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.
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