By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
March 20, 2007
WASHINGTON - Republicans and Democrats alike sternly warned
the FBI on Tuesday that it risks losing its broad power to
collect telephone, e-mail and financial records to hunt terrorists
because of rampant abuses of the authority.
The threats were the latest blow to the embattled Justice
Department and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is already
on the defensive and fighting to keep his job over the firings
of federal prosecutors.
The warnings came as the department's chief watchdog, inspector
general Glenn A. Fine, told the House Judiciary Committee that
the FBI engaged in widespread and serious misuse of its authority
to issue national security letters, which resulted in illegally
collecting data from Americans and foreigners.
If the FBI doesn't move swiftly to correct the mistakes and
problems revealed last week in Fine's 130-page report, "you
probably won't have NSL authority," said Rep. Dan Lungren
(news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., a supporter of the power,
referring to the data requests by their initials.
"I hope that this would be a lesson to the FBI that they
can't get away with this and expect to maintain public support
for the tools that they need to combat terrorism," said
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the former Judiciary chairman,
who called the abuses "a gross overreach."
"Let this be a warning," Sensenbrenner said.
Fine, who called the problems he uncovered inexcusable, said
he did not believe they were intentional. Most involved information
that could have been legally obtained if proper procedures
had been followed, he said.
"We believe the misuses and the problems we found generally
were the product of mistakes, carelessness, confusion, sloppiness,
lack of training, lack of adequate guidance, and lack of adequate
oversight," Fine said.
Still, the FBI's failure to control and monitor how it collected
the information constituted "serious and unacceptable" lapses,
Fine told the committee. He was to appear Wednesday before
the Senate Judiciary panel.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (news, bio,
voting record), D-Mich., called the abuses part of a disturbing
pattern of misconduct at the Justice Department.
"This was a serious breach of trust," Conyers said. "The
department had converted this tool into a handy shortcut to
illegally gather vast amounts of private information while
at the same time significantly underreporting its activities
to Congress."
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., said
Congress should revise the USA Patriot Act, which substantially
loosened controls over the letters.
"We do not trust government always to be run by angels,
especially not this administration," Nadler said. "It
is not enough to mandate that the FBI fix internal management
problems and record keeping, because the statute itself authorizes
the unchecked collection of information on innocent Americans."
Valerie Caproni, the FBI's general counsel, testified that
steps were already being taken to rectify the problems, which
she called "a colossal failure on our part."
"We're going to have to work to get the trust of this
committee back, and we know that's what we have to do, and
we're going to do it," Caproni said.
That did little to appease lawmakers who said they had fought
hard to give the Justice Department wide latitude to chase
terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"From the attorney general on down, you should be ashamed
of yourself," said Rep. Darrell Issa (news, bio, voting
record), R-Calif. "We stretched to try to give you the
tools necessary to make America safe, and it is very, very
clear that you've abused that trust."
Some Republicans, however, said the FBI's expanded spying
powers were vital to tracking terrorists.
"The problem is enforcement of the law, not the law itself," said
Rep. Lamar Smith (news, bio, voting record) of Texas, the panel's
senior GOP member. "We need to be vigilant to make sure
these problems are fixed."
Both Caproni and Fine said national security letters were
an indispensable tool in terrorism investigations.
In a review of headquarters files and a sampling of just four
of the FBI's 56 field offices, Fine found 48 violations of
law or presidential directives from 2003 through 2005, including
failure to get proper authorization, making improper requests
and unauthorized collection of telephone or Internet e-mail
records. He estimated that many violations hadn't been found
or reported.
The bureau has launched an audit of all 56 field offices to
determine the full extent of the problem. Members of the Senate
panel will likely demand answers about the matter from FBI
Director Robert Mueller at a broader hearing next week.
In 1986, Congress first authorized FBI agents to obtain electronic
records without approval from a judge using national security
letters. In 2001, the Patriot Act eliminated any requirement
that the records belong to someone under suspicion. Now an
innocent person's records can be obtained if FBI agents consider
them merely relevant to an ongoing terrorism or spying investigation.
Fine's review, authorized by Congress over Bush administration
objections, found that the number of national security letters
requested by the FBI skyrocketed after the Patriot Act became
law.
He also found more than 700 cases in which FBI agents obtained
telephone records through "exigent letters" which
asserted that grand jury subpoenas had been requested for the
data, when in fact such subpoenas never been sought. He called
those instances "the most troubling aspect of this."
___
On the Net:
Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov
House Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.house.gov/
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