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...

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


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp