Pubdate: Tue, 06 Aug 2013
Source: Dayton Daily News (OH)
Copyright: 2013 Dayton Daily News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/7JXk4H3l
Website: http://www.daytondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/120
Authors: John Shiffman and David Ingram, Reuters

JUSTICE TO REVIEW SPECIAL DEA UNIT

Agency Funnels Information to Federal Authorities.

WASHINGTON (Reuters)- The Justice Department is reviewing a U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration unit that passes tips culled from 
intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a large telephone 
database to field agents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday.

Reuters reported Monday that agents who use such tips are trained to 
re-create the investigative trail to effectively conceal the DEA 
unit's involvement from defense lawyers, prosecutors and even judges, 
a policy many lawyers said could violate a defendant's right to a 
fair trial. Federal drug agents call the process of changing the true 
genesis of an arrest "parallel construction," according to a training document.

Although the DEA program may use legal means to collect and 
distribute the tips, critics say that by hiding the origin of a case, 
defendants may not know about potentially exculpatory evidence.

"It's my understanding ... that the Department of Justice is looking 
at some of the issues raised in the story," Carney said Monday.

Carney referred reporters to a Justice Department spokesman, who 
confirmed that a review was underway but declined to comment further.

In an interview last month, two senior DEA officials defended the 
program, saying it has been in place since the late 1990s, has been 
reviewed by every attorney general since then, and is perfectly 
legal. One DEA official said "parallel construction" is used every 
day by agents and police nationwide and is "a bedrock concept."

The program, run by DEA's Special Operations Division, differs in 
several respects from National Security Agency activities revealed by 
former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Among these is disclosure to the accused.

Collection of domestic data by the NSA and FBI for espionage and 
terrorism cases is regulated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance 
Act. If prosecutors intend to use FISA or other classified evidence 
in court, they issue a public notice, and a judge determines whether 
the defense is entitled to review the evidence. In the DEA's case, a 
document reviewed by Reuters shows that federal drug agents are 
trained to re-create the investigative trail to conceal the SOD's involvement.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom