Operation Whistle Pig: Inside the secret CBP unit with no rules

I think a key quote from the CBP agent is:

> “When a name comes across your desk you run it through every system you have access to, that's just status quo, that's what everyone does,” Rambo told investigators.

I suspect this to be generally true from the lowest local law enforcement officers to the highest levels of intelligence officers. And it is a major concern of having systems like PRISM available for use -- I generally don't see purely paperwork/purely legal process protections like "oh it requires a warrant" actually preventing LEO's from using these systems.

Something like Google's or Facebook's (current-day) systems which make it impossible for individual employees to search through private information might be more appropriate, but I generally wouldn't trust implementations of these in the government.

There is so much irony in this story, it makes my head want to pop. Guy exploits lack of policies and procedures to run a journalist through databases to uncover her sources - so the big, faceless machine gets to scour her and everyone in her life, and she has no recourse - nothing protects her from the faceless machine, it seems to run itself, and it turns up her life by hiding behind that there are no "written policies and procedures"...

Then he launches a coffee shop, and someone puts up posters that he's a fed and tried to blackmail a journalist, so he turns to the faceless machine there locally...and is alarmed to find himself as powerless as the journalist was to get them to investigate who is putting up the pictures, and that he has no recourse, even though in another case he was working the gears. He tries to hide behind that he was cleared by the same people who avoided writing policies and procedures specifically so they could do what they wanted, and for some odd reason in a heavily Latino area the local populace doesn't really buy his telling of events and consequences - almost like they disagree with the operation of the faceless machine, and have been bitten by it's gears for a long time and don't trust it.

Just... Cosmic.

> That afternoon, Rambo reached out to Watkins using the address jackbentleyesq@gmail.com, which he later described as an “off network” account sanctioned by the Counter Network Division.

That is actually a felony under many state laws, and could be a crime under federal law too.

> Even several years later, Rambo is still furious at the bar for giving Watkins his credit card receipt. “Who owns that place? They gave her my personal information,” he fumed.

That's my favorite part.

No idea what CBP is and the first few paragraphs gave no clue. Is it a widely known TLA? Did I miss a memo?

Does anyone know of an article that sticks to the relevant facts? (Without burning pages and pages on speak easies, gap teeth, sexual intrigue, etc.)