WORLD / Top News
US officials admit FBI broke law
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-10 09:00
WASHINGTON - The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged
Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information
about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal
intrusions.
FBI Director Robert Mueller gestures during a news conference at FBI
headquarters in Washington, Friday, March 9, 2007, to discuss the
gathering of personal information. (AP Photo)
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open the possibility of pursuing
criminal charges against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly used the
USA Patriot Act in pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies.
The FBI's transgressions were spelled out in a damning 126-page audit by
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. He found that agents
sometimes demanded personal data on people without official
authorization, and in other cases improperly obtained telephone records
in non-emergency circumstances.
The audit also concluded that the FBI for three years underreported to
Congress how often it used national security letters to force businesses
to turn over customer data. The letters are administrative subpoenas that
do not require a judge's approval.
"People have to believe in what we say," Gonzales said. "And so I think
this was very upsetting to me. And it's frustrating."
"We have some work to do to reassure members of Congress and the American
people that we are serious about being responsible in the exercise of
these authorities," he said.
Under the Patriot Act, the national security letters give the FBI
authority to demand that telephone companies, Internet service providers,
banks, credit bureaus and other businesses produce personal records about
their customers or subscribers. About three-fourths of the letters issued
between 2003 and 2005 involved counterterror cases, with the rest for
espionage investigations, the audit reported.
Shoddy record-keeping and human error were to blame for the bulk of the
problems, said Justice auditors who were careful to note they found no
indication of criminal misconduct.
Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious
misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concluded.
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said many of the problems were being
fixed, including by building a better internal data collection system and
training employees on the limits of their authority. The FBI has also
scrapped the use of "exigent letters," which were used to gather
information without the signed permission of an authorized official.
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"But the question should and must be asked: How could this happen? Who is
accountable?" Mueller said. "And the answer to that is, I am to be held
accountable."
Mueller said he had not been asked to resign, nor had he discussed doing
so with other officials. He said employees would probably face
disciplinary actions, not criminal charges, following an internal
investigation of how the violations occurred.
The audit incensed lawmakers in Congress already seething over the recent
dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys. Democrats who lead House and Senate
judiciary and intelligence oversight panels promised hearings on the
findings. Several lawmakers �� Republicans and Democrats alike �� raised
the possibility of scaling back the FBI's authority.
"It's up to Congress to end these abuses as soon as possible," said Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The Patriot Act was never intended to allow the Bush administration to
violate fundamental constitutional rights."
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee,
said the audit shows "a major failure by Justice to uphold the law."
"If the Justice Department is going to enforce the law, it must follow it
as well," said Hoekstra, of Michigan.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the audit proves Congress must
amend the Patriot Act to require judicial approval anytime the FBI wants
access to sensitive personal information.
"The attorney general and the FBI are part of the problem, and they
cannot be trusted to be part of the solution," said ACLU's executive
director, Anthony D. Romero.
Both Gonzales and Mueller called the national security letters vital
tools in pursuing terrorists and spies in the United States. "They are
the bread and butter of our investigations," Mueller said.
Gonzales asked the inspector general to issue a follow-up audit in July
on whether the FBI had followed recommendations to fix the problems.
Fine's annual review is required by Congress, over the objections of the
Bush administration. It concluded that the number of national security
letters requested by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot
Act became law. Each letter issued may contain several requests.
In 2000, for example, the FBI issued an estimated 8,500 requests. That
number peaked in 2004 with 56,000. Overall, the FBI reported issuing
143,074 requests for national security letters between 2003 and 2005.
But that did not include an additional 8,850 requests that were never
recorded in the FBI's database, the audit found. A sample review of 77
case files at four FBI field offices showed that agents had underreported
the number of national security letter requests by about 22 percent.
Additionally, the audit found, the FBI identified 26 possible violations
in its use of the letters, including failing to get proper authorization,
making improper requests under the law and unauthorized collection of
telephone or Internet e-mail records.
The FBI also used exigent letters to quickly get information �� sometimes
in non-emergency situations �� without going through proper channels. In
at least 700 cases, these letters were sent to three telephone companies
to get billing records and subscriber information, the audit found.
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