FBI: Improper Tactics Used In Terror Probe

Director Tells Senate The Bureau Used National Security Letters To Obtain Personal Data

(AP)  The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies.

The breach occurred before the FBI enacted broad new reforms in March 2007 to prevent future lapses, FBI Director Robert Mueller said. And it was caused, in part, by banks, telecommunication companies and other private businesses giving the FBI more personal client data than was requested.

Testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Mueller raised the issue of the FBI's controversial use of so-called national security letters in reference to an upcoming report on the topic by the Justice Department's inspector general.

An audit by the inspector general last year found the FBI demanded personal records without official authorization or otherwise collected more data than allowed in dozens of cases between 2003 and 2005. Additionally, last year's audit found that the FBI had underreported to Congress how many national security letters were requested by more than 4,600.

The new audit, which examines use of national security letters issued in 2006, "will identify issues similar to those in the report issued last March," Mueller told senators. The privacy abuse "predates the reforms we now have in place," he said.

"We are committed to ensuring that we not only get this right, but maintain the vital trust of the American people," Mueller said. He offered no additional details about the upcoming audit.

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.

Last year's audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, 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. Fine's latest report is expected to be released as early as next week.

Several Justice Department and FBI officials familiar with the upcoming 2006 findings have said privately the new audit will show national security letters were used incorrectly at a similar rate as during the previous three years.

The number of national security letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot Act became law in 2001, according to last year's report. Fine's annual review is required by Congress, over the objections of the Bush administration.

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.

In contrast to the strong concerns expressed by Congress and civil liberties groups after last year's inspector general's report was issued, Mueller's disclosure drew no criticism from senators during just over two hours of testimony Wednesday.

Speaking before the FBI chief, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., urged Mueller to be more vigilant in correcting what he called "widespread illegal and improper use of national security letters."

"Everybody wants to stop terrorists. But we also, though, as Americans, we believe in our privacy rights and we want those protected," Leahy said. "There has to be a better chain of command for this. You cannot just have an FBI agent who decides he'd like to obtain Americans' records, bank records or anything else and do it just because they want to."

Following last year's audit, the Justice Department enacted guidelines that sternly reminded FBI agents to carefully follow the rules governing national security letters. The new rules caution agents to review all data before it is transferred into FBI databases to make sure that only the information specifically requested is used.

Fine's upcoming report also credits the FBI with putting the additional checks in place to make sure privacy rights aren't violated, according to a Justice official familiar with its findings.

Critics seized on Mueller's testimony as proof that a judge should sign off on the national security letters before they are issued.

"The credibility factor shows there needs to be outside oversight," said former FBI agent Michael German, now a national security adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union. He also cast doubt on the FBI's reforms.

"There were guidelines before, and there were laws before, and the FBI violated those laws," German said. "And the idea that new guidelines would make a difference, I think cuts against rationality."

[liberalme]

Article on Dept of Homeland Security--unmet goals

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23494846

[leftyintexas]

How much proof does Congress need before it acts to stop the the problem of Bush & Friends spying on us? Report after report of privacy abuses and yet Congress cannot act for us. Congress needs to peek in it''''s shorts and find a pair. If not, Congress needs replaced. More Bushit from our government.

I am growing more and more tired of Congress giving in to Bush & Friends. DO SOMETHING BESIDES CAVING IN

Posted by jjp735i at 08:17 AM : Mar 06, 2008

Excellent posting! I totally agree. The Democrats in congress have not been doing their jobs. They are much too accomodating to those chimps in the Republicon party. bush and cheney should have been impreached after 9-11 occurred on their watch.

[jwind11]

Good Point - and if you want more of the McSAME - give your vote to Johnny McCain!


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Posted by watcher269 at 07:57 AM : Mar 06, 2008

and you are how old?

[gkc99]

"The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans'' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies. "


But it all stopped in 2007--right? Riiiggght!!!~

[jjp735i]

How much proof does Congress need before it acts to stop the the problem of Bush & Friends spying on us? Report after report of privacy abuses and yet Congress cannot act for us. Congress needs to peek in it''s shorts and find a pair. If not, Congress needs replaced. More Bushit from our government.

I am growing more and more tired of Congress giving in to Bush & Friends. DO SOMETHING BESIDES CAVING IN

[watcher269-2009]

It is so easy to obtain legal access to private information that the question is why are illegal means used.

Posted by johngoodnews
------------------------

Good Point - and if you want more of the McSAME - give your vote to Johnny McCain!

[johngoodnews]

It is so easy to obtain legal access to private information that the question is why are illegal means used.

[bobnjersey]

[The FBI is trying to protect us and idiots are hung up on "guidelines"? Pity.]
[Posted by Luigi999 at 01:12 AM : Mar 06, 2008]

they don''t really manage their organization very well ... pretty much all the way around. you think they''re going to be better w/o any guidelines?

they can''t even spend money that wiseley.

"There were problems we did not anticipate," Mueller said about the new computer software yesterday

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7846-2005Jan13.html

[bobnjersey]

[What I really want to know is were these things done against what regular Americans like me call real terrorists,.....or some kind of "new" PC definition of what a terrorist is ... Hope that ain''''t the case!]
[Posted by cfin5 at 12:13 AM : Mar 06, 2008]

history has all the answers. what does history tell you?

[woodjd42]

I can not understand why both the left and the right think it is alright for them to spy but not the other. It is not right for either! If the people of this country don''t wake up and quit giving up our constutional right in the name of protecting us from the terrorists, well then the terrorists have won. If we are not free then we might as well be dead.
bush/chaney aren''t interested in keeping us safe and I doubt that clinton was either. We need a goverment that works for the people and does not tell us what is in our best interest so as to further their agenda.

[brianbwb-2009]

"...One has to assume that spying on Republicans is okay, but heaven help us if we spy on a terrorist..." Posted by vistavermin1

The Republicans (and many sympathetic Democrats)ARE the terrorists.

[luigi999-2009]

Guidelines? Explain "guidelines" to terrorists. The FBI is trying to protect us and idiots are hung up on "guidelines"? Pity.

[cfin5]

Sounds like the FBI''s attitude is right. What I really want to know is were these things done against what regular Americans like me call real terrorists,.....or some kind of "new" PC definition of what a terrorist is. I mean, from the things I read it sometimes it sounds like they''d do that to George Washington, John Locke, etc.....Hope that ain''t the case!

[ajayvee]

I am surprised he did not plead extenuating circumstances like how many terrrrrorist acts were foiled and how many lives were saved by the illegally obtained information. I thought that was the latest Bushy spin to every illegal act. And when one publicly states that he has broken a law, shouldn''t some law enforcing agency step up to the plate and press charges? If I admitted publicly that I deliberately spitted on the sidewalk I would be in jail in a heartbeat.

[wogerwabbit]

There is no reason they can''t spy legally... the constraints are nominal and after the fact... they don''t have to get permission to start it, just to continue it. So I ask myself, why doesn''t this administration want any scrutiny of their actions at all? The I think, could their spying be on political enemies as well as suspected terrorists? If they''re going after terrorists, what''s the big deal about getting a warrent after the servellience has already begun? It sounds like a no brainer to me. What are they hiding? Why are there so many question marks in this post?

[downsteamjim]

I don''t remeber any of this outrage when the Clintons'' were passing around FBI files on Republicans. One has to assume that spying on Republicans is okay, but heaven help us if we spy on a terrorist.

[ioweign]

The FBI acknowledged Wednesday it improperly accessed Americans'' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006, the fourth straight year of privacy abuses resulting from investigations aimed at tracking terrorists and spies.


And Bush is pushing for "immunity" for the telecos...

[bozworth4]

They do it because they can. No charges, no fear, no Constitution, King George II has wiped his hands with our Constitution. Probably other places also. Next will be martial law and disallow any resemblence of an election. After all the USA only recognizes elections we agree with. Hang on America help is on the way. (for a price)

[ryeder1]

The FBI calling CIA procedures "improper" is, for lack of a better word, obtuse. Remember Waco and Ruby Ridge?

[excoachken]

In this administration, even the cops are crooks!