The FBI has made a number of errors during surveillance operations intended to catch terrorists and spies. Newly released documents show FBI agents regularly continued wiretapping and physical searches long after legal authorization had expired.
The agents may have violated guidelines developed for special wiretaps and searches authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. That law allows surveillance of potential spies or terrorists before there's any evidence of a crime. But agents must follow a heavy set of rules, in order to avoid infringing on civil liberties. The Electronic Privacy Information Center requested the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
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