NSLs are secret demand letters issued without court approval or independent oversight to financial institutions, telecommunications and Internet service providers and credit agencies to obtain sensitive personal information such as financial records, credit reports, the phone numbers and email addresses with which a person has communicated, and possibly the websites a person visited. The Patriot Act did not create NSLs, but before the act, only senior FBI officials could authorize their use, and the law required the FBI to certify that there were specific and articulable facts giving reason to believe the target of the NSL was an agent of a foreign power.
[ ]
The IG audits also confirmed that 40,000-50,000 NSLs were issued every year during the mid-2000s, and in 2006 a majority of them were directed against people in the U.S. This sort of broad, suspicionless collection of private data about innocent Americans is the logical result of destroying the requirement of a factual nexus between an NSL and terrorist activity.
[ ]
With no internal controls and with complete disregard for the law, FBI agents soon ignored the minimal process involved in issuing NSLs and instead issued exigent letters, falsely claiming emergencies to obtain records without legal process. These illegal requestssometimes just a phone number written on a Post-it notewere often given to the telecommunications companies with the promise that an NSL or grand jury subpoena would follow, but more often than not these promises went unfulfilled. Some agents found even Post-it notes too burdensome and instead asked company employees to just pull up a persons phone records so they could peek over their shoulder to see whether a formal request such as an NSL was worthwhile.
There are also demonstrated problems with how the FBI handles data it receives in response to an NSL. Rather than using NSLs as an investigative tool, as Congress clearly intended by only allowing them to be used when the information sought was relevant to an ongoing investigation, the FBI was using NSLs for mass data collection.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/national_security_letters_building_blocks_for_investigations_or_intrusive_t/
1 posted on
08/08/2017 7:22:42 AM PDT by
Ray76
To: Ray76
Mueller was FBI Director September 4, 2001 - September 4, 2013.
2 posted on
08/08/2017 7:42:53 AM PDT by
Ray76
(The Republican party must die.)
To: Ray76
AG Sessions will be getting Mueller and other FBI criminals indicted........................................................... any day now.
To: Ray76
(from the article): " Rather than using NSLs as an investigative tool,
as Congress clearly intended by only allowing them to be used when the information sought was relevant to an ongoing investigation,
the FBI was using NSLs for mass data collection."
NSLs used not as investigation tool ,
but rather used for "fishing expedition".
6 posted on
08/08/2017 8:12:27 AM PDT by
Tilted Irish Kilt
(The Fourth Estate has become Fifth column !)
To: Ray76
8 posted on
08/08/2017 8:14:16 AM PDT by
Bloody Sam Roberts
("Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." - Will Rogers)
To: Ray76; LucyT; GregNH; LS; 2ndDivisionVet; appalachian_dweller; aragorn; Arthur Wildfire! March; ...
PING!!!
(2007) Justice Department Audit Reveals FBI Misused Patriot Act
Article and comments, esp #1 among others
Thanks, Ray76 & H/T Tilted Irish Kilt
10 posted on
08/08/2017 8:15:51 AM PDT by
Whenifhow
(when, if and how will Obama be gone?)
To: Ray76
The to convene a grand jury?
13 posted on
08/08/2017 9:17:59 AM PDT by
mistfree
(It's a very uncreative man who can't think of more than one way to spell a word.)
To: Ray76; Liz
With no internal controls and with complete disregard for the law, FBI agents soon ignored the minimal process involved in issuing NSLs and instead issued exigent letters, falsely claiming emergencies to obtain records without legal process. These illegal requestssometimes just a phone number written on a Post-it notewere often given to the telecommunications companies with the promise that an NSL or grand jury subpoena would follow, but more often than not these promises went unfulfilled. Some agents found even Post-it notes too burdensome and instead asked company employees to just pull up a persons phone records so they could peek over their shoulder to see whether a formal request such as an NSL was worthwhile. Sessions needs to haul the 'deep state' into a Court of Law...
15 posted on
08/08/2017 9:37:22 AM PDT by
GOPJ
(Jeff Flake - when only a shallow empty suit willing to trash fellow Republicans will do...)
To: Ray76
Another DUH! moment and by the way - NO $HIT! We warned you.
22 posted on
08/09/2017 3:31:28 AM PDT by
mad_as_he$$
(Not my circus. Not my monkeys.)
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