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<DIV class=timestamp>June 12, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">F.B.I. Agents Get Leeway to Push
Privacy Bounds</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per title="More Articles by Charlie Savage"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/charlie_savage/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>CHARLIE SAVAGE</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>WASHINGTON — The <A class=meta-org
title="More articles about the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_bureau_of_investigation/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Federal
Bureau of Investigation</A> is giving significant new powers to its roughly
14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through
household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who
have attracted their attention. </P>
<P>The F.B.I. soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called <A
href="http://documents.nytimes.com/the-new-operations-manual-from-the-f-b-i">the
Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide</A>, according to an official who
has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its
contents. The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to
give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist
activity. </P>
<P>The F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming
changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer
for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further
ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques,
especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing. </P>
<P>“Claiming additional authorities to investigate people only further raises
the potential for abuse,” Mr. German said, pointing to complaints about the
bureau’s surveillance of domestic political advocacy groups and mosques and to
an inspector general’s findings in 2007 that the F.B.I. had frequently misused
<A title="Times article on the findings."
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/10/washington/10fbi.html">“national
security letters,”</A> which allow agents to obtain information like phone
records without a court order. </P>
<P>Valerie E. Caproni, the F.B.I. general counsel, said the bureau had fixed the
problems with the national security letters and had taken steps to make sure
they would not recur. She also said the bureau, which does not need permission
to alter its manual so long as the rules fit within broad guidelines issued by
the attorney general, had carefully weighed the risks and the benefits of each
change. </P>
<P>“Every one of these has been carefully looked at and considered against the
backdrop of why do the employees need to be able to do it, what are the possible
risks and what are the controls,” she said, portraying the modifications to the
rules as “more like fine-tuning than major changes.” </P>
<P>Some of the most notable changes apply to the lowest category of
investigations, called an “assessment.” The category, created in December 2008,
allows agents to look into people and organizations “proactively” and <A
title="Times article on privacy concerns."
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/us/29manual.html">without firm
evidence</A> for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity. </P>
<P>Under current rules, agents must open such an inquiry before they can search
for information about a person in a commercial or law enforcement database.
Under the new rules, agents will be allowed to search such databases without
making a record about their decision. </P>
<P>Mr. German said the change would make it harder to detect and deter
inappropriate use of databases for personal purposes. But Ms. Caproni said it
was too cumbersome to require agents to open formal inquiries before running
quick checks. She also said agents could not put information uncovered from such
searches into F.B.I. files unless they later opened an assessment. </P>
<P>The new rules will also relax a restriction on administering lie-detector
tests and searching people’s trash. Under current rules, agents cannot use such
techniques until they open a “preliminary investigation,” which — unlike an
assessment — requires a factual basis for suspecting someone of wrongdoing. But
soon agents will be allowed to use those techniques for one kind of assessment,
too: when they are evaluating a target as a potential informant. </P>
<P>Agents have asked for that power in part because they want the ability to use
information found in a subject’s trash to put pressure on that person to assist
the government in the investigation of others. But Ms. Caproni said information
gathered that way could also be useful for other reasons, like determining
whether the subject might pose a threat to agents. </P>
<P>The new manual will also remove a limitation on the use of surveillance
squads, which are trained to surreptitiously follow targets. Under current
rules, the squads can be used only once during an assessment, but the new rules
will allow agents to use them repeatedly. Ms. Caproni said restrictions on the
duration of physical surveillance would still apply, and argued that because of
limited resources, supervisors would use the squads only rarely during such a
low-level investigation. </P>
<P>The revisions also clarify what constitutes “undisclosed participation” in an
organization by an F.B.I. agent or informant, which is subject to special rules
— most of which have not been made public. The new manual says an agent or an
informant may surreptitiously attend up to five meetings of a group before those
rules would apply — unless the goal is to join the group, in which case the
rules apply immediately. </P>
<P>At least one change would tighten, rather than relax, the rules. Currently, a
special agent in charge of a field office can delegate the authority to approve
sending an informant to a religious service. The new manual will require such
officials to handle those decisions personally. </P>
<P>In addition, the manual clarifies a description of what qualifies as a
“sensitive investigative matter” — investigations, at any level, that require
greater oversight from supervisors because they involve public officials,
members of the news media or academic scholars. </P>
<P>The new rules make clear, for example, that if the person with such a role is
a victim or a witness rather than a target of an investigation, extra
supervision is not necessary. Also excluded from extra supervision will be
investigations of low- and midlevel officials for activities unrelated to their
position — like drug cases as opposed to corruption, for example. </P>
<P>The manual clarifies the definition of who qualifies for extra protection as
a legitimate member of the news media in the Internet era: prominent bloggers
would count, but not people who have low-profile blogs. And it will limit
academic protections only to scholars who work for institutions based in the
United States. </P>
<P>Since the release of the 2008 manual, the assessment category has drawn
scrutiny because it sets a low bar to examine a person or a group. The F.B.I.
has opened thousands of such low-level investigations each month, and a vast
majority has not generated information that justified opening more intensive
investigations. </P>
<P>Ms. Caproni said the new manual would adjust the definition of assessments to
make clear that they must be based on leads. But she rejected arguments that the
F.B.I. should focus only on investigations that begin with a firm reason for
suspecting wrongdoing. </P><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
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class=articleCorrection></DIV></NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM><NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></NYT_UPDATE_BOTTOM></DIV></NYT_TEXT><BR>
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