Initial reports last winter that the FBI abused secret national security letters two dozen times to improperly obtain private information were shocking enough.
As it turns out, that assessment barely scratched the surface. A more in-depth audit released earlier this month found more than 1,000 possible violations since 2002. And more revelations may be on the way: A judge has ordered the agency to comply by July 5 with an advocacy group’s sweeping public records request about national security letters.
It’s clear that additional oversight is necessary. But more than that, the FBI needs to make sure its personnel know that breaking the rules won’t be tolerated.
In an effort to quell growing outrage over the abuses, the FBI recently announced new guidelines tightening up internal procedures. But they may not be enough to heal the trust that was broken by the agency’s wanton violations.
The use of national security letters, which originated in the 1970s, was broadened by the Patriot Act in the post-9/11 scramble to combat terrorism. The letters allow FBI agents to get a person’s telephone, e-mail and financial records without permission from a judge or grand jury as long as national security is involved.
Most of the violations, about 70 percent, occurred when telephone companies handed over more information than the agency was authorized to obtain. Rather than destroying that material, the agency kept it.
Federal lawmakers, who passed the Patriot Act to give the executive branch enhanced tools to go after terrorists, are considering ratcheting back that power.
Criticism has come from many quarters. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, the former chief judge of a secret national security court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, recently said that the war has to be fought, “but not at all costs.” Lamberth, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, said it’s proper for the executive branch to spy on people in the name of national security, but not without oversight.
To his credit, FBI director Robert Mueller is reacting to the criticism with promises of increased internal scrutiny.
In the near future, the public likely will get a clearer sense of how badly the FBI bungled the current rules. The release of information from the FBI is expected to comprise 100,000 pages. Lawmakers should carefully juxtapose Mueller’s promised reforms with alleged transgressions, both new and old, as they decide whether the agency should be trusted to abide by the rules when it snoops into people’s lives in the name of national security.
