Think they need a warrant? Think again


Under current law, the FBI doesn't need a judge to make your life a living hell. And you are not allowed to tell anyone.
Barton Gellman at the Washington Post tells it like it is.

The Connecticut case affords a rare glimpse of an exponentially growing practice of domestic surveillance under the USA Patriot Act, which marked its fourth anniversary on Oct. 26. "National security letters," created in the 1970s for espionage and terrorism investigations, originated as narrow exceptions in consumer privacy law, enabling the FBI to review in secret the customer records of suspected foreign agents. The Patriot Act, and Bush administration guidelines for its use, transformed those letters by permitting clandestine scrutiny of U.S. residents and visitors who are not alleged to be terrorists or spies.

The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. The letters -- one of which can be used to sweep up the records of many people -- are extending the bureau's reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans.

Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress. The executive branch maintains only statistics, which are incomplete and confined to classified reports. The Bush administration defeated legislation and a lawsuit to require a public accounting, and has offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot.

My one objection to this article is that while it mentions that the number of National Security Letters has risen, it makes no mention of some of the abuses caused by previous administrations.

The initial law predates the Bush Administration by a couple of decades. The potential for disaster was already there.

And remember, if you are unlucky enough to get one of those letters, you are forbidden by law from telling anyone ever.

Hat tip to Wren's Nest.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - November 7, 2005 at 05:41 AM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved