SNOOPS AT THE FBI have admitted they repeatedly break their own rules about spying on the internet.

For the fourth year running, FBI director Robert Mueller said the agency reguilarly goes beyond its legal limits to collect information on people's emails and web wibbling.

In an interesting twist, Mueller tried to claim that this wasn't really the FBI's fault. The telcoms companies the snoops roped in on the cunning plan kept providing "too much information", he said.

"We are committed to ensuring that we not only get this right, but maintain the vital trust of the American people," he said.

And in Blighty we know how to smell a rat when a politician says "the American people."

Senate Judiciary chairman Patrick Leahy has a right moan about the state of affairs: "There has to be a better chain of command for this. You cannot just have an FBI agent who decides he'd like to obtain Americans' records, bank records or anything else and do it just because they want to."

"Everybody wants to stop terrorists. But Americans believe in our privacy rights and we want those protected," he said.

Too late mate. There's no such thing any more. µ