According to the NY Times:
A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal report of the 2006 episode.
FBI Unauthorized E-Mail Access
I haven't seen this published today. Sorry the diary is so short. This is horrendous, however and I wanted to bring it to DailyKos' attention in the midst of the primary bickering and the search for GBCW's identity.
The article goes on to say:
F.B.I. officials blamed an "apparent miscommunication" with the unnamed Internet provider, which mistakenly turned over all the e-mail from a small e-mail domain for which it served as host. The records were ultimately destroyed, officials said.
Bureau officials noticed a "surge" in the e-mail activity they were monitoring and realized that the provider had mistakenly set its filtering equipment to trap far more data than a judge had actually authorized.
Yes, yes...I'm sure we will be told that the public is "not in danger" and that the FBI has done nothing untoward with the information. I guess it's good that the Senate had it's hands filled with emergency that was the Bellichik situation and the House had Clemens to deal with.
Hopefully, this will add fuel to the FISA fire that has been growing in the House. Maybe this will be alloy for the Senate spine implants that are so badly needed. Maybe this will also turn some heads on the question of immunity.
(edit...I've added the dreaded "breaking"...not because I want attention but because the story does...AND it's our country that is being "broken.")