ForumGarden

An interesting background article on the current state of US practice when it comes to surveillance by law enforcement:Some of the most notable changes apply to the lowest category of investigations, called an “assessment.” The category, created in December 2008, allows agents to look into people and organizations “proactively” and without firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity [...] The new manual will also remove a limitation on the use of surveillance squads, which are trained to surreptitiously follow targets. Under current rules, the squads can be used only once during an assessment, but the new rules will allow agents to use them repeatedly. Ms. Caproni said restrictions on the duration of physical surveillance would still apply, and argued that because of limited resources, supervisors would use the squads only rarely during such a low-level investigation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/us/13 ... s&emc=tha2

It doesn't, of course, apply to non-citizens. US law enforcement can still do whatever they damn well like to foreigners like me - and their communications - with total impunity.

You do appreciate that we don't have a clue what our security services are up to don't you? Even if you do find out there is not a lot you can do about it if you are the subject of an investigation be you a member of an animal rights organisation or a religious one.

There was a time when an entrapping sting would have been thrown out on both sides of the Atlantic. It still would be in Britain, but you'd need to prove it had happened and that might not be a simple matter. Our police have certainly taken to embedding long-term moles into the organising level of legal protest movements, what they may not do is suggest criminality and then prosecute when the suggestion is taken. The American system glories in its ability to plant such ideas. If the FBI can take a set of law-abiding people and plan a series of steps which would talk that group over a line into criminality then they go for it. That's not policing, that's merely an indication of how persuasive a well-funded outfit can be when it sets out to corrupt lawful citizens.