The FBI has been a little overzealous, it seems. They have been, according to the Washington Post's headline, "Scrutinizing Records of ordinary Americans." Wow!! That means me and you! So when I blog here, and email someone something more personal, or when I ask my sister-in-law, a nurse, what to do about PMS, the FBI can get in on my PMS! Terrif!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. The letters -- one of which can be used to sweep up the records of many people -- are extending the bureau's reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans.
Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress. The executive branch maintains only statistics, which are incomplete and confined to classified reports. The Bush administration defeated legislation and a lawsuit to require a public accounting, and has offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot.
Got that: The Bush admin defeated legislation to require a public accounting. These people have taken the tragedy of 9/11 and turned us into a police state, complete with secret gulags.
Not to worry folks: the FBI says that they will only go after terrorists:
Career investigators and Bush administration officials emphasized, in congressional testimony and interviews for this story, that national security letters are for hunting terrorists, not fishing through the private lives of the innocent. The distinction is not as clear in practice.
Whew. I feel better now. I know how efficient this Bush administration is at determing innocent from guilt, those with WMDs from those without.
And there's a wonderful provision in which you can complain if you are targeted. Uh, oh - one problem - people never know if there were targeted. OOOPPPPSS!
Justice Department officials noted frequently this year that Inspector General Glenn A. Fine reports twice a year on abuses of the Patriot Act and has yet to substantiate any complaint. (One investigation is pending.) Fine advertises his role, but there is a puzzle built into the mandate. Under what scenario could a person protest a search of his personal records if he is never notified?
"We do rely upon complaints coming in," Fine said in House testimony in May. He added: "To the extent that people do not know of anything happening to them, there is an issue about whether they can complain. So, I think that's a legitimate question."
Asked more recently whether Fine's office has conducted an independent examination of national security letters, Deputy Inspector General Paul K. Martin said in an interview: "We have not initiated a broad-based review that examines the use of specific provisions of the Patriot Act."
At the FBI, senior officials said the most important check on their power is that Congress is watching.
"People have to depend on their elected representatives to do the job of oversight they were elected to do," Caproni said. "And we think they do a fine job of it."
Great. I am depending on John Sweeney to protect my rights.