Quis Custodiet?
One of the reasons we weren't supposed to worry about the surveillance powers granted law enforcement under the PATRIOT Act was the vigorous oversight to which uses of those powers would be subject: Someone would always be watching them watch us. But a Washington Post article from earlier this week suggests that they haven't been as meticulous as they might have been about meeting those requirements. You can check out the details in documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center [PDF].
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
I, for one, am just shocked and appalled.
Hey, watch me beat the living crap out of this straw man. (not that he doesn't deserve it)
Come on guys, we can trust the government
In one case, FBI agents kept an unidentified target under surveillance for at least five years --
ie, this has been going on since before the Patriot Act, and before 9/11.