DOJ Finds FBI Violations Over Phone Conversation Requests

A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of Exigent Letters and Other Informal Requests for Telephone Records

The U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General has just released a report which concludes that the Federal Bureau of Investigation violated U.S. laws by claiming terrorism emergencies which allowed it to collect more than 2,000 records on U.S. telephone calls between 2002 and 2006. This report follows two previous DOJ OIG reports on the matter, commonly referred to as ‘National Security Letters‘, which are also available at the Justice Inspector General website.

The Washington Post first broke this story yesterday and DOJ has now made the unclassified version available to the public.

FISA Surveillance Down, NSL Requests Up in 2008

During calendar year 2008, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,083 applications for authority to conduct electronic surveillance and physical search of suspected foreign intelligence and terrorist targets under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to a new annual report to Congress (pdf) from the Department of Justice.  The Court made substantive modifications to two applications and denied one application.

This is a decrease from calendar year 2007 (pdf), when the Court approved 2,370 applications for electronic surveillance and physical search, modified 86 applications, and denied three (and one “in part”).

The new report, transmitted May 14, 2009, also states that in 2008 the FBI made 24,744 “national security letter” (NSL) requests for information concerning 7,225 different United States persons.  In 2007, according to newly revised figures included in the report, the FBI made 16,804 NSL requests pertaining to 4,327 different United States persons.  National security letters are obligatory demands for information or records, comparable to subpoenas but without judicial oversight.  The scope of such instruments was expanded by a provision of the USA Patriot Act.

The Congressional Research Service discussed “Amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Set to Expire in 2009″ in a report that was updated March 16, 2009.

More Concerns About NSA’s “Stellar Wind” and Meta-Data Collection

“… But an even more interesting revelation — one ultimately far more troubling — can be found in a regrettably less prominent sidebar to the main Newsweek story, entitled “Now we know what the battle was about”, by Daniel Klaidman. Put together with other reports about the program, it lends considerable credence to claims that telephone companies (including my alma matter AT&T) provided the NSA with wholesale access to purely domestic calling records, on a scale beyond what has been previously acknowledged…”

See also:

Court Rules Patriot Act’s “National Security Letter” Gag Provisions Unconstitutional

In Courtroom Showdown, Bush Demands Amnesty for Spying Telecoms

A Cover for Illegal Domestic Operations?

Information Commissioner publishes freedom of information guidance for personal data

Court Rules Patriot Act’s “National Security Letter” Gag Provisions Unconstitutional

NEW YORK – A federal appeals court today upheld, in part, a decision striking down provisions of the Patriot Act that prevent national security letter (NSL) recipients from speaking out about the secret records demands. The decision comes in an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit challenging the FBI‘s authority to use NSLs to demand sensitive and private customer records from Internet Service Providers and then forbid them from discussing the requests. Siding with the ACLU, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that the statute’s gag provisions violate the First Amendment.