TOTAL INFORMATION ANALYSIS

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Wednesday, September 24, 2003

House, Senate have already passed new secret search authority

Attorney General ~~Janet~~John Ashcroft last week made much ballyhoo of the release of memorandum claiming that the Justice Department has not used Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act to secretly search the records of library patrons or bookstore customers. He even threw out the word "hysteria."

The American Library Association responded by pointing out three instances of DoJ saying the PATRIOT Act had been used to search libraries:

-- Last December, assistant attorney general Daniel Bryant said information had been sought from libraries on a voluntary basis and under traditional legal authorities, possibly including national security letters.

-- In March 2003, Justice Department spokesperson Mark Corallo said libraries had become a logical target of surveillance.

-- In May 2003, in testimony before members of Congress, assistant attorney general Viet Dinh said federal agents had visited about 50 libraries.

The key here is what AAG Bryant said about "national security letters." As the ACLU explains,

the government employs "National Security Letters" - signed by Attorney General Ashcroft or a delegate and with no judicial approval - to "compel the production of a substantial amount of relevant information." The government can use this power to obtain records about people living in the United States, including American citizens, without probable cause that the person has committed any crime. Entities that are forced to turn over records are prohibited from disclosing to their customers - or to anyone else - that the FBI has demanded the records. . . .

[U]nder the Patriot Act, the letters have become a far more invasive and nefarious tool. Before the Patriot Act. . . National Security Letters could be issued only against people who were reasonably suspected of espionage. The Patriot Act allows the Attorney General to issue National Security Letters even against people who are not suspected of criminal activity or of acting on behalf of a foreign power.

That provision was in Section 505 of the USA PATRIOT Act. The House of Representatives voted to defund secret library/bookstore purchases under Section 215 of the PATRIOT, and this is what Ashcroft's dishonest disclosure and hateful faux-ridicule was in reference to.

These National Security Letters are very similar to the administrative subpoena powers Bush demanded in a bit of ludicrous Orwellian theater on the eve of 9/11 2003. In January 2003, ACLU and Electronic Privacy Information Center received a six-page wholly-redacted list [PDF] in response to a Freedom of Information request for info on NSLs since September 11, 2001.

Now here's the kicker, kids. It turns out that both the House and the Senate have passed versions of Intelligence Authorization Act that expand the definition of "financial institution" eligible to receive a "National Security Letter" from this:

means any office of a bank, savings bank, card issuer as defined in section 1602(n) of title 15, industrial loan company, trust company, savings association, building and loan, or homestead association (including cooperative banks), credit union, or consumer finance institution, located in any State

to also include

Even though both chambers of Congress have passed a version of this act, there is a chance this provision could be removed in conference and/or the bill will ultimately fail. Contact your Congresscritter and register a no vote.

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.....| Posted at 03:22 | PERMA-LINK |

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