Justice Department to Investigate DEA Surveillance Operations

DEA story broke Monday

Reason

It looks like it's not just the president but the Department of Justice that learns about what's going on in the government from the news.

From The Guardian:

The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into revelations that the Drug Enforcement Agency uses surveillance tactics – including wiretapping and massive databases of telephone records – to arrest Americans, amid growing concerns from lawyers and civil rights groups over its lack of transparency.

Reuters on Monday detailed how the Special Operative Division – a unit within the DEA comprising representatives of two dozen agencies including the FBI, CIA, NSA, Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security – passes tips from wiretaps, informants and a database of telephone records to field agents to investigate and arrest criminals. Reuters reports that, although such cases rarely involve national security issues, the DEA agents using the tips are trained to "recreate" the source of the criminal investigation to conceal its true origin from defence lawyers, prosecutors and judges.

And why would Eric Holder or the DOJ know about what the DEA was doing before it hit the papers?

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Comments

[anon]

Oh yeah! Lets get the government to investigate itself!

I'm sure there's absolutely no reason they'd overlook anything!

[Hyperion]

Look, it works with the police departments, so what is the problem?

[SugarFree]

And nothing else happened.

[John]

Investigating gives them an excuse not to answer any questions about it. "Well that is under investigation so I can't comment on that right now" will be the standard answer. Then sometime after the midterms on a Friday afternoon when Congress is out of session, maybe the Friday before the Super Bowl or something, the results of the investigation will be released and will show some mistakes were made by a few low level employees who are being retrained and that will be the end of it.

[Episiarch]

I'm sure the DOJ will be fanatic about rooting out corruption. After all, look how they've dealt with the ATF after Fast and Furious!

[db]

Dude, what do you expect when the only thing they ever get to investigate is phony scandals??

[Hyperion]

The US Department of Justice has launched an investigation into revelations that the Drug Enforcement Agency

OH! I feel better now, Holder is on it! I'm sure those rogue entities that are up to no good, will swiftly be brought to justice now, and the American public can sleep well once again, knowing that their right of privacy has been restored.

[Dave Krueger]

Well, I guess we can all relax now that we know the Justice Department is going to investigate itself to find out if it's been doing anything behind its back so it can give itself a stern talking to if it uncovers anything that might require a public display of, you know, justice.

[Brett L]

Well, I suppose the good news is that there are several thousand state and Federal prisoners who have standing to sue the DEA and NSA now.

[Lady Bertrum]

I watched the Bourne Legacy last night. Fiction becoming reality.

[PRX]

Tom Sawyer gulls a brother into the whitewashing this time.

[The Late P Brooks]

Evidence was discovered.

Cases were closed.

Charges were dropped.

[kinnath]

Reuters reports that, although such cases rarely involve national security issues, the DEA agents using the tips are trained to "recreate" the source of the criminal investigation to conceal its true origin from defence lawyers, prosecutors and judges.

Fuck

[CatoTheElder]

I am no longer surprised by any usurpation of rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

I'm even past being surprised that the news of a new, gross violation of such rights is ignored by the MSM and treated with a gaping yawn by the public at large.

Fact is that the BOR is a dead letter, and most Americans could not care less.

[Bardas Phocas]

On top of the investigation of the "Rogue IRS agents in Cincinatti"?
They've got a heavy workload those G Men. God bless em.

[Scooby]

So I guess they testify that they get a lot of tips from their C.I., Fuzzy Dunlop?