Journal nizo's Journal: And so it begins: Justice Dept.: FBI misused Patriot Act 4
File this in the "Gee whiz, what a surprise" department:
From this article which everyone should go read now (bits and parts below):
Justice Dept.: FBI misused Patriot Act
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The
FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.
The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also 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.
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 FBI reported issuing 143,074 national security letters requesting customer data from businesses, the audit found. But that did not include an additional 8,850 requests that were never recorded in the FBI's database, the audit found.
Also, Fine's audit noted, a 2006 report to Congress showing that the FBI delivered only 9,254 national security letters during the previous year -- on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents -- was only required to report certain types of requests for information. That report did not outline the full scope of the national security letter requests in 2005, nor was it required to, Fine's office said.
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.
150,500 security letters issued since 2000; any guesses on how many terrorists were caught by the FBI since 2000? (Note: ignore the articles prior to 2000, and the ones like "FBI, CIA Bungled Chances to Catch 2 Sept. 11 Hijackers, Report Says") So exactly who are they "investigating" if they aren't catching terrorists?
Not to worry, they will be pardoned for it (Score:2)
FBI (Score:2)
I was not surprised one bit when we saw how much they screwed up on the 9-11 stuff.
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