FBI rules raise privacy issues

Justice Department officials released new guidelines Friday that empower FBI agents to use intrusive techniques to gather intelligence within the United States, a move that alarmed civil liberties groups and Democratic lawmakers who worry that the new rules invite privacy violations and other abuses.

The new road map allows investigators to recruit informants, employ physical surveillance and conduct interviews in which agents disguise their identities in an effort to assess national security threats. Agents could pursue each of those steps without any single fact indicating a person has ties to a terrorist organization.

Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey said the guidelines were necessary to fulfill the FBI’s mission to predict threats and respond even before an attack takes place. The ground rules will help the bureau become “a more flexible and adept collector of intelligence,” as independent commissions urged after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mukasey said in a statement Friday.

The guidelines, which harmonize five road maps dating back more than a generation, take effect Dec. 1, two months later than initially planned. Authorities said the delay was a concession to privacy advocates and Arab American groups that expressed concern that their members could be subject to racial or ethnic profiling.

Justice Department leaders rewrote a key section of the guidelines concerning agents’ infiltration of groups and attendance at demonstrations. Under the new language, agents would be able to investigate the likelihood of violence stemming from a planned demonstration for as many as 30 days, with renewals subject to supervisory approval.

Congressional staff members said the revisions were superficial, and the American Civil Liberties Union immediately condemned the guidelines. Critics had asked Justice Department leaders to wait until a new president took office, an approach administration officials rejected.