FBI Tells Agents To Cover Up Investigative Program

Discussion in 'Politics' started by pspr, Aug 5, 2013.

  1. pspr

    pspr

    We are well down the path now that could turn this country into a police state for all to fear.
    ----


    (Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.

    Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges.

    The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant's Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don't know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence - information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

    "I have never heard of anything like this at all," said Nancy Gertner, a Harvard Law School professor who served as a federal judge from 1994 to 2011. Gertner and other legal experts said the program sounds more troubling than recent disclosures that the National Security Agency has been collecting domestic phone records. The NSA effort is geared toward stopping terrorists; the DEA program targets common criminals, primarily drug dealers.

    "It is one thing to create special rules for national security," Gertner said. "Ordinary crime is entirely different. It sounds like they are phonying up investigations."


    More:
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805
     
  2. LEAPup

    LEAPup

    We're already living in a police state. What I want to know is what are we going to do about it besides bitch and complain?
     
  3. pspr

    pspr

    We can continue to post stories. (shhh. The NSA is watching.)
     
  4. pspr

    pspr

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    The NSA will never break our code.