Shocker: NSA Tools for Spying on Foreign Terrorists Used by DEA to Bust Americans for Drugs

Reuters has an important scoop on the use and concealment of anti-terrorism data intelligence on Americans involved with disfavored intoxicants:

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.

Reason has been on the anti-terrorism "mission creep" beat since the beginning.

Reminder: Blank-check surveillance enthusiasts like Rep. Peter King (R-New York) think that "spying and snooping" on Americans is "only in" Rand Paul's "mind." 

Comments

[Ted S.]

Blank-check surveillance enthusiasts terrorist enablers like Rep. Peter King (R-New York)

Fixed it for you. Every time Peter King speaks about anything, the first comment made ought to be a reminder of his support for Irish terrorist groups.

[dannyboi]

Who would that be? The british army and RUC were by far bigger "terrorist" groups than any faction of the IRA.

[Neoliberal Kochtopus]

Wait, so that makes supporting "lesser" terrorism OK? Classic tu quoque.

[Eduard van Haalen]

There was Protestant and British terrorism, but it was part of a classic "cycle of violence" to which the IRA contributed. Also, the actual Irish Republic was against the IRA, to the extent of boycotting the St. Patrick's parade when Peter King was the marshal.

[Fluffy]

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated

Since this means that all the agents involved now have a clear history of inventing evidence and of perjury, not only should every suspect arrested using NSA tips be freed, but every suspect any of these agents ever testified against or handled evidence against should also be freed.

[Ted S.]

Why do you want the terrorists to win?

[/sarcasm]

[Rich]

This.

Blank-check surveillance enthusiasts like Rep. Peter King (R-New York) think that "spying and snooping" on Americans is "only in" Rand Paul's "mind."

Blank-check surveillance enthusiasts like Rep. Peter King (R-New York) should, upon being presented with the Reuters evidence, do the honorable thing. Or, at the very least, they could resign.

[Suthenboy]

When you said 'do the honorable thing' I immediately thought of Seppuku.

[Rich]

This was usually performed in front of spectators if it was a planned seppuku, not one performed on a battlefield. A samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, and fed his favorite meal. When he had finished, his instrument was placed on his plate. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem.

Etc. What's not to like?

[SugarFree]

Stop jihadis! But,
terrorists of the right color
shower with money

[Lady Bertrum]

Fear monger Peter
Never admits his errors
resurrection soon comes

[Render Unto Caesar]

Read Shogun. They commit seppuku like it's fun in that book.

Like, "Oh, you want to interrupt me? This is such a dishonor that I think I'll immediately disembowel myself."

[Killazontherun]

Teach this man our language, and if he does not know how to speak it by my return, your entire village dies!

[Render Unto Caesar]

Nice.

[sarcasmic]

The prosecutors and judges are the only people with the power to do anything about it, and they're on the same team as the cops. So nothing else will happen. Ever.

[Raston Bot]

Perjury? Shit. After Clapper's performance, perjury no longer carries consequences for the politically powerful.

[Gene]

This sounds way above and beyond their mandate. At what point do people start seeing the cure as worse than the disease?

[Ted S.]

When it starts affecting them personally.

By which time, it will be far too late.

[sarcasmic]

It's already far too late.

[Ted S.]

Which is why, while the rest of us fight the good fight, you flood AM Links with bikini photos. :-p

[sarcasmic]

I have accepted that there are things in this world that I cannot change.

[Ted S.]

And yet you're still trying to convert John from being a chubby chaser.

[sarcasmic]

They say once you go fat you never go back.

[Slammer]

Warm in the winter, shade in the summer. What's not to like?

[Rich]

And -- talk about *viscosity*!

Or so I've been told. 8-(

[AlexInCT]

^^^ THIS!

[some guy]

"What' wiping out your tax cuts? REASON!"

Editor didn't think that one through, did he? Nice illustration, though.

[sgs]

Nah, I just think they assumed people are smart enough to tell what a sentence is and what the title is.

They were clearly giving you too much credit.

[Ted S.]

I assume this is supposed to be the Brickbat for the day?

[Slammer]

But, but, they PROMISED!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Do you want to be protected from terrordrugs or not?

[Rich]

DEA officials said that the SOD process has been reviewed internally. They declined to provide Reuters with a copy of their most recent review.

A spokesman with the Department of Justice, which oversees the DEA, declined to comment.

Emphases added. Perhaps this is what is meant by "America is in decline". 8-(

[Ted S.]

I'm sure all that declining was unexpected too.

[Gene]

Maybe the DEA can take a page from DHS and issue travel alerts due to heightened drug activity in a given region.

[Eduard van Haalen]

That might have the opposite of the intended result.

[sarcasmic]

OT: I just ran a check of my state's vanity plate database, and FYTW is available.

[SugarFree]

Sweet. You need that now.

[sarcasmic]

Why? I'm not a cop.

[SugarFree]

Bah. You don't see the possibilities of having the "cool story, bro" of license plates.

[Rich]

Just send in your application on "Federation of Young Tiddly Winkers" letterhead.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Wow, you made tiddly winks sound dirty.

[sarcasmic]

You mean it isn't?

[GroundTruth]

Reminds me of the TSA. First it was just bombs, but oh-so-quickly the stories started appearing about some poor traveler getting arrested for having a couple of joints in his suitcase.

What part of the abuse of "general warrants" do these dolts not remember from their American history classes?

[Rich]

*** waves hand ***

I know! *All* of it!

[mr simple]

Look, they'll take your notes on this "constitution" thing under advisement, but they have a job to do and families to go home to, and that's really the most important thing.

[GroundTruth]

As if I actually enjoy wasting my time teaching our politicians and regulatory overseers the basics of American history and civics? My garden needs weeding, and I'd sure rather be doing that than writing yet one more letter to a bunch of representatives and senators who are deaf to the deathmoans of the Republic.

[Suthenboy]

"The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to "recreate" the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated..."

Trained....so official policy. Of course they would never fabricate a case against political opponents. Does anyone think I'm nuts for contending that this government has delegitimized itself and become nothing more than a criminal conspiracy?

[Rich]

The DoJ probably does.

/Captain Obvious

[neoteny]

this government has delegitimized itself and become nothing more than a criminal conspiracy?

Murray Rothbard fixed it for you.

[Dave Krueger]

Remember back when the Patriot act was being debated, how the government claimed that it was needed to fight terrorism and was not meant to circumvent civil liberties protections? Remember that? Remember all the articles posted here and other sites about how the vast majority of cases in which Patriot act's powers were invoked were criminal in nature (mostly drug war related) and had nothing to do with terrorism? At this point, if we continue to believe what the government tells us about its domestic surveillance powers, we will deserve everything we inevitably get.

Luckily, we have a Congress that is looking out for our best interest and is terrified that the voters will throw them out on the street if they don't take control over this fiasco and rein in an out-of-control executive branch.

Hahahahahahahaha! Just kidding about that last part. The bottom line is that we are all totally screwed. The biggest threat to liberty isn't anyone in Washington. Nope. It's the empty-headed moron next door who thinks government is his friend and keeps reelecting the same politicians no matter what they do.

[Mock-star]

"Remember back when the Patriot act was being debated..."

No, I do not. And neither does anyone else.

[setTHEline]

Congrats, you're moving right along through the grief cycle. Welcome to acceptance.

[dbobway]

Remember your religious faith reminder, you are born into sin.

In our present system of government we are born a criminal. The day we take our 1st breath of oxygen we start breaking a law that would get us fined, jailed or worse, in need of a lawyer!

[Eduard van Haalen]

As Jefferson and Bastiat (?) remind us, government officials are as much born in sin as us subjects. So that would be an argument *against,* not in favor of, big government.

[Meerkatx]

"It's just like laundering money - you work it backwards to make it clean," said Finn Selander, a DEA agent from 1991 to 2008 and now a member of a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which advocates legalizing and regulating narcotics.

[HazelMeade]

At this point, we have absolutely no reason to believe that PRISM, or any of the NSA's "metadata" collections, aren't being used to target ordinary Americans for drug crimes.

[VicRattlehead]

Wanted by the US Government: The Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, creator of all that is seen and unseen, for the creation and cultivation of the plant marijuana on the planet earth.

Seems a certain angel thought he knew better than Yahweh too.... how the proud will fall.

[gaoxiaen]

Why am I not surprised?