UPDATED: HEADS UP: Current US Admin. Wants Cover for FBI's Illegal Domestic Surveillance

April 15, 2010
AP file photo
of FBI Director Robert Mueller
testifying on Capitol Hill
Washington April 15, 2010.

UPDATE FBI Access to email and web records raises fears here

Just four words involves our US President. These words are key to the latest civil rights concern today — “electronic communication transactional records”. This concern or grab for quick cover is added to the latest concern: Recently, the Justice Department has been investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test of new rules allowing the bureau to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed.

Mueller was also scheduled to testify on July 28, 2010, where new guidelines and the cheating scandal were expected to come up. (see article end of this post)

Now the US Administration wants an Email Spying Cover and Expansion? Is Facebook Next?

NEW items just in Prospect.org here DemocratticUnderground.com here and DailyKos.com here

Short Intro below to even further concerns refer to the following article just out this am here Again, like other recent items, surprisingly from the Wash Post!

Obama Administration Goes for Domestic Surveillance Power Grab

By: emptywheel Thursday July 29, 2010 6:04 am FireDogLake dot com

The White House wants to add just four words to the law that empowers the government to collect information on you w/o a warrant. But it would represent a huge expansion of the what the government could (legally) collect on you.

The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records” — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the “content” of e-mail or other Internet communication.But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records.

Make no mistake. This is one of the most important pieces of civil liberties news in a long time. The Obama Administration is asking Congress to sanction the collection of internet records without a warrant that has been going on–the kind of shit they used to do without a warrant, until people expressed their opposition.

But then Democrats took over and now they want legal sanction and now–voila, a request that presumably provides cover.

Go read this article. (Top of this post) I’ll have more to say about it, but for the moment, Julian Sanchez makes sense.

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NOTE: One Heart Blogger here - Also see this RELATED article of deep concern and watch to observe how the President's request for cover and the recent questioning of FBI director, Mueller, will be be received? Mueller was also scheduled to testify on July 28, 2010, Let's see where new guidelines and the cheating scandal are leading. GO here for Intro and for Mueller in his own words yesterday, July 28th, GO here and here