[Libs-Or] Fwd: [ALA-WO:378] Investigations into the FBI's NSLs Abuses Continue

Fri Mar 23 10:44:26 PST 2007

FYI   

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Subject: [ALA-WO:378] Investigations into the FBI's NSLs Abuses Continue
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:37:46 -0400
From: "ALAWASH E-MAIL" <ALAWASH at alawash.org>
To: ALA Washington Office Newsline <ala-wo at ala.org>

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American Library Association
Washington Office Newsline

ALAWON
Volume 16, Number 035
March 23, 2007

________________________________

Investigations into the FBI's NSLs Abuses Continue

________________________________

As widely reported, hearings began this week in the House and Senate
Judiciary Committees on the numerous violations of policy and potential
violations of law in the FBI's distribution and enforcement of National
Security Letters (NSLs), as reported by the Office of the Inspector
General (IG). Investigations will continue and a hearing has been
scheduled in the Senate with FBI Director Robert Mueller next week and
with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in April.

While the ALA fully supports the efforts of law enforcement in
legitimate investigations, those efforts must be balanced against the
right to privacy. These findings confirm many of ALA's most repeatedly
stated concerns about the lack of oversight into the FBI's surveillance
activities, resulting in repeated intrusions into the lives of innocent
Americans.

As part of this investigation, the ALA has contacted Members' offices to
discuss our position and propose questions for these and future hearings
concerning the number and nature of NSLs that have been served to
libraries/bookstores. In addition, while the ALA thanks Congress for
doing its Constitutional duty by beginning an investigation into this
matter, it further calls upon Congress to tighten language in the USA
PATRIOT Act to minimize these sorts of privacy violations and to provide
thorough, ongoing oversight into the FBI's surveillance activities. 

Hearing witnesses included Valerie Caproni, General Counsel of the FBI,
and Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General. Testimony, and opening statements
are available from the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Judiciary
Committee.

Members on both sides were highly upset and continually repeated that
even though these abuses were reported as "unintentional," there was
clearly a pattern of abuse and a major violation of trust. 

*	Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) a supporter of NSLs, stated during the
hearing this was a "gross overreach" and "let this be a warning to the
FBI."

*	Rep. Lungren (R-CA), a longtime supporter of the FBI, commented
that the IG's report referring to mistakes, sloppiness, lack of
training, sounds more like a "report on a first-grader," and this must
be fixed or "terrorists will succeed indirectly by destroying our
Constitution."

*	Sen. Leahy (D-VT) remarked during the Senate's hearing "I wonder
if there were any grown-ups round here." Referring to the fact that
someone approved and signed off on letters knowing they were being
issued inappropriately.

NSLs enable the FBI to collect private information about people who are
not reasonably suspected of being in involved in terrorism, and it
retains information indefinitely. From 2003 to 2005, the FBI issued
140,000 NSL requests. These requests have greatly increased from 2000,
when there were only 8,500 NSL requests. Congress broadened the use of
NSLs in the PATRIOT Act in regard to the legality of seeking information
with no judicial review and reduced the standards for obtaining
information to records that are deemed "relevant" to an investigation.

In the worst cases, according to the IG's report, the FBI went around
NSL statutes (using over 700 of what is being referred to as "exigent"
letters) and contracted directly with telephone companies to access
information illegally-when no authorizing investigation was open, no
NSLs or subpoenas had been requested, and when no emergency situation
existed.

Since the FBI agent does not need to get approval from a judge,
prosecutor, or grand jury, and since the recipient is permanently
"gagged" from telling its customers or anyone else about the
government's request, citizens never know that their personal
information has been disclosed to the government. 

In May 2006, recipients of an NSL -- a nonprofit consortium of 27 public
and academic libraries in central Connecticut known as the Library
Connection -- were finally allowed to speak publicly after lawyers
representing the government withdrew an appeal to keep their identities
hidden after Federal District Court Judge Janet C. Hall declared the
perpetual gag order that accompanies NSLs unconstitutional.

This is just one example of libraries being subject to NSLs, and notably
came not long after the FBI claimed not to have ever invoked Section 215
of the PATRIOT Act (the section on business records, including access to
library records). The recent findings by the Inspector General
demonstrate that not only was the FBI misleading citizens then, it's
been misleading them all along.

________________________________

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