Wehrwolfen
Banned
- Joined
- May 11, 2013
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Matthew Charles Cardinale
22 August 2013
SPOKANE, Washington, Aug 21 (IPS) - Earlier this month, Reuters revealed that a special division within the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been using intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a mass database of telephone records to secretly identify targets for drug enforcement actions.In the wake of these revelations, a former prosecutor tells IPS he believes he and his colleagues may have been unwitting pawns in the federal government’s effort to deceive defendants and the court system, thereby violating citizens’ constitutional rights.
“None of us had any idea whatsoever there was a secret DEA programme that instructed DEA agents to conceal the source,” Patrick Nightingale, a former prosecutor for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, told IPS.
“My oath as an attorney and as a prosecutor was as an officer of the constitution, and not to win at all costs. This [programme] is a win at all costs mentality: whether it’s constitutional or not we’re going to use it and we can conceal it,” he said.
Called the Special Operations Division (SOD), it is comprised of some two dozen federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency (NSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Department of Homeland Security.
Everything about the SOD is secret, including the size of its budget and the location of its offices.
Reuters has also identified the IRS as a recipient of the information, pointing to a former IRS training manual that referenced the SOD programme.
[Excerpt]
Read more:
Spying Scandal Engulfs Other U.S. Agencies
What connection do the DEA, FBI, CIA, NSA, IRS and DHS have? Why they are all agencies Obama has taken over.
22 August 2013
SPOKANE, Washington, Aug 21 (IPS) - Earlier this month, Reuters revealed that a special division within the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been using intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a mass database of telephone records to secretly identify targets for drug enforcement actions.In the wake of these revelations, a former prosecutor tells IPS he believes he and his colleagues may have been unwitting pawns in the federal government’s effort to deceive defendants and the court system, thereby violating citizens’ constitutional rights.
“None of us had any idea whatsoever there was a secret DEA programme that instructed DEA agents to conceal the source,” Patrick Nightingale, a former prosecutor for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, told IPS.
“My oath as an attorney and as a prosecutor was as an officer of the constitution, and not to win at all costs. This [programme] is a win at all costs mentality: whether it’s constitutional or not we’re going to use it and we can conceal it,” he said.
Called the Special Operations Division (SOD), it is comprised of some two dozen federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency (NSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Department of Homeland Security.
Everything about the SOD is secret, including the size of its budget and the location of its offices.
Reuters has also identified the IRS as a recipient of the information, pointing to a former IRS training manual that referenced the SOD programme.
[Excerpt]
Read more:
Spying Scandal Engulfs Other U.S. Agencies
What connection do the DEA, FBI, CIA, NSA, IRS and DHS have? Why they are all agencies Obama has taken over.