Hysterical For A Good Reason?

Probably not. Audit: FBI snooping did not follow rules

The FBI is guilty of "serious misuse" of the power to secretly obtain private information under the Patriot Act, a government audit said Friday.

The Justice Department's inspector general looked at the FBI's use of national security letters (NSLs), in which agents demand personal and business information about individuals -- such as financial, phone, and Internet records -- without court orders.

The audit found the letters were issued without proper authority, cited incorrect statutes or obtained information they weren't supposed to.

...

The FBI has made as many as 56,000 requests a year for information using the letters since the Patriot Act was passed in October, 2001, the audit found.

A single letter can contain multiple information requests, and multiple letters may target one individual.

The audit found that in 2004 and 2005, more than half of the targets of the national security letters were U.S. citizens.

...

The inspector general's review identified "26 possible intelligence violations" between 2003 and 2005, 19 of which the FBI reported to the president's Intelligence Oversight Board, the audit said.

Of the 26, "22 were the result of FBI errors, while four were caused by mistakes made by recipients of the NSLs," it said.

The audit also found problems with "exigent letters," which are supposed to be used only in emergencies when time may not permit the NSL procedure to be followed.

The audit found exigent letters were not used in emergencies and gave the agency access to telephone records it should not have had.

Mueller said Friday the FBI stopped using exigent letters in May 2006 after the practice was revealed. He said they were used to obtain information the FBI was entitled to but should have gained in other ways.

So, let me get this straight. Of the roughly 168,000 requests from 2003-2005 there were 26 problems (0.015%) found by the audit, of which only 22 (0.013%) were the FBI's fault. Additionally, 19 of the errors were not found by the audit but self-reported by the FBI. That means the audit found an additional 7 (0.004%) problem requests.

In addition, it must be noted that these requests did not begin with the Patriot Act:

Most of the 200-page report focuses on the national security letters, the use of which it says has undergone a "dramatic increase" since the Patriot Act was put into law after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The letters existed before the attacks, but the Patriot Act allowed them to be used on a broader scale to seek more information.

Now, the FBI has to do everything in its power to make sure it follows the procedures as closely as possible. And every deviation away from proper procedure is worthy of being pointed out and corrected, but a little perspective is never a bad thing. The imputation is that the FBI is out of control and has harmed American citizens in some way.

In fact, they seem to be doing a good job in practicing oversight in this area, and there is no evidence brought forward that anyone was harmed in any way, or subject to prosecution via illegally obtained information.

You can forgive me if my knickers remain untwisted.