Massimo Calabresi reports:
The FBI repeatedly broke the law between April 2003 and November 2006 in its efforts to monitor telecommunications in line with counterterrorism objectives, a Justice Department investigation has found. A report released Wednesday by the Department’s Inspector General, Glenn Fine, reveals that three major telecom companies — whose identities remain classified — contracted out six of their employees to the FBI, and provided the government with unchecked access to phone records without legal authority. Those employees worked in FBI office space with government investigators, and responded to more than 700 informal requests for information from the FBI, sometimes passed on verbally or on post-its. The employees gave agents access to some 3,500 telephone numbers, including call records from reporters, “calling circles” of individual suspects and others, the report says.
Read more on Time.
On the Web: The DOJ OIG report can be found here (pdf).