FBI Didn’t Mean to Break the Law, Mueller Says
WASHINGTON - The FBI didn’t deliberately break the law by improperly obtaining thousands of Americans’ phone, e-mail and financial records, Bureau Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
That was the good news. But then came the bad:
It happened, Mueller said, because of “mistakes, carelessness, confusion, lack of training, lack of guidance and lack of adequate oversight.”
Then came this line, which senators didn’t find reassuring either:
The FBI’s use of inaccurate information to obtain secret search warrants? The problem was “very lengthy documents . . . with thousands of facts.”
Mueller didn’t mention how the bureau also managed to lose weapons and laptop computers.
He was addressing a series of recent reports of FBI bungling - making the agency seem sort of like Homer Simpson, but with guns - notably an inspector general’s conclusion that the bureau had improperly used so-called “national security letters” that allow investigators to obtain private information without a judge’s approval.
Reports of those abuses - which the inspector general said could number as many as 3,000 - caused an uproar several weeks ago that’s since been eclipsed by another issue that has, for administration critics, far juicier political implications: the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
The FBI’s problems came, Mueller said, at a time of “significant internal transformation and unprecedented worldwide threats.” He added that that wasn’t an excuse but rather “overarching context.”
Committee members didn’t appreciate the context.
“I’m not impressed by your assertion that there are thousands of facts,” scoffed Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. “That’s the FBI agent’s job. . . . And if they’re wrong on the facts, they’re subjecting someone to an invasion of privacy, to a national security letter or to a search warrant that ought not to be issued.”
Even reliable administration ally Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told Mueller that “any manager could say that if you don’t set up a compliance system, you’re going to have a problem.”
Mueller, a trim, courtly pinata, may have softened the senators’ swings with the tone of regret he used to describe his agency’s mishaps, a tone that embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales might consider adopting when he appears before the committee April 17 to explain the U.S. attorney firings.
Among Mueller’s compendium of contrition:
-The inspector general’s report was “fair, effective and appropriate.”
-”We at the FBI fell short in our obligations to report to Congress.”
-”I am responsible for those shortcomings.”
He embraced the report’s recommendations, promised to discipline agents if necessary and even said he’d “welcome the committee’s suggestion for additional improvements.”
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., lauded Mueller’s approach, “which seems to be a break from many in this administration now.”
That was among several references to the U.S. attorney firings, which gave Tuesday’s sparsely attended hearing the feel of an undercard bout, with the big slug fests yet to come: former Justice Department chief of staff Kyle Sampson’s testimony on the firings before the same panel Thursday and Gonzales’ appearance April 17.
Several senators asked Mueller about the attorneys’ firings, but his answers made clear that he wasn’t in the loop on them.
That didn’t stop Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Democrats’ designated agent provocateur on the issue. He asked Mueller how, as a former U.S. attorney himself, he would’ve felt if he’d been pressured on certain sensitive cases, resisted the pressure, been fired a few months later, told no reason for his firing, then learned that his former bosses were saying it was for performance reasons, though they’d never brought up such performance issues before.
“I really have to resist speculating on that set of facts,” Mueller said.
“I figured you would,” Schumer responded with a chuckle.
You turn loose a bunch of cowboys, tell them to police themselves, and then you are surprised when they ride roughshod over every civil liberty in sight? Congress should take the fall for this one.
How many more Republican losers and snake oil salesman is it going to take before America wakes up to the fact that bushcon is simply a bunch of brazen flim flam artists, bilking us out of our food, childrens lives and gas money?
Osama must get a good laugh every day as he see’s America self imploding and getting more and more divided over this rush to protect itself from the enemy, the enemy within, the bush crime family.
-”We at the FBI fell short in our obligations to report to Congress.”
And Congress fell short on its demands for oversight!
-”I am responsible for those shortcomings.”
And Congress will fall short again by not asking for your resignation!
As a child I loved to ride on merry-go-rounds but now they turn my stomach!
What a wuss! Next time you get a chance, go into your nearest F.B.I. office with a baseball bat and start walloping whoever you come across. Then when you are arrested explain:
“I’m so sowwy, but it was due to mistakes, carelessness, confusion, lack of training, lack of guidance and lack of adequate oversight”, now pwetty pweese can’t we all just get awong and I pwomise it will be bettew next time”.
With what measure you judge you shall be judged–if ever there was an institution in need of a short choker leash yanked real hard it is the F.B.I.
Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law. If the courts can rule that way for the common layman who often does not know how the law works. Why should the educated elite slide by.
I wonder if I went into a store and stole a few things, or killed a few people on my way to work-would the government have the same tolerance for me.
Just think about it. What Mueller and other FBI spokespersons are saying is: TRUST US. WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING! When we break the law, it’s because we don’t know what it is, not that we have any evil intentions to circumvent the law.
Either it isn’t true, and this is another case of criminal deceit on the part of high Bush admin officials, or it is true and the crime is one of monumental inncompetence. Remember, the FBI is THE federal law enforcement agency. Truth or lie. I don’t know what one would be worse.
Single-mindedness easily morphs into simple-mindedness. This is the only explanation I can come up with to describe the idiocy that flows out of Washington D.C. on a daily basis.
The explanations are often so shallow as to make one laugh then cry and the seriousness with which they are received by the congress renders another laugh then cry and finally the media’s shallow reporting gives rise to desperate weeping.
Gawd! How can Congress be appeased so easily just because they have discovered a rare bird in this administration that actually admits to a “mistake” and will try to do better next time!?! If you have read any of the major media reports on this, their take is that because Director Mueller was so apologetic that Congress will probably let him skate. No unlawful spying charges will be procecuted. Nobody is going to get fired.
Another lost opportunity by Congress to protect the people of America. It’s all so depressing…..
Nietzsche
Yes, I am really a farmer. Don’t even let me get started on how the government has screwed family farmers and every Americans’ access to healthy food!
Jesus, I would expect this whining from a drunken driver talking to a traffic cop but the director of the FBI?
Rebel Farmer, no wonder you see more clearly than most people.
I really do not think we will get the truth from Mueller until he has been properly interrogated at Guantanamo for, what, maybe three or four years?
I’m not going to get behind torture…you know…the old two wrongs don’t make a right. And in this case it’s not a proble of telling the truth. The problem is not doing his damn job! FIRE HIM!!! Mueller is incompetent like every other appointee of this evil administration.
Let the heads start rolling!!!
Rebel Farmer March 29th, 2007 12:42 pm
Yes, I am really a farmer. Don’t even let me get started on how the government has screwed family farmers and every Americans’ access to healthy food!
Rebel: Those who are paying attention to the corruption in government are well aware of what’s going in this country. The problem is, we ARE a minority. No one really knows how long it will take before the majority wakes up, but eventually, they will. Sadly, many more people will have to suffer great losses before they move their lazy, spoiled asses to discover that NUMBERS are more powerful than a government run by elitists. I hope I’m still around when the youth in this country acknowledge their humanity and realize that money is not the answer to happiness or peace. It may give us more options in life, but at what cost?
Rebel Farmer,
I certainly did not intend to communicate that I advocated torture. I suppose I could have phrased it better, but the intended point was that maybe the world would be a better place if occasionally fascists got a taste of their own medicine or at least if they could imagine what it would be like to walk in someone else’s shoes and get a taste of their own medicine.