Friday, March 9, 2007

Justice: FBI misused Patriot Act powers - Yahoo! News The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday. And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who oversees the FBI, described the problems cited in the report as unacceptable and left open the possibility of criminal charges. He ordered further investigation. "Once we get that information, we'll be in a better position to assess what kinds of steps should be taken," Gonzales told reporters following a speech to privacy officials. [...] The FBI also used so-called "exigent letters," signed by officials at FBI headquarters who were not authorized to sign national security letters, to obtain information. In at least 700 cases, these exigent letters were sent to three telephone companies to get toll billing records and subscriber information. "In many cases, there was no pending investigation associated with the request at the time the exigent letters were sent," the audit concluded. In a letter to Fine, Gonzales asked the inspector general to issue a follow-up audit in July on whether the FBI had followed recommendations to fix the problems. "To say that I am concerned about what has been revealed in this report would be an enormous understatement," Gonzales told the privacy officials. "Failure to adequately protect information privacy simply is a failure to do our jobs." Senators outraged over the conclusions signaled they would provide tougher oversight of the FBI -- and perhaps limit its power. "The report indicates abuse of the authority" Congress gave the FBI, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt. "You cannot have people act as free agents on something where they're going to be delving into your privacy." The committee's top Republican, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), said the FBI appears to have "badly misused national security letters." The senator said, "This is, regrettably, part of an ongoing process where the federal authorities are not really sensitive to privacy and go far beyond what we have authorized." Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., another member on the panel that oversees the FBI, said the report "proves that 'trust us' doesn't cut it." The American Civil Liberties Union said the audit proves Congress must amend the Patriot Act to require judicial approval anytime the FBI wants access to sensitive personal information. "The Attorney General and the FBI are part of the problem and they cannot be trusted to be part of the solution," said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU's executive director. 4:34:53 PM

Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act. Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act. happyslayer writes to mention that according to Yahoo! News a recent audit shows that the FBI has improperly and in some cases illegally utilized the Patriot Act to obtain information. "The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct. Still, 'we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities,' the audit concludes." [Slashdot] 4:27:43 PM

The Blotter(ABC NEWS) - Exclusive: Report Says FBI Violated Patriot Act Guidelines The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department's Inspector General. The report, in classified and unclassified versions, remains closely held, but Washington officials who have seen it tell ABC News it documents "numerous lapses" and describe it as "scathing" and "not a pretty picture for the FBI." FBI Director Robert Mueller is scheduled to brief Congress on the report at noon. The officials say the inspector general found the FBI underreported by at least 20 percent the use of the controversial provision, known as National Security Letters, NSLs, in required disclosures to Congress. The Patriot Act gave FBI agents the ability to demand telephone, bank, credit card and library records by issuing an administrative letter, bypassing the need to seek a warrant from a federal judge. 1:02:02 PM

Pine Bluff - Scaled-back version of drug database passes Senate LITTLE ROCK - Scaling back the scope of a statewide database to monitor some prescription drug purchases gained Senate approval of the measure Thursday. The bill's sponsor said the amendments were intended to address concerns about patient privacy. [...] By a 20-7 vote, the Senate approved a bill by Sen. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, that would allow the state Board of Pharmacy to establish standards for setting up the database on drug purchases. The database would track schedule II and schedule III narcotics, such as morphine or OxyContin. "I think we've amended this about six times now," Altes said before the vote. "I think these changes should address all the concerns that were raised." Altes originally called for a database to track virtually all prescription drug purchases in the state. The measure passed by the Senate allows the Board of Pharmacy to set the criteria for the information to be tracked by the database. Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, said he still believed the database could be subject to abuse and could harm the privacy of some patients. "There is no evidence that a database like this works, but there is evidence that databases like this could be violated," Argue said. 12:33:58 PM

© Copyright 2007 Paul Hardwick. Last update: 3/18/07; 7:44:34 PM.