posted on March 8, 2007 11:45:57 PM
FBI Criticized for Patriot Act Use
Updated 12:59 AM ET March 9, 2007
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
WASHINGTON (AP) - An internal Justice Department report accuses the FBI of underreporting its use of the Patriot Act to force telecommunications and financial firms to turn over customer information in suspected terrorism cases, according to officials familiar with its findings.
Shoddy bookkeeping and records management led to the problems, said one government official familiar with the report. The official said FBI agents appeared to be overwhelmed by the volume of demands for information over a two-year period.
"They lost track," said the official who like others interviewed late Thursday spoke on condition of anonymity because the report had not been released.
The errors are outlined by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine in an audit to be released on Friday. The audit requirement was added to the Patriot Act by Congress over the objections of the Bush administration.
The FBI reported to Congress in 2005 that its agents had delivered a total of 9,254 national security letters seeking e-mail, telephone or financial information on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents over the previous two years. That was the first year the Bush administration publicly disclosed how often it uses national security letters to obtain records. The numbers from previous years have been classified.
Fine's report, according to officials, says the numbers of national security letters, or NSLs, between 2003 and 2005 were underreported by 20 percent.
It was unclear late Thursday whether the omissions could be considered a criminal offense. One government official who read the report said it concluded the problems appeared to be unintentional and that FBI agents would probably face administrative sanctions instead of criminal charges.
The FBI has taken steps to correct some of the problems, the official said.
The Justice Department, already facing congressional criticism over its firing of eight U.S. attorneys, began notifying lawmakers of the audit's damning contents late Thursday. Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "commends the work of the inspector general in uncovering serious problems in the FBI's use of NSLs."
Gonzales has told FBI Director Robert S. Mueller "that these past mistakes will not be tolerated," Scolinos said in a statement early Friday. The attorney general also "has ordered the FBI and the department to restore accountability and to put in place safeguards to ensure greater oversight and controls over the use of national security letters," she said.
Mueller was to brief reporters on the audit Friday morning, and Gonzales was expected to answer questions about it at a privacy rights event in Washington several hours later.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees the FBI, called the reported findings "a profoundly disturbing breach of public trust."
"Somebody has a lot of explaining to do," said Schumer, D-N.Y.
Fine's audit also says the FBI failed to send follow-up subpoenas to telecommunications firms that were told to expect them, the officials said.
Those cases involved so-called exigent letters to alert the firms that subpoenas would be issued shortly to gather more information, the officials said. But in many examples, the subpoenas were never sent, the officials said.
The FBI has since caught up with those omissions, either with national security letters or subpoenas, one official said.
National security letters have been the subject of legal battles in two federal courts because recipients were barred from telling anyone about them.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Bush administration over what the watchdog group described as the security letter's gag on free speech.
Last May, a federal appeals judge in New York warned that government's ability to force companies to turn over information about its customers and keep quiet about it was probably unconstitutional.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
posted on March 9, 2007 11:23:57 AM
Heres's something you will never hear from a demo appointee.
Mueller: 'I Am the Person Responsible' For FBI Privacy Lapses
Friday , March 09, 2007
WASHINGTON —
FBI Director Robert Mueller took responsibility Friday for problems over how the FBI used so-called national security letters to obtain sensitive information during terrorism investigations.
"I am the person responsible. I am the person accountable," Mueller told reporters during a news conference.
Mueller said he stood behind the audit, released to Congress by the Justice Department, which says the FBI improperly used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States.
He said he has begun taking measures to correct some of the problems cited. He also said, however, that the national security letters are important parts of terror investigations.
• Click here to view the report (.pdf).
A national security letter allows the FBI to obtain information on individuals from telephone companies, internet service providers, financial institutions and consumer credit companies. The Patriot Act allows FBI field office chiefs to sign off on the letters — primarily used for terror investigations — instead of going through usual channels such as getting a judge's signature or a grand jury subpoena.
The FBI chief also said he should have provided better training and education to employees over how to handle national security letters, but said "I did not."
And, "I should have introduced internal controls and additional levels of review," which he also said he failed to do.
Mueller noted that none of the findings "constituted criminal conduct," and said that the report also was a positive result of good congressional oversight.
"This process, as it should be, is a way to ensure appropriate oversight into the way in how we use this critical tool," Mueller said.
The report brought harsh criticism from members of Congress, who said the agency's activity is indicative of a department that has overstepped its boundaries in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, giving up personal civil liberties in the name of terror prosecution.
Lawmakers on Friday began calling for higher levels of oversight and lashed out -- on both sides of the aisle -- at Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
"I am very concerned that the FBI has so badly misused national security letters," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees the FBI.
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., another member on the judiciary panel, said the report "proves that 'trust us' doesn't cut it."
"The law is the law and Attorney General Gonzalez has a responsibility to ensure that the law is enforced efficiently and effectively. It is also paramount that if the Justice Department is going to enforce the law, it must follow it as well. With regards to National Security Letters, there was a major failure by Justice to uphold the law," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., in a statement released by his office. Hoekstra is the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
The report said that for three years the FBI has underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.
FBI agents sometimes demanded the data without proper authorization, according to the 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. At other times, the audit found, the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.
The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct.
Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concludes.
At issue are the security letters, a power outlined in the Patriot Act that the Bush administration pushed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The letters, or administrative subpoenas, are 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.
About three-fourths of the national security letters were issued for counterterror cases, and the other fourth for spy investigations.
Mueller earlier called Fine's audit "a fair and objective review of the FBI's use of a proven and useful investigative tool."
Fine's annual review is required by Congress, over the objections of the Bush administration.
The audit released Friday found that the number of national security letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot Act became law.
In 2000, for example, the FBI issued an estimated 8,500 letters. By 2003, however, that number jumped to 39,000. It rose again the next year, to about 56,000 letters in 2004, and dropped to approximately 47,000 in 2005.
Over the entire three-year period, the audit found the FBI issued 143,074 national security letters requesting customer data from businesses.
The FBI vastly underreported the numbers. In 2005, the FBI told Congress that its agents in 2003 and 2004 had delivered only 9,254 national security letters seeking e-mail, telephone or financial information on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents over the previous two years.
Additionally, the audit found, the FBI identified 26 possible violations in its use of the national security letters, including failing to get proper authorization, making improper requests under the law and unauthorized collection of telephone or Internet e-mail records.
Of the violations, 22 were caused by FBI errors, while the other four were the result of mistakes made by the firms that received the letters.
The FBI also used so-called "exigent letters," signed by officials at FBI headquarters who were not authorized to sign national security letters, to obtain information. In at least 700 cases, these exigent letters were sent to three telephone companies to get toll billing records and subscriber information.
"In many cases, there was no pending investigation associated with the request at the time the exigent letters were sent," the audit concluded.
The letters inaccurately said the FBI had requested subpoenas for the information requested — "when, in fact, it had not," the audit found.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.George S. Patton
posted on March 10, 2007 01:24:36 PM
Imo, there is always someone/many who will criticize what others do.
None more than the liberals. IF something's actually WORKING...they're against it.
I fully support how the PA is being used. Both the CIA and the FBI, imo, are doing what they need to do in order to stop terrorism. Whether it be here, on our land, or abroad.
What the liberals refuse to acknowledge, while they worry and support the 'rights' of terrorists....is that IT'S WORKING. It has prevented any more attacks on our soil.
THAT makes what they're doing okay with me.
The dems/liberals want to support the rights of those whose STATED goal is to destroy us....and they'll be the ones that let that happen if at all possible.
"While the democratic party complains about everything THIS President does to protect our Nation": "What would a Democrat president have done at that point?"
"Apparently, the answer is: Sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack."
posted on March 10, 2007 01:30:08 PM
""The dems/liberals want to support the rights of those whose STATED goal is to destroy us....and they'll be the ones that let that happen if at all possible. """
I see the Fascist is back.....no, linduh, we want OUR rights supported,,,the rights of AMERICANS to not have the government BREAKING THE LAW and spying on us.....
Sad that you're all for breaking the law....but then that's a neocon for ya!
posted on March 12, 2007 01:15:08 PM
mingotree
posted on March 10, 2007 01:54:13 PM Might be hard for bushit to handle, too...
"""Living within those limits, however, might have been easier for Bush to endure than the controversy the firings have now embroiled him in."""
Can't ignore my threads can ya, linduh, you little stalker you"
"So that's why you ignored my threads ??!!!"
See this Linda-when ignore her threads,shes gets all pissy, then when you answer her threads,she claims you're a stalker-you can't make this sh*t up ROFLMAO-HEY CROWFART,WHATEVER YOU'RE ON, PASS SOME OVER THIS WAY....
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If you dont want to hear the truth....dont ask the question.
