I received a letter, dated July 7, 2008,from US DOJ Office of Information and Privacy Associate Director Janice Galli McLeod regarding a previously dismissed appeal to my Nov. 20, 2007 FOIA/PA Request to the Jacksonville FBI Field Office. McLeod resurrected my dismissed appeals and remanded my FOIA/PA Requests for processing to FBI HQ and the FBI Jacksonville Field Office. I expected to hear from the DOJ after the Senate passed The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (spy devices on utility poles have satellite uplinks), but not quite this soon. As detailed above, I filed two complaints with the FBI charging illegal surveillance. The first one was with the Jacksonville FBI Field Office and a second more detailed one, which included a videotape and other evidence, with FBI Director Mueller. When the FBI refused to reply to my complaints, I filed a number of FOIA’s in order to get an acknowledgment of my charges by the FBI. However, the FBI denied having any records related to me or my charges, even though I mailed my complaints EXPRESS MAIL and FBI personnel signed for them. The Jacksonville Field Office even denied receiving my FOIA/PA Request.

I appealed the FBI’s "no record" responses. Deputy Chief Work of the Administrative Appeals Staff dismissed my appeals as "moot" and closed my appeal files, because both FBI HQ and the Jacksonville Field Offices denied having any records (I filed a FOIA/PA Request for these closed files). She even dismissed an appeal that I hadn’t filed yet. I called FBI HQ Logistics (mailroom) and tracked down the unit and room where my letter and evidence to Director Mueller was delivered. Around this same time, I received a letter from Civil Rights CID Chief Peeples. He returned my complaint and evidence addressed to Director Mueller and wrote: "The allegations that you have brought to our attention do not warrant any action by the FBI." I filed two separate complaints, one under the Patriot Act, with the DOJ OIG charging FBI employees with misconduct. When the IG didn’t acknowledge my charges, I filed a FOIA/PA request with the DOJ OIG seeking records related to my filed charges against named FBI employees. I received a " no records" response to my FOIA. The IG denied receiving my complaints. Realize that the DOJ OIG’s function is to insure the integrity and honesty of FBI employees.

The scope of The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 won’t be limited to surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications, or granting immunity to phone companies, and will be expanded to include the ever-evolving definition of "terrorist." Just as the Patriot Act legalized what the government had been doing all along, so does this new legislation with the added benefit of making immunity for the telecoms legal. And, there are no genuinely effective safeguards to protect Americans’ rights. The IG’s roles are perfunctory at best, and, in most cases, to cover-up abuse and scandal. For the sake of argument, even if the IG’s wanted to investigate abuse, they couldn’t because the FISA Amendments Act allows the FISC to review only general procedures and not individual warrants, so they wouldn’t have any specific evidence- or paper trail- to investigate. If you think that I’m having a frustrating time getting my charges investigated, then wait until you try to get your charges investigated- never mind proving- under this new legislation. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 renders the Fourth Amendment "moot" for all practical purposes.

Joe