Abuse of power: Congress, reign in misuse of Patriot Act

[babylonsister]

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/editorial/16908683.htm

Abuse of power: Congress, reign in misuse of Patriot Act

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

(MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday, March 14:



Seems simple enough: Laws aren't made to be broken, and certainly not by agencies sworn to uphold them.

Yet the FBI has abused its authority to obtain personal telephone records under the Patriot Act and soft-pedaled its use of investigatory techniques in reports to Congress. All this according to a recent inspector general's audit.

The audit says the FBI pressured telephone companies to provide access to phone numbers without subpoenas. In other cases, an active investigation wasn't even under way. Then, apparently to hide its actions, the audit says, the FBI retroactively issued blanket national security letters to "authorize" the requests. And, finally, the bureau significantly underreported its use of the letters.

For example, the audit's sample of 293 security letters issued by four FBI offices found that about 16 percent of them were improperly issued - and that the FBI disclosed only about half of the actual number of letters it sent out.

This looks to us to be clear-cut abuses of the Patriot Act.

The FBI has a legal obligation to play by the rules Congress established when it approved these new tools to thwart terrorists - not trample privacy and other constitutional rights.

more...

[Eric J in MN]

1. The editorial never states the we should CHANGE the law...

...and get rid of "National Security Letters" (law enforcement demanding info without a warrant, via the PATRIOT Act.)

[babylonsister]

2. I threw it up there because we shouldn't forget about this travesty.

It seems like everyone else has.

[Eric J in MN]

3. The Bush Administration is like a Watergate each day.

There is an overwhelming amount of disgusting activity.