Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Betrayed by the FBI

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Betrayed by the FBI
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Published March 13, 2007

In the anxiety-ridden aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration asked for new investigative tools so it could head off future plots before they could be carried out. Despite the fears of civil libertarians that these powers would be abused, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act on the assumption that the executive branch could be trusted to act responsibly. Later on, in response to queries from Congress, the Justice Department insisted it was indeed acting responsibly. Now, though, we learn that this trust was badly misplaced.

The proof comes in the form of an audit by the inspector general of the Department of Justice on, among other things, the use of "national security letters"--orders for telephone logs, financial records and the like. The Patriot Act loosened the rules on these requests. Unlike search warrants, they don't require the FBI to get a judge's approval, which puts the burden on the bureau to act with restraint. But the report found it failed to enforce prudent controls on NSLs, failed to keep track of them and failed to give Congress accurate data about their use.

The FBI has made abundant use of the authority, issuing some 143,000 national security letters from 2003 through 2005. But in an alarming number of cases, it overstepped its bounds. In a review of 77 investigative files, the inspector general found 22 percent had possible violations of the law, and more than 60 percent had violations of the bureau's own rules. The report also found in some cases the FBI improperly got telephone records by using its emergency request authority even when, in fact, no emergency existed.

The good news is that the inspector general didn't find the FBI was abusing its power on purpose, or that its failures amounted to "criminal misconduct." In most of the cases, the agency could have gotten the information it wanted while still obeying the rules. The problem, the report concluded, lay mostly in inadequate training, confusing guidance and sloppy record-keeping.

Even in the most benign interpretation of this mess, you would think the Justice Department and the FBI would have taken extra care in exercising these new powers, if only to avoid giving ammunition to critics who said they invited abuses. Instead they put a terribly low priority on complying with the law and their own internal policies.

Even congressional Republicans are angry at the mistakes, with Sen. Arlen Specter, the top GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, threatening to "take away some of the authority which we've already given to the FBI, since they appear not to be able to know how to use it."

FBI Director Robert Mueller, who acknowledged the accuracy of the inspector general's conclusions, said in response that he is "committed to ensuring that we correct these deficiencies and live up to these responsibilities."

He has just about run out of time and trust.

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