A new declassified report shows that the FBI's role in the National Security Agency's warrantless PRISM surveillance program has gradually increased over time, reported The New York Times.
The partially redacted 231-page report obtained by The New York Times on Friday reveals that in 2008, the FBI "assumed the power to review email accounts the NSA wanted to collect through the 'PRISM' system," and developed procedures to ensure that no data collected belonged to Americans.
In October 2009, the FBI began collecting and "retaining copies of unprocessed communications gathered without a warrant to analyze for its own purposes," and in April 2012, the bureau started identifying new email accounts and phone numbers for collection.
"The chief prohibition is that an acquisition ... may not intentionally target a United States person," the report said, also prohibiting "the intentional targeting of any person 'known at the time of acquisition to be located in the United States."
The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, wrote in the report that the FBI was doing a good job ensuring that email accounts targeted for data collection belonged to foreign citizens living abroad, but as the Times noted, the heavy redactions make it difficult to see the whole picture.
After being completed in September 2012, the report was completely classified. The semi-redacted version was sent to the Times after the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The Times may decide to challenge the redactions at a later time in the litigation, according to David McCraw, a Times lawyer.
