IG report: FBI screwed up on every single FISA warrant application it submitted
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So, why hasn’t Trump fired everybody there? A new inspector general review of 29 FBI FISA warrant applications has found that on every single application looked at, the FBI made numerous errors, often failing entirely in doing the most basic required documentation.
The [inspector general] review released Tuesday suggests that the FBI’s problems are widespread. “As a result of our audit work to date and as described below, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy,” the [report] said in a memo to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
More information here, including the revelation that the FBI could not even find the files for four of these warrants. The IG suspects they might never have existed.
I repeat: Why has Trump so far not fired the entire upper management at the FBI involved in this work? Every single one of these bums should be out on the street, looking for work (though to be honest, the last place I’d want to see them working is as a stock person in a supermarket. They’d hoard and steal, and everyone else would starve.).
For example, the IG memo was submitted to Wray, who has been a top manager at the agency for years, and was directly involved in issuing most of these FISA warrants. Does anyone really expect him to fix this problem? He’s part of it.
Until Trump begins a real house-cleaning, I have no faith in his claim that he is “draining the swamp.” Instead, I see him as simply doing a little light dusting, just enough to make us peons not notice the thick piles of dirt buried under the rugs and beneath all the cushions and behind the books.
Also, this IG report provides further proof that Congress should not renew the FISA court law, when it comes up for renewal again in about two months. The entire law and all involved with it are corrupt, and routinely have abused the power it gave them.
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via paypal:
If Paypal doesn't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
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c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
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So, why hasn’t Trump fired everybody there? A new inspector general review of 29 FBI FISA warrant applications has found that on every single application looked at, the FBI made numerous errors, often failing entirely in doing the most basic required documentation.
The [inspector general] review released Tuesday suggests that the FBI’s problems are widespread. “As a result of our audit work to date and as described below, we do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy,” the [report] said in a memo to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
More information here, including the revelation that the FBI could not even find the files for four of these warrants. The IG suspects they might never have existed.
I repeat: Why has Trump so far not fired the entire upper management at the FBI involved in this work? Every single one of these bums should be out on the street, looking for work (though to be honest, the last place I’d want to see them working is as a stock person in a supermarket. They’d hoard and steal, and everyone else would starve.).
For example, the IG memo was submitted to Wray, who has been a top manager at the agency for years, and was directly involved in issuing most of these FISA warrants. Does anyone really expect him to fix this problem? He’s part of it.
Until Trump begins a real house-cleaning, I have no faith in his claim that he is “draining the swamp.” Instead, I see him as simply doing a little light dusting, just enough to make us peons not notice the thick piles of dirt buried under the rugs and beneath all the cushions and behind the books.
Also, this IG report provides further proof that Congress should not renew the FISA court law, when it comes up for renewal again in about two months. The entire law and all involved with it are corrupt, and routinely have abused the power it gave them.
Firing people won’t fix it. Not will it create a proper system for protecting due process.
The system needs a major overhaul, replacement, or elimination.
New legislation is required for that, and sadly, I do not see it happening.
sippin_bourbon: You are likely right. Firing people would certainly help. Not renewing FISA, so it goes the way of the dinosaurs, would also help significantly. In both cases, the ability of these thugs to do the ordinary citizen harm would be significantly reduced.
Maybe all FBI agents filling out FISA paperwork are lazy, thuggish, or incompetent, but I find that implausible. I mean, all of them? It strikes me as much more likely that the paperwork may be unreasonable, asking agents for specific details about names and dates that they can only guess at for instance. A useful step might be simplifying the forms.
That’s assuming one wants to keep the secret FISA courts and FBI agents active in these kinds of fishing for data, of course. That’s another issue, and Mr. Zimmerman may well be right that we’d all be better off without it. Maybe some Congressional committees which are supposed to oversee this activity could put out a bipartisan report giving some detail on just how useful FISA has been, or not been.
Now that the federal government is essentially buying a massive segment of the economy, both large and small businesses, they will need to watch us all even closer.
Considering the onslaught to the president’s credibility for the past three years, his unwavering willingness to fight back, and the current institutional (media, academy, gov’t) efforts to “manage” popular passions…I’m willing to wait a little on presidential action toward the FBI. I still have faith that it’s coming…No question your article proposes appropriate first steps in reforming the agency.
Everything related to the FBI and its leaderships bad acts (To put it mildly) IMO will evaporate and be conveniently forgotten about. POOF!
As an example just before this virus got going, the FBI reported that “They lost all of General Flynns documents related to his case”.
https://thewashingtonsentinel.com/trump-furious-after-corrupt-fbi-loses-gen-michael-flynns-records-now-trump-is-doing-this/
And remember when the Customs building went down during 9-11? Conveniently all of the records for the CIA related to I think it was $3triilion dollars in missing money was destroyed. And if I remember correctly I think it was revealed just the day before by Rumsfeld?
Are you getting on board now with Strategy Over Morality and when and where it exists and is executed?
Who do you think you are playing with here?
Robert wrote: “They’d hoard and steal, and everyone else would starve”
Supermarkets have better oversight than the FBI does. Oops: any oversight at all would be better than the FBI’s (“Cleanup, aisle three”).
Federal
Bureau of
Incompetents,
or:
Federal
Bureau of those who should be
Incarcerated.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (Who cleans up after the janitors?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes%3F
Mike Shupp
The paperwork required is difficult, and calls for a much higher standard, because the FOR A court is one sided.
Not sure if you read the part about the Woods Files, and the necessary standard it is supposed to require.
A little satire.
https://babylonbee.com/news/government-accidentally-shuts-itself-down-with-ban-on-non-essential-businesses
What were the FISA court judges doing during all this? Didn’t they have an obligation to probe the veracity of the warrant applications being submitted to them? Are they merely rubber-stampers? Since the IG finds problems with all of the warrants, I’m aghast that the court itself found problems with none.
Not the Babylon bee… But definitely viewed as satire today. From Barack Obama’s own lips on the FISA court in an interview…
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/jun/21/barack-obama/barack-obama-says-foreign-intelligence-surveillanc/