FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON – As the
House Judiciary Committee convened an oversight hearing today on the Justice
Department Inspector General’s audit that found the FBI has abused and misused
its National Security Letter authority, the American Civil Liberties Union urged
lawmakers to demand truth and accountability from the administration. The Senate Judiciary Committee is
expected to hold a similar hearing on Wednesday.
“The IG report
confirmed our worst fears about the Patriot Act,” said Caroline Fredrickson,
Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “FBI agents, whatever their intentions,
misused and abused the NSL power at the expense of our fundamental
freedoms. This is clear evidence
that the Patriot Act must be fixed and brought in line with the
Constitution. We applaud those
Members of Congress willing to demand the truth and urge lawmakers to restore
our civil liberties.”
On March 9, 2007, as
mandated by law, the Justice Department’s IG issued a report that found the FBI
had issued significantly more NSLs than previously disclosed. The audit found serious breaches of the
Attorney General’s Guidelines, FBI policy, and numerous violations of the
law. It also criticized the FBI for
lax managerial controls that invited abuse, and found that agents had claimed
“exigent circumstances” where none existed. The FBI also retained records even when
some NSL recipients provided more information than authorized by law.
The NSL authority,
vastly expanded by the Patriot Act, authorizes the FBI to demand a range of
personal records without court approval, such as the identity of a person who
has visited a particular website on a library computer or who has engaged in
anonymous speech on the Internet.
Recipients of NSLs are gagged from discussing them.
The ACLU has
challenged the NSL power in court with two cases: one involving an Internet
Service Provider; the second a group of librarians. In both cases, the judges
ruled that the gag orders were unconstitutional. After those rulings Congress amended the
law to fix some problems, but made the "gag" provision even more oppressive. The
ACLU has now gone back to court to challenge the constitutionality of the
amended law. Also today, the ACLU
has submitted testimony on the IG report to the House Judiciary
Committee.
“As a former FBI
special agent, I was sworn to uphold the Constitution; sadly, today’s FBI
leadership seems to have forgotten that solemn obligation,” said Michael German,
an ACLU Policy Counsel and former FBI Special Agent. “Its clear that this administration
cannot be trusted with the overreaching powers of the Patriot Act. Innocent Americans should not have their
civil liberties and privacy rights undermined.”
The ACLU’s testimony on the IG report is
available at:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nationalsecurityletters/29077leg20070320.html
More about the ACLU’s work on NSLs,
including information on the IG report and our legal challenges is available at:
www.aclu.org/nsl
