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Oh those wacky DEA Agents

Started by Telarus, August 05, 2013, 08:00:13 PM

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Telarus

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/08/05/more-surveillance-abuse-exposed-special-dea-unit-is-spying-on-americans-and-covering-it-up/

QuoteAs Americans sort through their feelings regarding the disclosure of the massive collection of metadata by the National Security  Administration, we are now learning of what may be a far more insidious violation of our constitutional rights at the hands of a government agency.

Reuters is reporting that a secret U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration branch has been collecting information from "intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records" and disseminating the data to authorities across the nation to "help them launch criminal investigations of Americans."

In this case, the Americans who are being subjected to these investigations are suspected drug dealers.

The unit of the DEA that is conducting the surveillance is known as the Special Operations Division ("SOD") and is made up of a partnership of numerous government agencies including the NSA, CIA, FBI, IRS and the Department of Homeland Security.

While there are suggestions that elements of the program may be legal, there is obvious concern on the part of those running the program—a concern that has not prevented them from going ahead with the collecting and using of covertly gathered data—that the surveillance effort may not be entirely kosher. We know this to be true because, according to documents reviewed by Reuters, DEA agents are specifically instructed never to reveal nor discuss the existence and utilization of SOD provided data and to further "omit the SOD's involvement from investigative reports, affidavits, discussions with prosecutors and courtroom testimony. Agents are instructed to then use 'normal investigative techniques to recreate the information provided by SOD.'"

The last line of the directive is particularly disturbing.

By instructing agents to use "normal investigative techniques to recreate the information provided by SOD", law enforcement is being instructed to flat out lie when disclosing how they came across the tips or other information provided by SOD leading to an arrest. These agents are directed to give substance to the lie by fabricating a false source or method utilized to gain information leading to an arrest.

[More]

See also:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805
http://gawker.com/the-dea-is-spying-on-us-and-showing-other-agencies-how-1028644034
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/08/did-the-dea-phony-up-criminal-investigations-of-americans--92311.html
http://reason.com/blog/2013/08/05/shocker-nsa-tools-for-spying-on-foreign
Telarus, KSC,
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Cain

I liked this part:

QuoteSome defense lawyers and former prosecutors said that using "parallel construction" may be legal to establish probable cause for an arrest. But they said employing the practice as a means of disguising how an investigation began may violate pretrial discovery rules by burying evidence that could prove useful to criminal defendants.

Really?  No shit?  Are these first year law students or something?

Seriously though, parallel construction strongly suggests there are secret and illegal programs at work.  It also suggests that anything said by the FBI, NSA etc about recent concerns in regards to the legality of their programs and the oversight which is used to control them, is quite possibly a pile of steaming bullshit.

Doktor Howl

Quote from: Cain on August 05, 2013, 08:53:15 PM
I liked this part:

QuoteSome defense lawyers and former prosecutors said that using "parallel construction" may be legal to establish probable cause for an arrest. But they said employing the practice as a means of disguising how an investigation began may violate pretrial discovery rules by burying evidence that could prove useful to criminal defendants.

Really?  No shit?  Are these first year law students or something?

Seriously though, parallel construction strongly suggests there are secret and illegal programs at work.  It also suggests that anything said by the FBI, NSA etc about recent concerns in regards to the legality of their programs and the oversight which is used to control them, is quite possibly a pile of steaming bullshit.

Not if they can get away with it.  I mean, from a pragmatic level.

Onward with the glorious 5 year plan.
Molon Lube

Cain

Well, it's not like the law applied much to the FBI anyway:

QuoteThe FBI gave its informants permission to break the law at least 5,658 times in a single year, according to newly disclosed documents that show just how often the nation's top law enforcement agency enlists criminals to help it battle crime.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

OH, NO WAY, IT CAN'T BE. THE DEA ARE THE GOOD GUYS. I'M SURE A FEW OF THEM ARE CORRUPT BUT MOST OF THEM ARE TOTALLY IN IT FOR THE RIGHT REASONS.

:horrormirth:
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


AFK

Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Doktor Howl

Molon Lube

AFK

All the ones I've met are fine upstanding citizens.
Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞

Quote from: The End on August 06, 2013, 02:28:36 AM
All the ones I've met are fine upstanding citizens.

In the face of evidence that disagrees with my beliefs, resort to anecdote!

:supertard:
P E R   A S P E R A   A D   A S T R A

Doktor Howl

Molon Lube

Aucoq

"All of the world's leading theologists agree only on the notion that God hates no-fault insurance."

Horrid and Sticky Llama Wrangler of Last Week's Forbidden Desire.

The Johnny

Quote from: Net on August 06, 2013, 02:35:23 AM
Quote from: The End on August 06, 2013, 02:28:36 AM
All the ones I've met are fine upstanding citizens.

In the face of evidence that disagrees with my beliefs, resort to anecdote!

:supertard:

:potd:
<<My image in some places, is of a monster of some kind who wants to pull a string and manipulate people. Nothing could be further from the truth. People are manipulated; I just want them to be manipulated more effectively.>>

-B.F. Skinner

AFK

Cynicism is a blank check for failure.

Pæs

Quote from: The End on August 06, 2013, 11:02:19 AM
Dance everyone, dance!
As much as I hate the use of "retarded", no image so perfectly summarises the situation.


Faust

Quote from: The End on August 06, 2013, 02:28:36 AM
All the ones I've met are fine upstanding citizens.

I find that very hard to pallet. Over the last Decade and especially these last few months we (The WORLD) have seen how the entirety of the administrative body of the United states has suffered an endemic, sustained and permissive culture of corruption. Of acting outside the boundaries of the law, ignoring international treaties and conventions, of placing little to no value on the lives of its citizens or anyone else, of routinely falsifying evidence, of using scare tactics, and of acquiring said "evidence" via illegal and illegitimate means.

I like you rwhn, but how can you, with a straight face say that these kind of actions are out of the ordinary?
Sleepless nights at the chateau