Leahy Presses IG on Phone Company NSL Letters
The FBI was “incredibly sloppy” in issuing 739 letters to phone companies seeking sensitive information on suspected terrorists without subpoenas, DoJ Inspector Gen. Glenn Fine told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wed. Verizon, AT&T and the former MCI had contracts with the FBI, according to Tues. House testimony (CD March 21 p3) but there’s no indication the companies will be called to Congress to answer for complying with the FBI. Senate Judiciary Committee Chmn. Leahy (D-Vt.) said the committee needs to exercise its oversight to see “what went wrong.”
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“Essentially, the FBI told these companies: This is an emergency, so give use these records voluntarily, without the regular legal process,” Leahy said, calling the abuses unacceptable. “We cannot have the FBI requesting information under false pretenses and proceeding with total disregard for the relevant laws,” he said. Apparently there was no real emergency, Leahy said: “How can the FBI send letters when there was no real emergency?”
FBI use of the letters “inappropriately circumvented the requirements of the National Security Letters (NSL), and violated Attorney General Guidelines and FBI policies,” Fine said. In many instances, after getting records from phone companies, the FBI issued national security letters many months after the fact to “cover” the material, Fine said.
Phone companies knew what was happening, and that it was “inexcusable,” Fine said. But, pressed by Judiciary Committee members, particularly Ranking Member Specter (R- Pa.), he said it wouldn’t serve the U.S. to disband the FBI or halt the program, a useful anti-terror tool. Despite their honorable intentions, govt. agents displayed “sloppy” execution, he said. The solution is Congressional vigilance, Fine said.
Leahy agreed: “Real oversight will be a start.” The committee has set a March 27 oversight hearing with the FBI director and one in April with Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales. “We cannot have unwarranted and unauthorized invasions of Americans’ privacy,” Leahy said: “Trusting the FBI to fix the problem and proceed properly from now on is not an option.”
No law authorizes the FBI to dragoon phone companies into yielding records, Sen. Grassley (R-Ia.) said, though U.S. law does let phone companies “voluntarily” provide records in an emergency, he added. However, “the exigent letters did not cite that provision and implied that production of the records was compulsory,” he said. The FBI got information on about 3,000 phone numbers by issuing 739 letters; according to the report, the letters misstated facts, “claiming that the FBI had submitted a subpoena to a U.S. Attorney’s office when, in fact, no subpoena had been submitted,” Grassley said. The FBI promised to deliver a subpoena later but “those subpoenas never came,” Grassley said.
“This Inspector General report proves that ‘Trust us’ doesn’t cut it when it comes to the government’s power to obtain Americans’ sensitive business records without a court order and without any suspicion that they are tied to terrorism or espionage,” Sen. Feingold (D-Wis.) said: “We have the obligation … to put appropriate limits on government authorities -- limits that allow agents to actively pursue criminals and terrorists, but that also protect the privacy of innocent Americans.”