Judge Orders FBI to Release National Security Abuse Records Used To Spy On Ordinary Americans

[kpete]

June 15, 2007
Judge Orders FBI to Release NSL Abuse Records
New Evidence of Misuse Prompts Immediate Response in EFF FOIA Lawsuit

Washington, D.C. - A judge ordered the FBI today to finally release agency records about its abuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect Americans' personal information. The ruling came just a day after the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the judge to immediately respond in its lawsuit over agency delays.

EFF sued the FBI in April for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about the misuse of NSLs as revealed in a Justice Department report. This week, more evidence of abuse was uncovered by the Washington Post, and EFF urged the judge Thursday to force the FBI to stop stalling the release of its records on the deeply flawed program.

"The reports we've seen so far about NSL abuse are just the tip of the iceberg," said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "FBI officials told the Washington Post that there have likely been several thousand total instances of misuse. Americans deserve answers about this scandal and how the FBI has abused its power to spy on ordinary citizens."

Under the PATRIOT Act, the FBI can use NSLs to get private records about anyone's domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions without any court approval -- as long as it claims the information could be relevant to a terrorism or espionage investigation. Without a judge's oversight, the law is ripe for the abuse that has been uncovered in these recent reports.

more at:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2007_06.php#005317

[mmonk]

1. It's good to know there still are a few

that will rule and support the constitution of the United States. It's becoming rare these days. K&R.

[L. Coyote]

2. Conyers: New FBI Report Confirms "Worst Fears"

Conyers: New FBI Report Confirms "Worst Fears"
June 14, 2007

(Washington, DC)- Today, FBI officials briefed House Judiciary Committee staff on a new draft audit report detailing the bureau's use of National Security Letters (NSLs). The briefing served to update and correct prior statements to Congress, since the release of an earlier Inspector General report. The FBI confirmed that they found more abuses in the use of NSLs than the IG's report had originally found. FBI officials say they are launching a new compliance program as a result.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) had the following statement:

“The Patriot Act and its renewal was rammed through Congress with the repeated claim that there was not one instance in which the Act had been abused. We now know that information on law abiding Americans was illegally obtained and kept in secret files. This confirms some of our worst fears about what happens when you give the government too much power with too little oversight.”

[L. Coyote]

11. Thread: Conyers: New FBI Report Confirms "Worst Fears" on FBI abuse of NSLs

Spun off: 35 posts - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1123651

[gordianot]

3. That judge will have to 'Cheney' himself or ask Carl Rove.

We have the Unitary Executive after all we are at war.

[L. Coyote]

4. Schumer and Comey exchange, excerpt from testimony by former Deputy Attorney General

Here is the Schumer and Comey exchange, excerpt from testimony by former Deputy Attorney General
James B. Comey to the Senate Judiciary Committee, May 15, 2007:
http://www.salon.com/news/primary_sources/2007/05/15/comey_testimony

Bush illegally spied on Americans when his own AG and Acting AG told him it is
illegal--leading to some interesting questions. In particular, were they spying
on political figures, candidates, and activists. Most succinctly:

"Were they spying on the opposition in the 2004 Presidential election?"

-----------------WAY MORE-------------
DIA SPYING: NGIA collecting data, 133 U.S. cities, ID everyone, nationality, political affiliations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x983282

Campaign 2004: Were Bush / Cheney / NSA illegal wiretaps spying on Dems?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x925247

[tblue37]

9. I assume one reason for the spinelessness of

many Democrats in Congress and many moderate Republicans is that Rove has all sorts of embarrassing information to blackmail them with. I doubt that they just spy on the opposition or just during elections. They have files on everyone, just as Hoover used to, but their files are more extensive, and they use those files to blackmail even more pervasively and hamhandedly than Hoover did.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. K&R

"Let Freedom Rain!" on Bush's parade!

[L. Coyote]

6. Oversight Hearing on the Constitutional Limitations on Domestic Surveillance

Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
Oversight Hearing on the Constitutional Limitations on Domestic Surveillance
Thursday 06/07/2007 - 2:00 PM

VIDEO WEBCAST - http://judiciary.house.gov/Oversight.aspx?ID=335
-------------

Statement by Chairman Jerrold Nadler Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Hearing on the Constitutional Limitations on Domestic Surveillance June 7, 2007

Today the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties begins a series of hearings entitled, “The Constitution in Crisis: The State of Civil Liberties in America.” Through these hearings, the Subcommittee will examine the Bush Administration’s policies, actions and programs that threaten Americans’ fundamental constitutional rights and civil liberties and also hear proposals for potential legislative fixes.

Today’s hearing specifically looks at one of the foundations of our fundamental liberties: the constitutional and statutory restrictions on the government’s ability to spy on people.

Both the Fourth Amendment, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, were responses to abuses by governments that thought they were above the law.

The “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” is a core limitation on the government that protects each of us. The framers of the Constitution understood this and, despite periodic lapses, so have most of our nation’s leaders.

Congress enacted FISA following the Church Committee’s report on surveillance abuses. It reflects Congress’ understanding that the conduct of foreign intelligence activities is fundamentally different from domestic surveillance. It nonetheless also reflects one of our nation’s founding principles that power, especially the power to invade people’s privacy, cannot be exercised unchecked.

We rejected monarchy in this country more than 200 years ago. That means that no President may become a law unto him or herself. As with every part of government, there must always be checks and balances.

This President appears to have forgotten that fact. Not only has he asserted the right to go around the FISA Court and the Wiretap Act, but he has actually done so.

Even more disturbing, he does not believe that he is accountable to the Congress, the courts, or anyone else. This Committee created the FISA statute and the FISA court, yet the President believes we are not entitled to know what he or the court are doing. The President also believes that we are not entitled to know what he is doing, or has been doing, outside the confines of the FISA statute.

Now we are told, as we have been in the past, that the President needs changes to the FISA statute. Of course, we have no way to evaluate these claims, because he has also taken the position that we have no right to know what legal limits he has been observing in his conduct of surveillance or how he came to the legal rationale for those limits, if any.

We have also been told that the President may, at any time, resume warrantless surveillance, so past practices bear directly on possible future actions.

Many have begun to conclude that the shroud of secrecy thrown over these activities has less to do with protecting us from terrorism and more to do with protecting the Administration from having its lawbreaking exposed.

The FISA statute is a criminal statute, and surveillance conducted without legal authorization is a crime. It is my fervent hope that no crime has been committed here, but the more secretive this Administration becomes, the more concerned I, and many other Americans, become.

I will not ask Mr. Bradbury to discuss the operational aspects of any of these programs. No one wants to expose sources and methods in a public forum. But I do expect honest and forthright answers concerning the legal justifications for the Administration’s actions.

I want to welcome all of our witnesses, and thank them for agreeing to appear before the Subcommittee today. I look forward to your testimony.

Witnesses
---------
Steven G. Bradbury - Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Office of Legal Counsel U. S. Department of Justice
Lee A. Casey - Partner Baker Hostetler
Bruce Fein - The Lichfield Group, Inc.
Louis Fisher - American Law Division Library of Congress
Jameel Jaffer - Director National Security Project American Civil Liberties Union

[malaise]

7. This is great news

Bushco will be stopped eventually.

[tblue37]

8. My best friend is teaching English in Moscow right now.

He calls about once a week. He said that his Russian friends told him to assume every phone call--including ones to friends and family in the US--was being tapped. He said I should keep that in mind, in case there was anything I didn't want other people to hear.

I think we now have to assume, as the Russians do, as East Brliners used to, that we are always being spied on by our government.

Did you ever think we would get to this point in the US? At least Russians are smart enough to know that is the case--but Americans still haven't caught on that we are living in a police state.

[EVDebs]

10. "several thousand total instances of misuse"

And GOP insiders at DOJ and FBI supposedly didn't use dirty tricks and spying on progressives and other perceived 'enemies' ? When pigs fly.

[rasputin1952]

12. That God-damned "Patriot Act" needs to be rescinded...it has

done nothing but harrass American citizens that have nothing to do w/terrorism...:grr:

It is one of the worst peices of legislation ever created by congress. Everyone who voted for it should be pilloried...and I want to know what's in THEIR backgrounds. If it is good enough to use to spy on citizens, we citizens should know what THEY have to hide...

[L. Coyote]

14. So far, the NSLs have not prevented a single terrorist incident

if we can trust what the USG has produced. They could not come up with a single example.

So, we have to ask, why is Bushco spying on us? The politization of the DoJ offers all the clues we need.

[rasputin1952]

15. Since tis administration is so incredibly inept and corrupt...

it all boils down to a Gestapo type data base. We're all supposed to be "little goody two-shoes" and toe whatever line is being cast out there..

Indeed, there has not been one documented incident of a "terrorist" being stopped in his/her tracks by this odious destruction of our Right to Privacy. It was a sham to get essentially worthless info on every American citizen....Can't have one moment of peace w/these bastards looking over one's shoulder, waiting for something they can hang someone on.

Let's get a deep look into bush and cheney's past...so far we know it is marred by corruption, but how deep does it go? Let's REALLY take a look at their records, not just what they want people to see.

And for all of those jugheads that say, "I have nothing to hide", and thereby allow this crap to go on...I just have to say, we all have things we hide, bar none.

[Duppers]

13. but will there be compliance?

or more of the usual confrontation with the US Constitution?

The country has no idea and M$M won't report it.

[BlooInBloo]

16. or else what? lol!