Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Scrolling through your own FBI files. The bureau's old computer systems are an unholy mess
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Sunday March 5, 2006 | Jeff Stein

Posted on 03/05/2006 8:34:12 PM PST by Navy Patriot

I got access to a computer at FBI headquarters recently and took the opportunity to see what they had on me.

A lot, as it turned out. Up popped my name in an investigation of Scott Ritter, the former top Iraq arms inspector turned administration critic. I'd interviewed him on the telephone several times in the late 1990s.

Scrolling down, I also saw a note on my 1972 membership in a group of graduate students and faculty who wrote scholarly articles against the war in Vietnam, evidently related to an investigation of Jane Fonda. There were also excerpts of articles I'd written over the years that mentioned bombings and the FBI.

And there were what looked like my bank transactions, past addresses and telephone numbers.

This was a lot more information about me than the FBI said they had when I requested my files in the late 1990s. And from my cursory peek, I could tell my files went deep.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fbi; files; freedom; incompetence; information; of
All the good FBI files are still in Hillary's office.
1 posted on 03/05/2006 8:34:17 PM PST by Navy Patriot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot
More:

I was at a computer terminal in an unmarked room on the ninth floor of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, a place so packed with cubicles it looked like an egg carton. The only sounds were the clicks of neighboring keyboards.

I was there at the invitation of FBI spokesman John Miller, who was so concerned that I'd gotten an overly negative and inaccurate picture of the bureau's information retrieval and information sharing systems from my sources -- almost all of whom have first-hand knowledge of how the system works and are extremely critical of it -- that he brought me into a once-forbidden chamber of the FBI.

The state of the FBI's data systems is of interest to more than geeks and hackers. How well, or badly, the FBI's computers work is central to its ability to reinvent itself as a first-rate domestic counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency in "the age of sacred terror," as one author calls it. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, critics said the FBI was too soaked in a cop mentality to retool itself for the more painstaking, subtle work of intelligence, which rarely results in arrests, to neutralize al Qaeda.

Nearly 4 1/2 years after Sept. 11, plenty of people are still saying the FBI hasn't changed enough, fast enough.

Former FBI officials and analysts describe clunky, antiquated systems where access to even Google is difficult or impossible, where analysts lack even simple e-mail alerts or RSS feeds of new case data. All databases depend on dedicated staff to populate it with good information. That job goes to FBI agents, who often can't or won't take the time to put their case notes into the system.

One former analyst who quit in frustration said she discovered that an agent in another city had case files on a subject she was pursuing, and then had to spend wasteful days traveling there to see them.

2 posted on 03/05/2006 8:37:08 PM PST by Navy Patriot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot

I got to look at my ex-wife's file, it was kind of weird. It had our old phone number listed and next to it said, "if man answers, HANG UP!"


3 posted on 03/05/2006 8:47:33 PM PST by txroadkill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot

It still amazes me that people are surprised at government inefficiency. FEMA, FBI, DOD, IRS, it's all a huge, monumental waste. How long has the FAA been trying to upgrade it's computers?


4 posted on 03/05/2006 8:50:29 PM PST by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: neodad

The only thing that I can think of as an analogy to government inefficency at this critical time is the boarding security check in the movie Airplane II.


5 posted on 03/05/2006 8:58:27 PM PST by Navy Patriot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: txroadkill

No, I think that was MY ex wife.


6 posted on 03/05/2006 9:07:56 PM PST by garyhope (In vino veritas. Ars longa, vita brevis, too brevis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: neodad
The FAA is not 'trying' to upgrade its computers.

Here's a neat little factoid for you.

Do you know who the worlds largest consumer of old style vacuum tubes is?

It's the FAA.

Here's another one. There's only one factory in the world left making them, and that's in Great Britain.

Enjoy your next flight.

L

7 posted on 03/05/2006 9:12:20 PM PST by Lurker (Cuz I got one hand in my pocket and the other one is slapping a hippy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot
Image hosting by Photobucket

"Hmmmm ... Brown, Ron ... Foster, Vince ... Lott, Trent ... Ah, here we are: McCain."

8 posted on 03/05/2006 9:50:56 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: martin_fierro

I'm sure Hillary had the hard copy files delivered in person, not even she could get them out of a FBI computer.


9 posted on 03/05/2006 9:55:01 PM PST by Navy Patriot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: txroadkill
I got to look at my ex-wife's file, it was kind of weird. It had our old phone number listed and next to it said, "if man answers, HANG UP!"

Don't feel too bad, I've heard that Bawney Fwanks' FBI file has the same kind of notation. ;)
10 posted on 03/05/2006 10:22:37 PM PST by mkjessup (The Shah doesn't look so bad now, eh? But nooo, Jimmah said the Ayatollah was a 'godly' man.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot

Seriously, how do you find out if the FBI has a file on you?


11 posted on 03/05/2006 10:48:01 PM PST by TheSpottedOwl (Support the fence....grow a Victory Garden!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: TheSpottedOwl
1. Wait for a dem to grab the office of President.

2. Post on Free Republic.

3. Thank the "patriot" act.
12 posted on 03/05/2006 10:53:45 PM PST by mysterio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: TheSpottedOwl
Seriously, how do you find out if the FBI has a file on you?

You ask them, theoretically they have to tell you under the Freedom of Information Act.

And don't call me seriously, I won't call you theoretically.

13 posted on 03/05/2006 10:54:42 PM PST by Navy Patriot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: TheSpottedOwl
Way back in 2000 I posted a web site which claimed to be able to show you your FBI file.
JR personally pulled that thread and sent me a stern warning.
14 posted on 03/05/2006 10:55:35 PM PST by ASA Vet (Would you throw a bucket of water on Hillary if her broom were on fire?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Lurker
I got to see the inside of one of their radar stations once, years ago.

Every generation of equipment was there, from the 1960's on, just judging from the styles of faceplates and controls and input/output.

There were also multiple redundancies built into the system at every level.

Yes, some of it was still vacuum tube, but some was microcircuitry as well. Along with the line power and 5 yr (continuous run) rated backup generators were leyden jar batteries.

The bottom line is that barring destruction of the facility, the system will work.

15 posted on 03/05/2006 11:08:15 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: TheSpottedOwl
Seriously, how do you find out if the FBI has a file on you?

Just write and ask them. They will.

16 posted on 03/05/2006 11:09:47 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: mysterio; Navy Patriot; ASA Vet; Smokin' Joe
1. Wait for a dem to grab the office of President.

2. Post on Free Republic.

3. Thank the "patriot" act.

Thanks for the replies. It's funny, but I lurked at FR until the Clintons were out of office. I was actually afraid of signing up.

I'm sure they do have a file on me, because after I posted, I remembered that I had to have an FBI/DOJ backround check last year. It's official....I'm boring : )

17 posted on 03/06/2006 8:00:00 AM PST by TheSpottedOwl (Support the fence....grow a Victory Garden!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Navy Patriot

Ping for later in-depth read (I'm busy at work at the moment...).


18 posted on 03/06/2006 8:03:00 AM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson