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Today's Must Read
Three for three?
National Security Letters have been the FBI's favorite toy for the past several years, and who can blame them? With none of the hassle of a warrant and a gag order that ensures stealth, the NSL is a counterterrorism investigators best friend. The FBI issues tens of thousands of NSL requests each year (nearly 50,000 in 2006). After a major review by the Justice Department's inspector general last year found a host of abuses, FBI Director Robert Mueller promised that the FBI would clean up its act. But that doesn't necessarily mean that the number of NSLs issued has gone down -- just that agents are on alert that they can't be so sloppy.
Yesterday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU announced that they'd succeeded in getting the FBI to back down from an NSL request issued in late 2007. The request had gone to the Internet Archive and had requested personal information about one of the Archive's users, including the individual's name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records. It just so happens that the Archive's Digital Librarian Brewster Kahle is on EFF's board of directors, and he decided to fight the request. Except it wasn't easy due to the gag order that accompanied the letter: "Because they initially were not allowed to discuss the NSL over the phone, Kahle and his attorneys had to drive to one another's offices whenever they wanted to talk about the case."
But Kahle's lawyers at the EFF and ACLU were ultimately successful -- and the ACLU says this means that they've won every time they've gone to court to fight a NSL:
Every time an NSL has been challenged in court, the FBI has backed off, said Melissa Goodman, an ACLU staff attorney. "That calls into question how much the FBI needed the information in the first place, and finally, whether the FBI needs this kind of sweeping and unchecked surveillance power."The two other instances of NSL withdrawals involved a library and an Internet consulting business. In February 2004, the FBI served an NSL on the Internet firm. In November 2006, the FBI withdrew the letter, after a lawsuit by the ACLU, but maintained the gag order, which is why the firm has not been publicly identified. The lawsuit, which challenges the constitutionality of the law authorizing NSLs, is still pending.
In July 2005, the FBI served an NSL on Library Connection, a library consortium in Connecticut. That year, the ACLU sued on grounds similar to the other case. In April 2006, the FBI withdrew the gag order. Three months later, it withdrew the NSL as well.
Meanwhile the FBI says that the information requested was "relevant to an ongoing, authorized national security investigation." I guess they'll just have to get the information some other way.
Comments (10)
I wonder if we will ever see the days of open government again.
I wonder if we will ever know the crimes that have been committed against the people of this country?
This administration does nothing but lie, lie again, and lie some more.
Thankfully we have organizations like the ACLU. We would be that much more in the dark without them.
But it's not enough.
These criminals need to be brought to justice, for if they are not, it is open season on the future of our country. Any despot with desires on the White House will know that if he just says Screw You Congress, he can get away with anything.
With all the executive orders on the books, it's piece of cake time.
May 8, 2008 10:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well said! I concur.
May 8, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
There is a tradition in our politics of dropping all investigations into the acts of the outgoing administration, when a new president takes over. That will be the major roadblock to justice here. I favor President Obama appointing a reconciliation commission to investigate, quietly perhaps, the crimes of the Bush gang, then reveal what they find so no one can ever deny them. I care less about bringing them to trial, but I care very much that the facts be public.
May 8, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
We need more watchdogs within the actual government and we need to make them appointable by(and accountable to)the people not the administration of the time, we can't let watchdogs become political appointees.
We need an ACLU within the government itself imho.
May 8, 2008 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Meanwhile the FBI says that the information requested was "relevant to an ongoing, authorized national security investigation."
Get a warrant, you wankers.
May 8, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well said, Ms. Joanne. Power, once gained, is difficult to give up and genies are hard to put back in the bottle. I know I'm not confident that any future administration will voluntarily renounce the tactics given us by this administration, nor do I believe future congresses will show more courage than the last few have. Under the whip of fear and in the guise of keeping us free, I think we're weaving the web that will ensnare us. And we won't realize it until it's too late to do much about it. Please tell me I'm wrong and that if we fight back, it will be enough.
May 8, 2008 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
As hard as it will be politically, the next president needs to recognize that we are not at war, there is no big enemy out there to be afraid of, our security is not hanging by a thread, etc. This whole "war" hysteria has been fanned by Bush solely to allow his administration to ignore the constitution at their pleasure. And, patriotism is not in the equation. The reason for this is to make transferring much more of our national wealth to the pockets of the few super wealthy much easier.
Virtually all of the hundreds of billions of dollars wasted on the Iraq fiasco went to a few favored US corporations and their officers. This may have been the biggest wealth transfer in our history.
May 8, 2008 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank god for the ACLU! I know they take many cases which divide communities but it has always amazed me the disdain the ACLU has in the conservative communties and many fo the regular folks down here in the South. I see them as a organization which fights many of the causes that need to be fought but publically don't look so sexy or sweet.
May 8, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
"There is a tradition in our politics of dropping all investigations into the acts of the outgoing administration, when a new president takes over."
It's called, "Let's move on."
"That will be the major roadblock to justice here. I favor President Obama appointing a reconciliation commission to investigate, quietly perhaps, the crimes of the Bush gang, then reveal what they find so no one can ever deny them. I care less about bringing them to trial, but I care very much that the facts be public.
"Posted by hoppycalif2"
Bullshit. The 108 or more detainees, not found guilty of ANYTHING, who died as result of torture, or otherwise in US custody, got no "reconciliation".
Full scale trials, or deportation -- or "rendering" -- of the Bushit criminal enterprise to the Hague for trial there. Nothing less than that, and that no mere going-through-the-motions.
There is no way to shame the Bushit criminal enterprise. So what that everyone knows what they did and are? That doesn't stop them. Imprisonment will.
May 8, 2008 9:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. If these criminals are not prosecuted to the full extent of the law, future "politicians" will feel free to emulate their actions with the knowledge that there is a precedent that they will also get away with their crimes.
May 9, 2008 8:44 AM | Reply | Permalink