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FBI to Boost 'Black Bag' Search Ops
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ShareJune 15, 2007 12:02 PM
As part of its growing intelligence operations within the United States, the FBI has increased its surreptitious entry and search missions since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to an unclassified bureau document.
Click here for full Blotter coverage.
"The refocusing of FBI operational priorities and the new emphasis placed on intelligence-based activities...has resulted in a dramatic increase" in the demand for so-called "black bag" jobs, in which teams of highly-trained specialists covertly enter a home or office, search its contents and leave without indicating they had been there, states the budget document.
It does not detail how many of the secret searches it carries out, and the FBI did not respond to comment.
The bureau is asking Congress for an additional $5 million to pay for the operations and more than a dozen new specialized personnel.
In 1995, most of the FBI's secret search operations were related to criminal investigations, according to the document. Last year, close to 90 percent of such operations were for national security matters, it asserts.
"It's obviously troubling that people's homes are being searched, and they may never learn of it -- if they're never charged with a crime," said Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank which studies intelligence policy and constitutional issues. Graves told the Blotter on ABCNews.com she does not believe the searches receive sufficient judicial oversight.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
In advance of a surreptitious search on a national security matter, the FBI is required to obtain approval from a secret body known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In a criminal matter, it must obtain a judicial warrant.
Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?
The FBI document obtained by ABCNews.com includes new details about how the secret search operations go down.
"The execution of covert entry/search operations usually requires the [FBI] to physically deploy a team of approximately 11 agent personnel full time over a period of time (usually at least 3 days) to the target location," the document states.
Last year, the unit's 18 agents spent an average of 97 days on the road, according to the document. That suggests the bureau carried out roughly 50 of the secret operations.
Last year, the operations were 90 percent successful, according to the document. But the team faces challenges from new advances in security technology and needs additional engineers, technicians and analysts to help plan and prepare for each operation.
June 15, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (27)
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A citizen who puts security over liberty deserves neither....
Posted by: Cindy | Jun 19, 2007 4:23:24 PM
Instead of the bromide below...
"A citizen who puts security over liberty deserves neither...."
A citizen who puts security over liberty LIVES to enjoy liberty another day.
Posted by: AJ | Jun 22, 2007 10:50:27 AM
All for it!
I know that I'm never going to do anything to find myself on the wrong side of the law. The only poeple who need to fear this are those that are doing something very wrong.
Posted by: Eric in Palm Harbor | Jul 25, 2007 2:18:38 PM
"A citizen who puts security over liberty LIVES to enjoy liberty another day."
If this is what you believe, no matter how sensible you think it sounds, then you belong in another country -- like the former Kingdom of Great Britain that the United States declared its independence from on July 4, 1776.
Posted by: Eloy Gonzalez II | Jul 26, 2007 6:08:47 PM
We need a simpler 'law'. Simple human rights. No two groups/people/beings interfere with eachother in any way, shape, form, in emotion, in physical, or in effects or properties, unless both parties agree. In another way of saying simply, mind your own buisness do your own thing and enjoy life!
Just remind yourself... these people taking advantage of us all... are small in number. The web of lies has caught so many into thinking otherwise.
"Evil only triumps because good does nothing" -quoted, unknown
Posted by: =(XI)= | Jul 27, 2007 11:45:54 PM
I find this VERY disturbing. All our communications are now monitored and they can go in our houses & businesses without declaring warrants. They create profiles for everyone of what we watch, what we buy, what we read, where we browse on the internet; they create files & profile everyone. What if our government became so tyrannical and homicidal that "We the People" needed to overthrow it? Is this not another incremental step ensuring that this will be impossible? Would they not immediately go get the people who have the skills of leadership and knowhow of how to lead a revolution, stomping it out immediately? There is not another continent to sail to get away from tyranny; there is no escape from it this time around.
You may say that it will never get to that. You may say that I am paranoid. You may say if I have nothing to hide then I should have no worries. My point is that they are taking away our insurance that it will never get to a point where 'ethnic cleansing' will occur.
Remember this, locks only keep the honest people honest. The criminals/terrorists only get more intelligent and ruthless in thier ways when we remove individual privacy and rights. We create a security grid, then they operate off the grid. The only thing that suffers is the freedoms of law abiding citizens. We now have to make sure we don't say the wrong things on the phone or in emails or suffer the consequences. It does make me very paranoid.
We have created enemies for the next 100 years or more. We are creating home grown extremists by this also. If we change our course considerably, we may minimize the damage we have done.
"For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction" -quoted, Albert Einstein.
"I'd gladly give up liberty for freedom" -quoted, unknown afraid doublespeak thinker
Posted by: rstrandmark | Jul 29, 2007 4:15:05 AM
The FBI has the resourses to protect the right people from the wrong people,more power to them.
Posted by: Robert M. | Nov 29, 2008 9:19:48 PM
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