The Inspector General's Independent Report
on the F.B.I.'s Use of National Security Letters

Conyers Statement
House Committee on the Judiciary
20mar2007

Washington, DC — Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. made the following remarks to open the Committee's hearing to investigate the FBI's use of National Security Letters:

Nearly six years ago, in the immediate aftermath of September 11, the Department of Justice told us they needed significantly enhanced authority, while promising the members of this Committee, in no uncertain terms, that those new tools would be carefully and appropriately used. Two years ago, when the PATRIOT Act was reauthorized, they promised us there was not a single instance where the law had been abused.

However, one week ago, the Inspector General told us that the exact opposite was true. One tool in particular, so-called “National Security Letters” – essentially secret subpoenas issued without any court review – was used to repeatedly invade the privacy of law-abiding Americans, outside of the law and proper legal process.

This was a serious breach of trust – the Department had converted this tool into a handy shortcut to illegally gather vast amounts of private information, while at the same time significantly under-reporting its activities to Congress.

We learned:

• The number of NSL requests had increased from 8,500 in 2000 to in excess of 143,000 from the 3-year period between 2003-2005.
  
  
• DOJ consistently provided inaccurate information to Congress concerning NSL’s, failing to identify at least 4,600 NSL requests to us.
  
  
• NSL’s were routinely issued without proper authorization and outside of statutory and regulatory requirements. The Inspector General found that 60% of the investigatory files they looked at included one or more violations of FBI policy.

The IG found even more widespread abuses concerning so-called “exigent letters” – emergency requests for telephone and other data. An exigent letter, as opposed to an NSL, is meant to obtain information in an extreme emergency like a kidnaping when the Bureau has already sought subpoenas for the requested information. But the FBI issued these letters in non-emergencies, as a means to bypass the requirements of the NSL procedure.

As if this wasn’t troubling enough, in many instances the Bureau attempted to issue after-the-fact NSL’s to cover their tracks on their use of exigent letters. The IG specifically found that:

• Exigent letters were ordinarily issued when there was no emergency present, and very often when there was not even a pending investigation. More often than not, the letters were issued based on promises that subpoenas were in the process of being issued, when that was not the case and even though subpoenas were never issued.
  
  
• The FBI made numerous factual misstatements in the letters, which were frequently issued in violation of statute as well as Attorney General and FBI guidelines.
  
  
• The record-keeping was so poor that it was impossible for the IG to document how and why all of these problems occurred.

What most disturbs me is that the abuse and misuse of the NSLs is not an isolated instance. Instead, it appears to be part of a pattern by which the Department of Justice has violated not only our trust, but the very laws they are charged with enforcing.

From the approval of the notorious “torture memos;” to warrantless and illegal surveillance; to the wrongful smearing of able U.S. Attorneys; the Department has squandered its reputation for independence and integrity. The Attorney General needs to understand that with power comes responsibility, and with authority must come accountability.

Many of us remember times in the past when the power of our government has been abused. Just as the Civil War led to the suspension of Habeas Corpus, World War I to the notorious Palmer Raids, World War II to the internment of Japanese Americans, and the Vietnam War to secret spying and enemies lists, we are now in a period where we risk genuine harm to our Constitution and the rule of law.

I hope we can learn from these mistakes and the IG’s report, and move to a system of more open and honest government, including the Justice Department, and move back from the brink of an imperial and unaccountable Executive Branch.

Contact:
Jonathan Godfrey(202) 226-6888
Melanie Roussell(202) 226-5543
#110-JUD-020807##

source: 21mar2007