This is assurance to the public that the law will be faithfully executed. They are assuring the public that the FBI is capable of investigating crimes even on the internet.
It would just be nice if they operated under the same judicial rules that they are enforcing. It seems like a large portion of US agencies (who enforce 'justice' in one way or another) these days feel like the same laws they are enforcing don't necessarily apply to them, especially when said law(s) limit their ability to do their job.
Or more simply put, exceptional circumstances have now become a rule rather than an exception.
I'm not sure if they did, "in this investigation".
I was commenting more on the general tone of US agencies, since the PATRIOT ACT, and their contradictions of what is breaking the law when it applies to them vs. whomever they are investigating.
Commenting more on the general tone of US agencies, since changing the law to specifically allow an expanded set of investigatory techniques, is them "breaking the law"? What?
You can argue they shouldn't have such authorities, but when the law explicitly gives them authority it's foolish to then claim they're breaking the law when using those same authorities.
It can still be breaking the law if they: a) exceed even the authority granted to them explicitly by the Patriot Act or b) the contents or interpretation of the Patriot Act violate the letter (and possibly the spirit/interpretation) of a higher law, namely the Constitution. IANAL so I don't know whether either of those are true, but is something that has been called into question (beyond the ethical or social-impact concerns over the laws and practices enabled by the act). I don't feel shutting down a black market is illegal (or unethical) unless the means to do so were illegal (or unethical). However, saying that US agencies violate the law more often after being given more powers within the law is not necessarily a self-contradictory or strange notion.
It's possible to be skeptical of the government and government agencies while at the same time thinking that the arrest of (alleged) drug traffickers is a good thing.
