amazing challenge. they lead counterterrorism investigative force in the united states, they are resource-hampered, they have a lot of things on their plate every single day. the question as to whether or not you need to have a file opened up every time there s an assessment, remember, if there s a preliminary investigation, full file open, the question again becomes how much of the oversight is needed in this case. what is important to note is that these are rules in the fbi s own operations. it has nothing to do with the constitutional protections, statutory or legal protections that you have. martha: so you don t see this as an invasion. give me a what if. give me an example where an agent, michael, then mike german, how you think the changes would be advantageous, let s talk about the worst case scenario, catching and stopping a terrorist, how does this help our agent? often times from my experience in new york, there are thousands of leads that you ve got to follow up, so time i
engineerman, a former agent and attorney for the afl-cio for the aclu. what s your take on these charges, are they indeed changes in your opinion and how do they change our lives? they are changes and they do expand the fbi s authority. in 2008, the attorney general modified the existing guidelines, creating a category of investigation called assessment that allows the fbi to conduct using very intrusive tools investigations of people, even where there is no tpablgual basis to believe someone is doing something wrong. the new guide would say even without opening an assessment fbi could search commercial databases, including subscription service databases an law enforcement databases, without even opening an investigation. martha: michael, you say you don t believe these are changes and in some ways, there are adjustments made to the changing times.
martha: all right trace, thank you very much. trace gallagher with that report for us today. and there are some brand new powers for the fbi and critics are saying it could put your privacy in general tkefplt it impacts about 14,000 fbi agents, giving them more leeway to investigate organizations or individuals. it does not require strong evidence of criminal behavior. agents also get more flexibility to search data cases bases but the tib says it is not expanding any of its authority, that it is just khraeufrfy clarifying the existing domestic investigations and operation guide. that is the word we are getting now from the fbi, and from the general counsel, we just had this coming in, saying each proposed change has been carefully looked and at considered against the backdrop of the tools our agents need. let s bring in our great panel, michael balboni, former adviser to president obama and michael