Again, a case of Law Enforcement applying intelligence tactics to investigative operations:
Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been accessing personal medical files without a warrant, generating a backlash from doctors and privacy advocates who say the practice is intrusive and unconstitutional — and have taken the agency to court…
The controversial record searches are part of the government’s effort to crack down on illegal “pill mills” and prescription drug abuse. But they’ve set up a clash over privacy rights, and a legal battle is now playing out in the 5th and 9th Circuit appeals courts. Lower courts have issued conflicting rulings to date, with one backing the DEA and another demanding the agency get warrants if it wants to look at patient records.
The DEA has been able to access medical files as well as private state prescription drug records that track patient medical histories by using what are known as administrative subpoenas, which unlike warrants signed by a judge do not require probable cause. Further, critics say the agency has “tricked” doctors into handing over documents by showing up with state medical board officials for searches and not identifying themselves, in turn giving the impression they’re with the board.
Note that this would mean Federal Law Enforcement would have no limits on how they could spy on citizens domestically. Throughout government are relationships between politicians and bureaucrats, many employed at high levels in federal law enforcement. All it takes is one politician to ask one LE supervisor to have his people check something out, and the firewall is broken. Federal LE can begin amassing data, and creating files on ordinary Americans, at the behest of crooked politicians.
Mark my words, when those DEA guys went in posing as Medical Board personnel, they did not just pull a few files relevant to their case, and then dispose of the irrelevant ones afterward. They pulled everything, it was put in the master database, and right now it is entirely possible a systems analyst can track your private medical history.
The most irritating thing is this will never be used to keep the Obama’s or Clinton’s out of office. It will be used to embarrass the one candidate we get who could save the nation. It will be used to blackmail the bank manager who has access to your bank files, (and who needed a penicillin shot after a trip to the Philippines to clear up a little case of VD that his wife didn’t know about). When confronted, he will do whatever they want, and you can see how things snowball.
Finally notice that this is the one case you heard about, and you only heard about it because some guy got onto it by chance and filed a lawsuit. This is going on everywhere right now, from banks, to ISP’s, credit card companies. Nothing is private anymore. The government has databases of databases of people they use to bypass normal investigative procedures and privacy restrictions.
Most times I would assume these are good men seeking to do good, but there are already shadows of tyranny. Sharyl Atkisson was very close to being sent to the gulag for having classified documents on her computer which were installed covertly by just such an LE Intel outfit. The boundaries are slipping.
Those who are a part of this are installing a turnkey tyranny that will, inevitably, be used against good people widely one day. No government lasts forever. Freedom on principle is important for a reason. It can’t be partially sacrificed for long, before the wrong types of people notice where the real power is, and move in to take it over.
Apocalypse cometh™, and it’s under surveillance.
[…] By Anonymous Conservative […]