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FBI Uses More National Security Letters, Obama Admin. Won't Appeal Limits On Gag Orders

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Wed May 20, 2009 at 08:11:00 AM EST
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The FBI substantially increased its reliance on national security letters last year.

FISA-court authorizations for national security and counter-terrorism wiretaps dropped last year by almost 300, a new Justice Department report to Congress shows. But the FBI’s use of “national security letters” to get information on Americans without a court order increased dramatically, from 16,804 in 2007 to 24,744 in 2008.

National security letters permit the government to demand records from banks, telephone companies, internet service providers, and other businesses without seeking court approval. [more ...]

The issuance of national security letters slowed in 2007 as reports of widespread abuses surfaced. The FBI picked up the pace last year despite uncertainty about the effectiveness of the FBI's corrective actions.

This is still much lower than the number of NSLs issued in 2006 — more than 49,000 — but indicates that the FBI’s reliance on the self-authorized subpoenas is rebounding, after audits in 2006 and 2007 revealed the bureau had been abusing the tool.

The Patriot Act permits the FBI to order the recipient of a national security letter not to reveal the request or the disclosure. That meant the FBI could grab your bank records and prohibit your bank from telling you about it, again without asking a judge for approval.

In a happy development, the Obama administration opted not to seek Supreme Court review of an appellate decision that requires such a "gag order" to be approved by a judge. The decision requires the government to meet a standard that is more sensitive to the First Amendment than the Patriot Act's standard.

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    FBI Uses More National Security Letters, Obama Admin. Won't Appeal Limits On Gag Orders | 8 comments (8 topical)

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    Wow (none / 0) (#1)
    by NMvoiceofreason on Wed May 20, 2009 at 07:27:49 AM EST
    A one third increase in terrorists in America under Obama's watch! Alert Fox News!

    Under Obama's watch? (none / 0) (#2)
    by sj on Wed May 20, 2009 at 10:23:00 AM EST
    That was 2008.  As I recall, O was not inaugurated until 2009.

    Parent
    Since when (none / 0) (#5)
    by NMvoiceofreason on Wed May 20, 2009 at 01:27:17 PM EST
    ...do the facts stop Fox News?

    Parent
    So-called "national security letters" (none / 0) (#3)
    by Peter G on Wed May 20, 2009 at 12:27:14 PM EST
    under the so-called PATRIOT Act also include, for example, FBI administrative subpoenas to telecommunications companies to obtain subscriber info for an IP address -- and other more intrusive and revealing information -- that may be sought in relation to a computer fraud or kiddie p*rn investigation, for example.  By no means is this new authority limited to terrorism case.  There is a change of subject between the first and second sentences of the "Threat Level" item that you quoted, from FISA wiretap requests (which have to be foreign intelligence related) to NSLs (which don't).

    I'm with you... (none / 0) (#4)
    by of1000Kings on Wed May 20, 2009 at 01:19:45 PM EST
    this are definitely used for things other than terrorism...

    which doesn't seem legal to me...

    if it's not about national security then how could it fall under Patriot Act?

    I mean, I think they're using these things to get IP addresses (as you mentioned) without having to go to a court system...IP addresses probably for child porn cases as well as little things like downloading movies or software (ya, that is a threat to national security, those damn college students)...

    if this really is the case, then we aren't far from a police state (if we aren't already there)...
    and most of the dems just sat there and let it happen...

    be nice if a larger percentage of politicians actually worked for the people

    Parent

    The PATRIOT Act (none / 0) (#7)
    by Peter G on Wed May 20, 2009 at 05:21:01 PM EST
    ... was sold to Congress as being essential for national security, but a great many of its provisions are just a grab-bag of goodies expanding government powers generally, and many of these had previously been rejected by Congress when presented in earlier years without the hysterical "emergency" trappings.  Loaded into a single bill that was hundreds of pages long, passed through Congress in a couple of weeks in October 2001, and hardly read (much less understood) by any Member, it passed with fewer No votes (D or R) than you can count on the fingers of one hand.  Although it was pushed as a national security bill, in fact many of the provisions, including the so-called National Security Letters, have no such limitation written into the legislative language.

    Parent
    sick isn't it? (none / 0) (#8)
    by of1000Kings on Wed May 20, 2009 at 06:42:54 PM EST
    but the general population just doesn't care...

    'warts and all' I guess, right?

    Parent

    Going to get technical (none / 0) (#6)
    by joze46 on Wed May 20, 2009 at 02:23:49 PM EST
    After skimming the article about the FBI one could draw a conclusion as to the accuracy of this agency, and that's just besides the CIA. In the link to the article a mention to reduce errors in statistics for the FBI is happening right now. It reads "has reduced errors in compiling" data. Sheesh. Now this comes out and nothing on mainstream media, only Pelosi, Pelosi, Pelosi, Lied, Lied, Lied, but the FBI could claim adjustments under the media radar bias. Cool as a Moose, or as Keith Olberman would say "WTF". Or, would say close to Palin-tology politics. Yikes.

    What an admission all the while this CIA stuff is going on. This really gave me a chuckle while thinking about that one Journalist, Jeralyn talked about and referred to as "Bell curve Sully". That term is a riot. I just laugh every time I think about it. My own personal crusade has been in motion for a while dwelling in the mathematical origins of the Bell Curve. You must consider Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss contributed a whole lot to this bell curve stuff after using it to study making estimates in Astrology. Now you wonder why one can get spaced out in the twilight zone after introducing some statistics. Chuckle chuckle....

    Please if we are basing some local error data on a metric that Gauss used and referred to as a model two centuries ago, mapping it out on a two dimensional paper, all unrelated to the physical metrics we use here on earth its no wonder one could find themselves looking at some saddle point, mounting up at some gas space charge light years away and equates it to today's productivity. Or could we say this always was that Yahoo-ooo, Nazi relation of the Bush Co.

    FBI Uses More National Security Letters, Obama Admin. Won't Appeal Limits On Gag Orders | 8 comments (8 topical)

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