The Patriot Act on a Post-it Note
No one wants to impede terrorism investigations, but protections must be monitored closely to prevent abuse of information.
The USA Patriot Act, approved by Congress shortly after the 9/11 attacks, broadened the powers of the FBI to use “National Security Letters” and other means to quickly obtain phone records and other documents in terrorism investigations. But the law didn’t include any provisions for federal agents to issue “National Security Post-it Notes.”
Last week, the Justice Department’s inspector general released a 289-page report outlining “an egregious breakdown” in the FBI’s compliance with federal privacy protections between 2003 and 2006. Some of the problems were disclosed in previous reports and FBI officials say they’ve taken corrective steps, but the follow-up study includes new details on how lax procedures had become.
According to the inspector general’s office, the FBI frequently circumvented the law by making informal requests to employees of three unnamed telephone companies working in the bureau’s communications office.
Through e-mail and Post-it notes, FBI agents asked for records of calls. Sometimes large groups of records were transferred to government databases without assurances they were relevant. Employees also gave the agents what came to be known as “sneak peeks” at records on computer screens.
Justice Department investigators said the FBI made requests for at least 3,500 telephone numbers during the years examined; a full accounting isn’t possible because of incomplete record-keeping by the bureau.
The inspector general’s office previously found that the FBI issued emergency letters to gain access to records for more than 2,000 phone numbers when no emergency existed. According to the report, FBI officials repeatedly drafted National Security Letters – which carry administrative subpoena power – afterward in an attempt to justify obtaining the records.
In previously disclosed incidents, the FBI also illegally obtained phone records of two reporters for The Washington Post and The New York Times as part of an investigation into the leak of classified documents. In both cases, the records were obtained without required approval by the U.S. attorney general, as required by law.
Since the earlier reports, FBI officials say they have stopped using emergency letters and imposed stricter controls on record-keeping. Phone company employees are also no longer stationed in the communications office.
As Congress reviews the inspector general’s report and considers extending various provisions of the Patriot Act, special attention should be paid to access to telephone records.
Law enforcement officials need to move quickly in terrorism investigations. But there are laws in place that enable speed while honoring basic privacy protections. Congress and the Justice Department need to ensure those safeguards are secure and that laws designed to keep Americans safe never devolve into laws easily abused for less noble purposes.
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