The FBI is Warned to Stop Violating the Law

House members were angry Tuesday when told that the FBI may have improperly used national security letters* in seeking private records of citizens from banks, telephone companies and other institutions. National security letters, which are similar to subpoenas but do not require court review, were improperly used in as many as 600 cases. Inspector General Glenn A. Fine cited "mistakes, carelessness, confusion, sloppiness, lack of training, lack of adequate guidance and lack of adequate oversight" as the reasons behind the misuse.

Included among the many violations Fine found were: agents were failing to get proper authorization for use of the letters, agents were making improper requests, and agents were sometimes concealing their use of national security letters. He concluded that many other violations simply haven't been found or reported.

Fine found more than 700 cases in which FBI agents obtained telephone records through improper means-namely, the agents asserted that subpoenas had been requested for the data when, in actuality, no subpoenas had been sought.
FBI General Counsel Valerie E. Caproni apologized and said that they would take care of the problem
"I think the public should be concerned. We're concerned. And we're going to fix it," she said.

Judge Richard A. Posner, in response to news of the agencies failings, chided the FBI, March 19, In a Wall Street Journal editorial.

His criticisms included:

-The Bureau does not gather intelligence in the way a good intelligence agency would-- the Bureau frequently arrests the periphery rather than the key terrorists, thus alerting the "big shots" that they are being targeted.

-The FBI is a detective bureau. The way it functions, it is better at catching criminals than preventing crimes. Such an organization, therefore, is not adequate as a counterterrorist organization.

The FBI's Deputy Director, John P. Mudd, responded to Posner's criticisms:

"Terrorism is not about stopping plots. We can stop plots, and do, with our partners in foreign security services, at CIA, at Homeland Security, with state and local police, and with Americans who help. But terrorists will plot again if we defend against only their schemes and fail to stop the terrorists themselves."

Mudd admitted that the FBI needs improvement when it comes to training personnel. He stated, however, that they are working with others in intelligence to improve training.

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*The use of national security letters became widespread in 1986 when FBI agents were allowed to obtain records without permission from a judge by using the letters. With the advent of the Patriot Act in 2001, it became even easier to use national security letters to obtain records belonging to any citizen or foreign national-whether they were under direct suspicion or not.

Sources: The FBI www.fbi.gov/, Wall Street Journal, CNN