September 16, 2008
Regarding Proposed FBI GuidelinesWe, the undersigned organizations who care deeply about both individual rights
and effective intelligence-gathering, are gravely concerned about reported changes to
federal guidelines that would lower the bar for the FBI’s law enforcement and
intelligence investigations. We ask that you thoroughly question FBI Director Mueller
this week about the extent of these changes and convene a hearing of civil liberties
experts to discuss the implications of the guidelines once they become public and before
they go into effect. It appears that fundamental changes will be made in the FBI and
Department of Justice rules that govern criminal investigations and domestic intelligence
gathering, and the implications of those changes require your dedicated oversight. We
also ask that you prevent any funding from being used to implement these changes until
the next Attorney General has a chance to review them.
