Christian Science Monitor

10/26/05

On Sept. 26, 2002, a Special Agent in the FBI's Pittsburgh office had an 'uh oh' moment, according to newly disclosed bureau records. The agent had been in continual contact with a potential counterintelligence source since March. But under FBI rules, that contact required proper authorization -- and the paperwork OKing the operation had expired in July, a detail the agent had overlooked for several months. The extended communications hadn't amounted to much -- one e-mail scheduling a security briefing, and two others that were social in nature. But under agency rules the violation had to be reported up the chain of command, all the way to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Ret. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, chairman of the Intelligence Oversight Board. ... This mistake -- though inadvertent -- may have been far from an isolated case. Records released this week indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of possible violations of the laws that govern secret surveillance operations...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1026/p03s01-uspo.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp