U.S.: FBI Sought Info Without Court OK

[cal04]

The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday. It was the first time the Bush administration has publicly disclosed how often it uses the administrative subpoena known as a national security letter, which allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without court approval.

Friday's disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law. The FBI delivered a total of 9,254 NSLs relating to 3,501 people in 2005, according to a report submitted late Friday to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. In some cases, the bureau demanded information about one person from several companies.

The department also reported it received a secret court's approval for 155 warrants to examine business records last year, under a Patriot Act provision that includes library records. However, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the department has never used the provision to ask for library records.

The number was a significant jump over past use of the warrant for business records. A year ago, Gonzales told Congress there had been 35 warrants approved between November 2003 and April 2005.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5787717,00.html

[UpInArms]

1. Alberto Gonzales is a known liar (and all the others in this

mal-administration) and is not to be trusted in the position of pooper-cleaner-upper.

[rodeodance]

2. Has this been i US papers? new to me.

[cal04]

3. just posted to Yahoo and MSNBC(FBI secretly sought data on 3,501)

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago


U.S.: FBI Sought Info Without Court OK
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060428/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/patriot_act_records_2


FBI secretly sought data on 3,501 people in ’05
Agency ramped up use of approach that requires no court approval

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12536627/

[struggle4progress]

11. Seems its mostly local TV coverage

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=ISO-8859-1&scoring=d&q=FBI+3501&btnG=Search+News

[Ms. Clio]

4. lettres de cachet aka the "unitary executive"

"The best-known lettres de cachet, however, were those which may be called penal, by which the king sentenced a subject without trial and without an opportunity of defence to imprisonment in a state prison or an ordinary gaol, confinement in a convent or a hospital, transportation to the colonies, or relegation to a given place within the realm.

The power which the king exercised on these various occasions was a royal privilege recognized by old French law, and can be traced to a maxim which furnished a text of the Digest of Justinian: " Rex solutus est a legibus." This signified particularly that when the king intervened directly in the administration proper, or in the administration of justice, by a special act oi lis will, he could decide without heeding the laws, and even in a sense contrary to the laws."

[HuffleClaw]

7. GREAT catch!

the 'divine right of kings' eh?

[Ms. Clio]

8. That's probably what the Chimperor thinks

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier -- as long as I'm the dictator." Heh heh heh.

[cantstandbush]

5. Gulag USA. When will they begin to pick us up from our homes? n/t

[jsamuel]

6. note, this is FBI not NSA

[Rex]

9. Why come out with it now?

Wonder if any DUer got on the secret squirrel, 'warrant? what is a warrant' FBI list?

[leveymg]

10. Did they report this 3 months ago, before the vote renewing the PA?

Gee, I wonder, why not? Are we being lied to? Every day.

[hang a left]

12. .......

[Disturbed]

13. Is it impossible for the US to become a

Neo Fascist Police State?



“You can’t allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them, because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die,” Condoleezza Rice