FBIThe
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report today
criticizing the scope of power of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and calling upon the federal government to curb
the bureau.

“Congress must do a top-to-bottom review of FBI politics and
practices to identify and curtail any activities that are
unconstitutional or easily misused. The time for wholesale reform
has come,”
said the ACLU’s National Security Project director, Hina
Shamsi.

Forbes’ Andy Greenberg
acknowledges that “the ACLU’s renewed focus on the FBI may seem
strange given the
recent string of bombshell leaks about the NSA,” but points out
that the NSA’s collection of data “has only been possible because
of the FBI’s powers to secretly demand that phone companies turn
over that data.”

The ACLU sees potential in new leadership. The recent
appointment of James Comey as Director of the FBI marks “the first
change in leadership at the bureau since the 9/11 attacks.” Though,
as Nick Gillespie previously pointed
out, Comey has a mixed record on upholding rights. The ACLU
believes that the Obama Administration and the Congress must use
this change in leadership “to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of
the FBI’s post-9/11 policies and programs.”

The 63-page
report, titled “Unleashed and Unaccountable: The FBI’s
Unchecked Abuse of Authority,” also contends that the post-9/11
policies of the bureaucratic outfit have been detrimental to
innocent citizens and the integrity of the law.

The FBI has “unprecedented power and international reach” thanks
to the Patriot Act and FISA Amendment Acts, which have led to “a
record of extraordinary abuse—particularly targeting racial and
religious minorities, immigrants, and protest groups under the
guise of counterterrorism,”
argues the ACLU. Questionable practices include wiretapping,
collecting emails, mapping and profiling communities based on
ethnicity and race, and infiltrating peace-activist groups.

Additionally, the ACLU argues that the bureau does itself a
disfavor by collecting massive quantities of data on average
Americans. The amount is overwhelming and impossible to sift
through, so the FBI is unable to pursue actual criminals. The
report points out that numerous terrorists, including Tamerlan
Tsarnaev, the Boston Bomber, were at some point interrogated but
ultimately never stopped from committing crimes.
According to the report, “Tsarnaev was one of over 1,000
assessments the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force completed in 2011
alone,” leaving the FBI resources stretched and unable to recognize
him as a real threat.