Patriot Act abuse

The way the Patriot Act works for authorizing sneak-and-peeks, searches without judicial approval or warrant, is that it allows the FBI, CIA, and the Pentagon to produce their own National Security Letters (NSLs), which convey the authority to make those searches. Here are some figures about how the privilege has been abuse:

143,074: The number of requests for information from 2003 - 2005. Approximately half concerned U.S. persons.

0: The amount of information obtained by use of NSLs that the law currently requires to be destroyed – even after the information is determined to concern innocent Americans.

3,000: The number of different telephone numbers that the FBI requested information on, and telecommunications companies turned over, in false emergencies under so-called “exigent” circumstances, in the complete absence of any legal authority.

34,000: The number of law enforcement and intelligence agents who have unfettered, virtually limitless access to phone records collected through NSLs.

11,100: The number of different phone numbers whose subscriber information was turned over to the FBI in response to only nine NSLs.

43: The number of confirmed criminal referrals made to prosecutors from the FBI after it obtained information through a NSL. (19 involved fraud, 17 were immigration-related and 17 were for money laundering.)

1: The number of terror-related convictions the Inspector General was able to confirm (material support) stemming from the 143,074 persons’ info that was collected through NSLs.

Whoops.

Now, in 2009, the government has admitted that almost all of the NSLs used in 2008 were not used for anything terrorism-related.

Only three of the 763 "sneak-and-peek" requests in fiscal year 2008 involved terrorism cases, according to a July 2009 report from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Sixty-five percent were drug cases.

But here's the kicker, Attorney General David Kris defended this.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) quizzed Assistant Attorney General David Kris about the discrepancy at a hearing on the PATRIOT Act Wednesday. One might expect Kris to argue that there is a connection between drug trafficking and terrorism or that the administration is otherwise justified to use the authority by virtue of some other connection to terrorism.

He didn't even try. "This authority here on the sneak-and-peek side, on the criminal side, is not meant for intelligence. It's for criminal cases. So I guess it's not surprising to me that it applies in drug cases," Kris said.

"As I recall it was in something called the USA PATRIOT Act," Feingold quipped, "which was passed in a rush after an attack on 9/11 that had to do with terrorism it didn't have to do with regular, run-of-the-mill criminal cases. Let me tell you why I'm concerned about these numbers: That's not how this was sold to the American people. It was sold as stated on DoJ's website in 2005 as being necessary - quote - to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists."

Kris responded by saying that some courts had already granted the Justice Department authority to conduct sneak-and-peeks. But Feingold countered that the PATRIOT Act codified and expanded that authority -- all under the guise of the war on terror.

Feingold, the lone vote against the PATRIOT Act when it was first passed, is introducing an amendment to curb its reach. "I'm going to say it's quite extraordinary to grant government agents the statutory authority to secretly break into Americans homes," he said.

Russ Feingold, troop-hater and communist sympathizer.

Salute to Ed Brayton over at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.