A More Powerful FBI

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “FBI Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds,” provides powerful new evidence on the potential for misuse of FBI powers based on new changes to its agents’ manual.

The manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, put limits on the investigations of U.S. citizens based on several tiers of observation. A large number of activities were prevented unless the Agency opened “an assessment,” thus preserving a permanent record of their actions, potentially avoiding misuse of powers for personal or political reasons. According to the new changes, agents can search law enforcement and commercial databases without opening an assessment, and this new rule allows exploitation of these databases.

The next level of FBI activity, called a preliminary investigation, is also the subject of new rule changes. This level requires a factual basis to suspect wrongdoing, and it had been previously required before searching a person’s trash or administering lie detector tests. No longer.

Several other restrictions were relaxed as well, and they provide concern for centralization of power in this security-conscious post-9/11 era. One wonders if they will generate a split in the House of Representatives between establishment Republicans and the Tea Party on this basis.