TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: FBI Secretly Sought Data on 3,501 - MSNBC

FBI Secretly Sought Data on 3,501 - MSNBC

Marcus Didius Falco (marcus_d_falco@yahoo.com)
Sat, 29 Apr 2006 21:23:31 -0400

* Original: FROM..... Dave Farber

Begin forwarded message:

From: Suzanne Johnson
Date: April 29, 2006 7:15:37 PM EDT
Subject: FBI secretly sought data on 3,501 -MSNBC

FBI secretly sought data on 3,501 people in =E2*=9905 : Agency ramped
up use of approach that requires no court approval -MSNBC

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

The Associated Press
Updated: 6:40 p.m. ET April 28, 2006

WASHINGTON - 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.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
Copyright 2006 MSNBC.com

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

Direct replies are unlikely to be read. To reply use the address below:
falco(underscore)md(atsign)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

For more news and headlines from Associated Press please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: blog.wired.com: "Feds Drop Bomb on EFF Lawsuit"
Go to Previous message: Ghazan Haider: "Re: What Type of Wireless Should I Use?"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page