FBI Says Agents Broke Rules in Spy, Terror Cases

FBI agents broke the rules in at least a dozen terrorism and espionage cases before the Sept. 11 attacks, including illegally videotaping suspects, intercepting e-mails without court permission and recording the wrong phone conversations, according to an internal bureau memo disclosed Wednesday.

The two-page memo focused on cases requiring secret warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including the most sensitive terrorism and espionage cases that the FBI investigates.

The top-secret court that monitors FISA operations recently issued an unprecedented public admonishment of the FBI for its handling of many surveillance warrants, saying agents provided inaccurate information to justify the warrants and made other mistakes.

But the April 2000 memo referred to cases that indicated other problems, according to FBI officials. Among them: agents conducting unauthorized searches, executing search warrants with wrong addresses and allowing electronic surveillance to operate beyond legal deadlines.

Associated Press, which first reported on the memo Wednesday, said it was given the document by a member of Congress.

In interviews, FBI officials said the mistakes happened in about a dozen cases in early 2000, out of more than 1,000 FISA warrants issued that year. Problems in such a small percentage of cases are nearly impossible to avoid, one FBI official said, adding that although the mistakes were serious enough for several agents to be disciplined, no one was fired for their transgressions. “None of the mistakes were intentional. Most problems were due to overlooking something,” said the FBI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The memo was written by senior FBI lawyers, and it said that although none of the mistakes was known to the public, they garnered the attention of the “highest levels of management” within the FBI.

One senior lawmaker in charge of reviewing how the FBI implements changes to the FISA law in the aftermath of Sept. 11 was critical of the bureau’s missteps.

“Honest mistakes happen in law enforcement, but the extent, variety and seriousness of the violations recounted in this FBI memo show again that the secret FISA process breeds sloppiness unless there’s adequate oversight,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), head of the Judiciary Committee.

The memo “is not a full picture but a snapshot of how the law is being implemented,” said an aide to Leahy. “These are not minor incidents.”

Congress approved changes to FISA last year under the USA Patriot Act, providing FBI agents with new powers to use the special FISA terrorism and espionage warrants. But Leahy and some other lawmakers have complained that they were not adequately informed of problems under the old rules.