N.S.L. Abuses Continue

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,3...

"DoJ Report Will Show Improper FBI Use of 'National Security' Letters, FBI Chief Robert Mueller Says Wednesday, March 05, 2008 WASHINGTON —

The FBI improperly used national security letters in 2006 to obtain personal data on Americans during terror and spy investigations, Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday." ....

"The report is a follow-up to an audit by the inspector general a year ago that found the FBI demanded personal data on people from banks, telephone and Internet providers and credit bureaus without official authorization and in non-emergency circumstances between 2003 and 2005."

 ....

"Several other Justice Department and FBI officials familiar with this year's findings have said privately the upcoming report will show the letters were wrongly used at a similar rate as during the previous three years. In contrast to the outrage by Congress and civil liberties groups after last year's report was issued, Mueller's disclosure drew no criticism from senators during just over two hours of testimony during Wednesday's hearing."

 ....

"National security letters, as outlined in the USA Patriot Act, are administrative subpoenas used in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. They allow the FBI to require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records about their customers or subscribers without a judge's approval."

....

 "Former FBI agent Michael German, now a national security adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Mueller's admission that the bureau violated laws for the fourth year in a row underscores the need to have a judge sign off on the subpoenas. "The credibility factor shows there needs to be outside oversight," German said after the hearing. German also cast doubt on FBI reforms to prevent future abuses. "There were guidelines before, and there were laws before, and the FBI violated those laws," he said. "And the idea that new guidelines would make a difference, I think cuts against rationality."

 ...

 "Fine's earlier report, issued March 9, 2007, blamed agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct.

It uncovered thousands of examples of the FBI's failure to properly report the number of national security letters as required by law. The 2007 report also identified instances where agents did not get proper authorization or made otherwise improper requests for information from telephone companies and Internet service providers.

In 2005, for example, Fine's office found more than 1,000 violations within 19,000 FBI requests to obtain 47,000 records. Each letter issued may contain several requests." ================================

It is especially disturbing that these admissions were not met with the same sense of outrage on the floor of the senate as the initial ones were - especially if, as stated, the abuses are continuing in numbers equal to the original findings for the previous period under discussion. Do you care? If you do - are you doing anything about it? Pete

If you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to worry about, right? Our goverment can listen to any conversation I have on the phone or computer as I have nothing to hide - so I have nothing to fear except those who are willing to destroy us at any cost and use our very own laws to peotect thyem.

Let America protect American citizens, is what I say.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337450,00.html

"FBI Improperly Obtained Data on Americans, Justice Department Report Says

WASHINGTON —  The FBI used "improper" methods to obtain personal information on Americans involved in terrorism investigations in 2006, the Department of Justice's inspector general reported Thursday, but corrective actions are underway and should be measurable next year.

Fulfilling the prediction laid about by FBI Director Robert Mueller last week, Inspector General Glenn Fine reported that National Security Letters (NSLs), also referred to as administrative subpoenas, were issued 49,425 times in 2006, up by nearly 5 percent over the previous year. A statistical sampling of those NSLs showed that 9.43 percent violated federal laws on getting and using the information.

"The report identified various intelligence violations by the FBI in NSL usage in 2006, such as issuance of NSLs without proper authorization, improper requests and unauthorized collection of telephone or recordsInternet e-mail  due to FBI errors or mistakes made by the NSL recipients," reads an executive summary from Fine's office.

NSLs are issued by the FBI and other investigative organizations to entities such as banks and telephone companies, compelling them to provide certain information about a specific individual. They are issued in the course of criminal, financial, counter-terror or counter-intelligence investigations.

NSLs are to be kept secret by the person or organization to whom they have been issued, and someone revealing he or she is the recipient of an NSL can face prosecution.

A similar inspector general report last year covered calendar years 2003-2005, but the 2006 number of abuses was "significantly higher than the number of reported violations in prior years." The report noted that in 2006, FBI personnel self-reported 84 possible violations to headquarters. That compared to 48 violations found in Fine's initial audit.

The errors included issuing national security letters without proper authorization, improper requests and unauthorized collection of telephone or Internet e-mail records.

The report noted that the majority of violations were the fault of the FBI, but a fair number were also committed by the companies and individuals that responded to the letters. Fine said the problems were compounded because agents failed to recognize that the companies had turned over too much information and went ahead and used or loaded into bureau computers the inappropriately obtained information.

Since 2003, U.S. citizens and foreigners legally in this country have increasingly been the targets of the letters, rising from 39 percent of requests in 2003 to --> 60 <-- percent in 2006, Fine reported.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress last week that corrective actions have been implemented in the past year to make sure the FBI did not repeat the errors in issuing NSLs. Department officials say they believe the next report, covering 2007, will show marked improvement.

Among the 17 new recommendations offered by Fine to help the FBI's use and policing of the letters were added guidance and training for agents and regular monitoring of the handling of the letters.

Assistant FBI Director John Miller said new rules require that an attorney review the letters before they are sent, a new automated system was put in place to reduce errors and improve the accuracy of reports to Congress, and agents are getting more training about national security letters.

"We are committed to using them in ways that maximize their national security value while providing the highest level of privacy and protection of the civil liberties of those we are sworn to protect," Miller said.

Fine said the FBI and Justice Department had made significant progress in implementing revised procedures since last year but some measures still are not fully in use or tested. He reserved judgment on whether corrective actions under way will work.

"It is too early to tell whether these measures will eliminate fully the problems," he wrote in the 200-page report.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers acknowledged that "the FBI has taken important steps to repair" the problems but said, "I remain disappointed."

Conyers, D-Mitch., said his committee would question FBI Director Robert Mueller about the inspector general's report at a hearing next month.

Conyers' Republican counterpart, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, commended the FBI for its progress.

“I am pleased with the efforts of the FBI and the Department of Justice to ensure that Americans’ civil liberties are protected," Smith said. “Since last year’s report, the FBI has implemented additional levels of review ... These additional steps are helping the FBI protect the privacy of the American people without interfering with national security investigations."

Fine also commended the FBI for devoting "significant time, energy and resources to ensuring that its employees understand the seriousness of the FBI's shortcomings." He emphasized that "continual attention, vigilance and reinforcement by the FBI and the department" will be required.

But he did criticize one of the Justice Department's reform efforts — an August 2007 proposal by a working group under Justice's chief privacy officer to come up with a system to "label or tag NSL-derived information or to minimize the retention and dissemination of such information."

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"We're sorry."

"We'll do better."

But they'll fight to-the-death any minimization of "retention or dissemination" of all illegally/improperly/unnecessarily obtained information.

Just wonderful - especially considering the fact that they want even more un-bridled power in the wiretapping arena. Pete