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Petraeus Case Shows FBI’s Authority to Read Your Email

Nov. 12, 2012 8:05pm Jason Howerton

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WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — Your emails are not nearly as private as you think.

The downfall of CIA Director David Petraeus demonstrates how easy it is for federal law enforcement agents to examine emails and computer records if they believe a crime was committed. With subpoenas and warrants, the FBI and other investigating agencies routinely gain access to electronic inboxes and information about email accounts offered by Google, Yahoo and other Internet providers.

“The government can’t just wander through your emails just because they’d like to know what you’re thinking or doing,” said Stewart Baker, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and now in private law practice. “But if the government is investigating a crime, it has a lot of authority to review people’s emails.”

Under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, federal authorities need only a subpoena approved by a federal prosecutor – not a judge – to obtain electronic messages that are six months old or older. To get more recent communications, a warrant from a judge is required. This is a higher standard that requires proof of probable cause that a crime is being committed.

Public interest groups are pressing Congress for the law to be updated because it was written a quarter-century ago when most emails were deleted after a few months because the cost of storing them indefinitely was prohibitive. Now, “cloud computing” services provide huge amounts of inexpensive storage capacity. Other technological advances, such as mobile phones, have dramatically increased the amount of communications that are kept in electronic warehouses and can be reviewed by law enforcement authorities carrying a subpoena.

“Technology has evolved in a way that makes the content of more communications available to law enforcement without judicial authorization, and at a very low level of suspicion,” said Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, has proposed changing the law to require a warrant for all Internet communications regardless of their age. But law enforcement officials have resisted because they said it would undercut their ability to catch criminals.

A subpoena is usually sufficient to require Internet companies to reveal names and any other information that they have that would identify the owner of a particular email account. Google, which operates the widely used Gmail service, complied with more than 90 percent of the nearly 12,300 requests it received in 2011 from the U.S. government for data about its users, according to figures from the company.

Even if a Gmail account is created with a fictitious name, there are other ways to track down the user. Logs of when messages are sent reveal the Internet address the user used to log onto the account. Matching times and dates with locations allow investigators to piece together the chain.

A Gmail account figured prominently in the FBI investigation that led to Petraeus’ stunning resignation last week as the nation’s spy chief. Petraeus, a retired Army general, stepped down after he confessed to an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, an Army Reserve officer and his biographer.

In this handout image provided by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), former Commander of International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan; CIA Director Gen. Davis Petraeus (L) shakes hands with biographer Paula Broadwell, co-author of ‘All In: The Education of General David Petraeus’ on July 13, 2011. (Credit: Getty Images)

The inquiry began earlier this year after Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who was friends with Petraeus and his wife, Holly, began receiving harassing emails. Kelley is a Tampa socialite. That is where the military’s Central Command and Special Operations Command are located.

Petraeus served as commander at Central Command from 2008 to 2010.

FBI agents eventually determined that the email trail led to Broadwell, according to two federal law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the sources were not authorized to speak about the matter on the record. As they looked further, the FBI agents came across a private Gmail account that used an alias name. On further investigation, the account turned out to be Petraeus’s.

The contents of several of the exchanges between Petraeus and Broadwell suggested they were having an affair, according to the officials. Investigators determined that no security breach had occurred, but continued their investigation into whether Petraeus had any role in the harassing emails that Broadwell had sent to Kelley, which was a criminal investigation.

Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teen-agers alike, to conceal their email traffic.

One of the law enforcement officials said they did not transmit all of their communications as emails from one’s inbox to the other’s inbox. Rather, they composed some emails in a Gmail account and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic “dropbox.” Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there. This avoids creating an email trail which is easier to trace. It’s a technique that al-Qaeda terrorists began using several years ago and teen-agers in many countries have since adopted.

Featured image courtesy of shutterstock.com

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Comments (47)

BigBadBob2490
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 11:06am
Knowing that any Fed Clerk can read your emails suggests we should always have something useful to say. With Facebk, Twttr and GPS smartphones with marketing intell, NSA and Whomever can/does gather the words and actions of anyone it so chooses. Their problem right now is making sense of it all, detecting threats and trends, etc. from a tsunami of data that’s mostly useless bs. Truly funny is that the same folks worried about their private emails will say almost any stoopid thang on comment blocks in the open. OOPS!

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Benjamin Jarvis
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 8:44am
‘But law enforcement officials have resisted [changing the law] because they said it would undercut their ability to catch criminals.’
-What kind of reasoning is this…? I bet barging into a private residences, shooting fleeing people or beating confessions out of suspects undercut their ability also. A prosecutor issuing warrants? There is so much ‘fine print’ legislation progressives have passed over the years that will all be implemented in the next few years. We are giving up our sovereignty people!! My patriot blood is primed for the tree of liberty.

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SamIamTwo
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 6:01am
If he had been a demoncrate, it would be no thang. Too much on an affair. The Muslims must be lovin’ it cause they would stone one of them, no doubt. Liberals feed into Muslim thinking by mistake?

Do we really want to or need to know about the private lives of people who have affairs? I am sick and tired of the left and the MSMs…They suck.

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AmericanPatriot
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 2:49am
Hate to state the obvious here, but if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear. Or am I being naive again?

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- NeilChapin
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 5:43am
  They can read my emails, it would probably put them to sleep. Read fresh political commentary at: http://smallcraftadvisorychronicles.blogspot.com/
  
  Report this comment
- RedDawn2012
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 5:44am
  Naive is what anyone is who believes that NSA has NOT been reading our emails since there WERE emails – not to mention monitoring faxes, phone calls, and radio transmissions. Their latest coup is the ability to track EVERYONE’S web usage: where you go, what you say, what you buy, your passwords, your credit cards, etc. Phone call monitoring by computers has been going on for over 30 years.
  
  Report this comment
- Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 8:14am
  Naive? No, just a spineless sheep. May your chains rest lightly upon you.
  
  Report this comment
brigott
Posted on November 13, 2012 at 12:04am
No one should ever have any expectation that ANYTHING done via computer, cell phone, etc., is secure. It CAN be retrieved.

The only way to permanently erase anything from a hard drive is to beat the hard drive to death with a sledge hammer and then throw it into a volcano. Otherwise its contents can probably be recovered.

EVERYTHING done online, over the Internet, etc., is recorded and available for recovery if the right individuals want to review it.

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 10:32pm
I am sure that the FBI or one of the other D.C. agencies that overlap each other ad nauseum, has peaked in on this site many times. I am also sure my comments and some other people’s comments are in some folder in Washington. tsk tsk

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- sparkyrules
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 10:41pm
  And yet they leave a dead Ambassador’s diary at the scene of the crime…..
  
  http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/22/world/africa/libya-ambassador-journal/index.html
  
  Who are they more afraid of?The American people or Muslim terrorists?
  
  Report this comment
- sparkyrules
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 10:43pm
  A tisket,a tasket.Another cover-up in the basket.
  
  Report this comment
- donkeykong
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 11:22pm
  This ability is not new…..look up “eschelon project” on
  any search engine…..they’ve been doing this for about
  2 decades now, in various forms…..Might as well figure
  ANYTHING said over phones or the internet is NOT
  private. And even person-to-person talk can
  be intercepted with the right equipment. All texting,
  tweeting, etc is fair game. George Orwell wasn’t off
  by very much in his timeline.
  
  Report this comment
- GhostOfJefferson
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 11:40pm
  Lesson here: If you’re going to have an affair with a fit gun model gal, encrypt your emails, and use only an encrypted filesystem. ta da.
  
  Report this comment
Ragnars Repos
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 10:17pm
Don’t put personal stuff online, period.

Don’t load up Facebook, or any other website, with personal stuff!

Stop it!

Stop your kids from doing it!

We simply do not know what the data will be used for at a future date. Will it be used to discredit you? Will that “funny” college party photo cost you a job, a promotion, a raise, etc.? Will your political opinion cost you in another decade or two?

We don’t know what our government will look like in 10, 20, 30 years.

Nothing is private on the the Internet. Nothing.

Call me paranoid, if you must, but the data is being stored for a reason.

Kids today are very open online. They give up their info to anyone it seems. They don’t understand what they are doing.

Be careful online.

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- kindling
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 11:21pm
  Naaaaaa….let the idiots put their lives online. We need to know who we can trust and who we can’t. I feel bad saying as much as I do here and I feel like I am putting myself at great risk. But sometimes you just have to say what you feel or you will explode because you can’t hold it in any longer. So, if I say something that gets me arrested so be it. But I have no facebook and no twitter or any other account like that. That stuff is just plain dangerous.
  
  Report this comment
LakeHartwellSailor
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:49pm
Nothing can be secret any more. Take for example the UN Small Arms Treaty, which the US is backing. That will lead to registration of your weapons, and eventual confiscation. Many, including myself maintain that I will never register my weapons. However, each rifle & side arm I have purchased, I have had a background check conducted….and that involves paperwork. So, they may not know what kind of weapons I have; but they certainly know how many background checks I have had for a weapons purchase. All they need to do is knock on my door one day and say, “I need to see 5 rifles, and 6 hand guns. Or, even more general than that….”you better produce 11 guns”.

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2AM
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:38pm
Is it me, or is the author assuming Betrayus didn’t sign something KNOWING his communications would be monitored? I am sure he consented, but his ego blinded him from the possibility. Maybe they found out through appliances? That is what HE wanted to use as a tool to SPY in the US: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/

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holy ghostbuster
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:35pm
The article stated, “Under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, federal authorities need only a subpoena approved by a federal prosecutor – not a judge – to obtain electronic messages that are six months old or older.” That is incorrect and misleading. A subpoena for email information will only get header information and basic subscriber information, NOT content of the email. Email content requires a search warrant, signed by a judge.

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Chromo200
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:57pm
and that is why I never, never write anything down if I don’t want it published. even my post and comments on the internet. I don’t even say anything on the phone that I don’t want anybody to hear/record and later publish. No photos, nothing.

I most likely am on the list as a potential “ter#orist” for being a Christian Conservative according to Pelosi.

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- Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 8:16am
  In the future it won’t matter. When we go full on Salem witch trials you’ll just need a collectivist accuser who says she saw you practicing witchcraft and that will be all she wrote.
  
  Report this comment
Stelex
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:51pm
If President Obama was threatened by someone online, pretending to be a terrorist, say Al Quaida or worse, If his life was at stake because of a malitia threat or lone wolf, I wonder how long it would be before the SS showed up to defuse the bomb bastic chatter. 644y46664888 Go. Benghazi is the key to his demise. rr/ehe.99736. Code 78

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- Stelex
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:57pm
  Bill O’Reily is such too………Wait there’s someone at my door.
  
  Report this comment
sparkyrules
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:42pm
The Utah Data Center from the Blaze,March 16, 2012

“Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/new-details-on-nsas-new-spy-center-and-secrets-from-domestic-eavesdropping-operation-stellar-wind/

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- sparkyrules
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:58pm
  And who said that the 2nd Amendment only applies to hunting,sports,and personal self defense? I could see a MOAB putting a stop to this CRAP in short order.
  
  Just sayin…..
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:03pm
  The second amendment had one purpose……..to protect the American people from a rouge Government…….such as we have now. Self protection, hunting and whatnot where secondary items.
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:05pm
  If you need a hug just ask, Wolvereens
  
  Report this comment
Polarized America
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:40pm
They can do it all they want, and they do. ..it only comes into question when they arrest you and take you to court ……………………….

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TJexcite
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:39pm
There is not enough people in the world to read all e-mails. The search bots computers are just not there yet. Ask Google something specific, you get a 8 year old page that has one word in the search. Unless which is unlikely the government search bots have better indexing than Google it will not mean much unless it is a deep targeted search.

Well if they do save all e-mails somewhere, I lost a joke picture of a tea party kettle and a kool-aid jug calling each other crazy I would like it back in my inbox.

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- 2MINUTESTOMIDNIGHT
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:44pm
  Take a look at the link I posted.
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:52pm
  We have these little devises call “SUPER COMPUTERS”
  
  Report this comment
- WarMunger_Al
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 10:09pm
  all they do is use a program to skim for key words. It only takes seconds to scan thousands of emails.
  
  Report this comment
resme
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:33pm
Do not email incriminating information :). Time to use notepads and USB sticks!

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- justangry
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:12pm
  I’m thinking pigeons.
  
  Report this comment
- resme
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:35pm
  Can a pigeon handle a predator missile?
  
  Report this comment
barber2
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:27pm
Remember all of the fuss after 9/11 over the fact that the various bureaus didn’t work together ? HELLO, Washington ! ? You idiots , due to partisanship, still leave the American public dangling in the wind. Shape up or ship out. The American people are sick of ALL of you. Including Obama’s KGB media. Hope the American media gets the same leash pull as the BBC. Sick of all of the political partisanship, bickering, and bullying which only benefits certain parties but which endangers the American people…who pay your stinking salaries.

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progressiveslayer
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:24pm
Don’t forget about that data collection center out west to ‘protect’ us,the DHS FBI CIA TSA and God knows how many more alphabet agencies are out there to ‘protect’ us. Drones overhead and that huge data collection center,yep we’ll be as safe as a bug in a rug. Total surveillance is here now.

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- 2MINUTESTOMIDNIGHT
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:29pm
  I assume you are talking about the new facility in western Utah. The amount of information that place will eventually store is absolutely unbelievable. Nothing, and I do mean nothing, is private anymore. Big Brother knows, and stores, everything.
  
  Report this comment
- 2MINUTESTOMIDNIGHT
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:34pm
  Take a look here:
  
  http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=22705217
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:37pm
  There already scrutinizing your posts……….
  
  Report this comment
- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:44pm
  STELEX I know I just don’t care.
  
  Report this comment
- Steelhead
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:53pm
  you should care slave ,it’s the anti-social animals like you that will be harvested first
  
  Report this comment
- Stelex
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:53pm
  Me neither Progressiveslayer……look at my later post.
  
  Report this comment
- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 9:06pm
  LEADHEAD You almost hurt my feelings but since you’re an idiot it didn’t work. It is you who will be ‘harvested’ you and millions of other parasites who won’t survive and that’s the silver lining,no more of you cockroaches to feed off of us normal citizens.
  
  Report this comment
- donkeykong
  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 11:34pm
  Steelhead-
  Your use of the word ‘harvest’ harkens me back to
  a very old movie – “soylent green”, a futuristic vision
  of an overcrowded planet. When one reached a certain
  age, they just went to a ‘processing plant’ to be turned
  into food for the younger people left. Think of it – what
  better way to have Social Security become solvent,
  in fact money is taken in and never paid out, because
  nobody is allowed to reach the collection age. The
  government takes it all. Far fetched ? Remember Nazi
  Germany.
  
  Report this comment
justangry
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:19pm
I pretty much assumed they were already reading it. Sick SOBs rob us to buy equipment and facilities to spy on us and to pay for halfwit steroid ridden adrenaline junkies to oppress us and no one bats an eye. Remarkable.

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- Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
  Posted on November 13, 2012 at 8:18am
  Couldn’t say it better.
  
  What a disgrace we’ve become. I’m pretty sure our founders from 200+ years ago wouldn’t recognize us and our lack of courage. Heck, even the confederacy had the backbone to stand up for what they believed. The 20th century marshaled in the era of sheep.
  
  Report this comment
KevINtampa
Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:13pm
Bottom line the old axiom is still true; if you don’t want someone to know something never write it down.

It used to be a guard against nosy neighbors, now it’s to protect your privacy from things like the “temporary 2 years and it expires but it’s still around 10 years later” Patriot Act.

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