WASHINGTON — The FBI violated the law in collecting thousands of U.S. telephone records during the Bush administration, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Citing internal memos and interviews, the Post said the FBI invoked nonexistent terrorism emergencies or persuaded phone companies to provide information as it illegally gathered more than 2,000 records between 2002 and 2006.
The bureau said in 2007 that it had improperly obtained some phone records.
FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni told the Post that agents technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which was enacted in 1986, by citing nonexistent emergencies to collect records. “We should have stopped those requests from being made that way,” she said.
State of the Union speech date set
President Barack Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address beginning at 6 p.m. PST Jan. 27. Obama will address a joint session of Congress, beginning at 9 p.m. EST. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says the speech will be broadcast live on national television and streamed on the White House Web site.
Obama seeks $1.35 billion more for education
President Barack Obama will ask Congress for $1.35 billion in his 2011 budget proposal to extend an education grant program for states, although the Education Department remains months away from announcing its first round of awards, senior administration officials said. Obama was to outline the budget proposal today. The $787 billion economic stimulus program Obama signed into law soon after taking office included $4.3 billion in competitive grants for states. Obama will ask lawmakers for another $1.35 billion so that states not chosen in award rounds will have a chance to compete for money, according to the officials, who spoke anonymously Monday because the president had not announced his plans.
Ohio: Three die in small-plane crash
A small plane crashed Monday as it approached the Cleveland area from Gainesville, Fla., killing at least three of the four people aboard, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The cause of the crash hasn’t been determined. An FAA database shows that the fixed-wing, multi-engine MU-2B-60 turboprop plane was manufactured by Mitsubishi.
Egypt: Homes swept away
Rare torrential rains across the Middle East swept away homes, marooned resort towns and killed seven people Monday in what officials are calling the worst flooding in at least a decade. The flooding along Egypt’s Red Sea coast, the border with Israel and in the south damaged the roads leading to the resorts in the Sinai desert and brought down telephone and power lines.
Turkey: Pope’s attacker freed
The Turkish man who shot Pope John Paul II nearly 29 years ago emerged from prison Monday, declared himself a messenger from God, then spent his first night of freedom in a luxury hotel room. Mehmet Ali Agca, 52, shot John Paul on May 13, 1981, as the pope rode in an open car in St. Peter’s Square. The pontiff was hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm.
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