ‘the angry young men’ of the country. He wanted to meet with communists and others who had left-wing views. …Ambassador Freeman, Bogota, said the first person whom Kennedy wanted to meet was Lauchlin Currie.” (The document subsequently identifies Currie as a person who “had been mentioned in Washington investigations of Soviet spy rings.”)
• “[I]n Mexico Kennedy asked Ambassador Mann that certain left-wingers be invited to the Embassy residence where interviews could be held. Mann took the strong position that he would not invite such people and stated that if any such interviews were to be conducted, all arrangements should be made by Kennedy himself.”

(Judicial Watch, through separate litigation (Judicial Watch v. FBI (Case No. 10-1568)), also recently forced the FBI to begin the release of the FBI file of the late Ted Stevens, the long-time Republican Senator from Alaska.)

H/T to FreeRepublic

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Muslim College Student Arrested…Plotted to blow up Nuclear Plants, Dams and assasinate George W. Bush

Another story of a Muslim, who follows the religion of peace, living among us and wishing to kill us. Again, its based on religion but I’m sure the Obama regime will come out and say this is a random act of one single person. Wake up America!!!

From the Washington Post:

WASHINGTON — A young college student from Saudi Arabia studying chemical engineering in Texas purchased explosive chemicals over the Internet as part of a plan to hide bomb materials inside dolls and baby carriages to blow up dams, nuclear plants or the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush, the Justice Department said Thursday.

“It is war … until the infidels leave defeated,” the student wrote in online postings.

One of the chemical companies, Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, N.C., reported suspicious purchases by Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, 20, of Lubbock, Texas, to the FBI on Feb. 1. Within weeks, federal agents had traced his other online purchases, discovered extremist posts he made on the Internet and secretly searched his apartment, computer and e-mail accounts and read his diary, according to court records.

Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa, was expected to appear in federal court on Friday. He was charged Thursday with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Aldawsari entered the U.S. in October 2008 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to study chemical engineering at Texas Tech University, then transferred earlier this year to nearby South Plains College.

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Obama’s Justice Department claims the FBI can spy on Ameircans but can’t tell what law gives such authorization

Where are all those individuals that yelped so loudly when the Bush administration operated like this? Some how, things like this were terrible violations of civil liberties when Bush did it but not so when Obama does it.

From TechDirt.com:

Remember how President Obama, while campaigning, promised to reject the questionable spying practices of the federal government of President Bush? Yeah, forget all that. Over the past two years, we’ve seen time and time again that he’s actually extended those abuses even further. The latest to come out is that the Justice Department is now claiming that the FBI has the right to get phone records on any call made from inside the US to an international number without any oversight. You may recall a few years back that there was a similar controversy, when it came out that the FBI would regularly just call up phone companies and ask for records — despite the fact that this violates certain laws designed to protect consumer privacy. Sometimes, they would just use post-it notes.

Apparently, a year ago, McClatchy newspapers put in a FOIA request, asking for the details of a particular Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo that was mentioned in the (previously released, but highly redacted) report that showed how frequently the FBI abused the law in this manner. The OLC took its sweet time responding, but finally responded, and in the cover letter admitted that the Obama administration believes it is perfectly legal for the FBI to route around the in-place oversight for getting access to such records and claimed that the law said so.

Which law says so? Oh, see, that they can’t say. Yes, the part of the letter that explains which law lets the FBI get these records without oversight was redacted.

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This comes after a report from an ex-F.B.I. agent, turned whistleblower, who claimed the administration is using its domestic spying techniques to spy on Americans based on religion and politics.

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Former F.B.I. Agent: Federal Government Spying on Americans based on Religion and Politics

Remember how Napolitano released the report entitled  “Right-Wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment?” I wrote about this report back on March 13, 2009 and asked: Is Is the Obama administration using political profiling. Looks like I was on to something.

The Obama regime is using political and religious profiling to silence their opposition and to spy on them.

The DailyTech.comreports:

The police are watching you.  If you’re the wrong religion, they’ll spy on your every move.  If you voice the wrong political opinions they’ll be watching you.  According to Mike German, a 16-year veteran with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations, this is happening right in the U.S.

Mr. German has become the FBI’s worst nightmare.  Fed up with the abuses of privacy he was seeing, he complain to higher authorities and was promptly fired by the FBI.  Recently he became the ACLU’s Policy Counsel on National Security, Immigration and Privacy [press release]. And he’s speaking up about what he witnessed.

States Mr. German in a recent interview with Network World:
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The most disturbing thing we’ve uncovered is the scope of domestic intelligence activities taking place today. Domestic spying is now being done by a host of federal agencies (FBI, DOD, DHS, DNI) as well as state and local law enforcement and even private companies. Too often this spying targets political activity and religious practices. We’ve documented intelligence activities targeting or obstructing First Amendment-protected activity in 33 states and DC.

He says that this Orwellian atmosphere could leave the U.S. a far different beast than the proud beacon of freedom it once was.  He states, “The biggest threat is that the increase surveillance of political activity will create a chilling effect that will dissuade people from exercising their rights, which will cause significant harm to participatory democracy.”

He states that the “War on Terror” will continue to serve as an excuse for federal agencies to trample civil liberties.  He says that there are no clear-cut guidelines as to when you get put on a “watchlist” and are spied on by federal agents.  It’s impossible to find out if your on a list and equally impossible to dispute or ask to be removed from a list.  

He also blasts TSA “enhanced pat-down” procedures and body scanners, calling them “unreasonable invasions of privacy that do not enhance security.”

Continue reading about how this ex-F.B.I. agent exposed a F.B.I. coverup and suffered retaliation>>>

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Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee: Political Correctness and Obama’s Jihad Coverup helped Ft. Hood terrorist attack

Political correctness will be the downfall of our country and cause more innocent people to lose their lives. Now if we can just get the Obama regime to acknowledge that radical Islam is the enemy, our intelligence officials can do their jobs, which is to protect America.

People must remember, this is the same administration who stopped using the term ‘war on terror’ and removed any references to radical Islam and Islamic terrorist.

The Washington Times reports:

A Senate investigation has found that the November 2009 Fort Hood massacre was predictable and avoidable, something that was obvious to anyone except members of the Obama administration. Worse, the White House still refuses to admit that a jihadist terror attack took place on the Army base. 

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee recently concluded a year-long look into the circumstances of the domestic terror incident that took 14 lives. The committee report concluded that the Department of Defense and the FBI “collectively had sufficient information to have detected [Major Nidal] Hasan’s radicalization to violent Islamist extremism but failed both to understand and to act on it.” 

The systemic failures are alarming. Hasan openly discussed justifications for suicide bombings with other officers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and gave a briefing on Islam which reflected his extremist views. He questioned whether his oath to the Constitution had greater weight than his fealty to Islam. When some of his fellow officers reported his dangerous views, correctly describing him as a “ticking time bomb,” they were told that having Hasan around was beneficial because he provided first-hand insights into the worldview of violent Islamists. By this twisted reasoning, every unit deploying to Afghanistan should reserve a billet for a jihadist-in-training. 

The FBI detected that Hasan was communicating with Anwar al-Awlaki, the senior al Qaeda operative currently being hunted in Yemen. Hasan sent 18 emails over six months between December 2008 and June 2009, asking the radical cleric things like when jihad is legitimate and whether it is permitted to kill innocents in a suicide attack. He wrote that he “couldn’t wait” to have discussions with Awlaki “in the afterlife.” Armed with such intel, most terrorism analysts would reasonably suppose Hasan was a jihadist preparing for martyrdom. The FBI, however, concluded this outreach to al Qaeda was “legitimate research on terrorism and Islam” and dropped the case without interviewing Hasan or any of his coworkers. Had G-men followed up, the Senate report concluded, Hasan would have been discharged from the Army and 14 of his victims would be alive today. 

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