[Sosfbay-discuss] Impeach whom?

[Wes Rolley]

Here is some input to the discussion of impeachment.  Right now, the 
emotion may focus on Cheney but I believe that the attention should 
focus on Gonzales for the simple reason that, right now, he is more 
vulnerable.  Both parties are going after him.  It almost seems that 
Senators  Leahy and Specter are loading each others guns before firing 
and, if they miss, Rep. Conyers is waiting over the Hill. If I were 
marching, I would be ready to call attention to all of these violations 
of the right of privacy. Keep up the pressure, take it to the newspapers 
and Gonzales will become an embarrassment and be asked to take one for 
the team... just like they asked Scooter Libby.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070309/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/national_security_letters_25 


*Justice: FBI misused Patriot Act powers
*By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 42 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The *FBI* improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the 
USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in 
the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.

And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it 
forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who oversees the FBI, described the 
problems cited in the report as unacceptable and left open the 
possibility of criminal charges. He ordered further investigation.

"Once we get that information, we'll be in a better position to assess 
what kinds of steps should be taken," Gonzales told reporters following 
a speech to privacy officials.

"There is no excuse for the mistakes that have been made, and we are 
going to make things right as quickly as possible," the attorney general 
said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said he was to blame for not putting more 
safeguards into place.

"I am to be held accountable," Mueller said. He told reporters he would 
correct the problems and did not plan to resign.

"The inspector general went and did the audit that I should have put in 
place many years ago," Mueller said.

The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found 
that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without 
proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly 
obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.

The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of 
the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct.

Still, "we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious 
misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concludes.

At issue are the security letters, a power outlined in the Patriot Act 
that the Bush administration pushed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 
2001, terror attacks. The letters, or administrative subpoenas, are used 
in suspected terrorism and espionage cases. They allow the FBI to 
require telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, credit 
bureaus and other businesses to produce highly personal records about 
their customers or subscribers — without a judge's approval.

About three-fourths of the national security letters were issued for 
counterterror cases, and the other fourth for spy investigations.

Fine's annual review is required by Congress, over the objections of the 
Bush administration.

The audit released Friday found that the number of national security 
letters issued by the FBI skyrocketed in the years after the Patriot Act 
became law.

In 2000, for example, the FBI issued an estimated 8,500 letters. By 
2003, however, that number jumped to 39,000. It rose again the next 
year, to about 56,000 letters in 2004, and dropped to approximately 
47,000 in 2005.

Over the entire three-year period, the FBI reported issuing 143,074 
national security letters requesting customer data from businesses, the 
audit found. But that did not include an additional 8,850 requests that 
were never recorded in the FBI's database, the audit found.

Also, Fine's audit noted, a 2006 report to Congress showing that the FBI 
delivered only 9,254 national security letters during the previous year 
— on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents — was only required to 
report certain types of requests for information. That report did not 
outline the full scope of the national security letter requests in 2005, 
nor was it required to, Fine's office said.

Additionally, the audit found, the FBI identified 26 possible violations 
in its use of the national security letters, including failing to get 
proper authorization, making improper requests under the law and 
unauthorized collection of telephone or Internet e-mail records.

Of the violations, 22 were caused by FBI errors, while the other four 
were the result of mistakes made by the firms that received the letters.

The FBI also used so-called "exigent letters," signed by officials at 
FBI headquarters who were not authorized to sign national security 
letters, to obtain information. In at least 700 cases, these exigent 
letters were sent to three telephone companies to get toll billing 
records and subscriber information.

"In many cases, there was no pending investigation associated with the 
request at the time the exigent letters were sent," the audit concluded.

In a letter to Fine, Gonzales asked the inspector general to issue a 
follow-up audit in July on whether the FBI had followed recommendations 
to fix the problems.

"To say that I am concerned about what has been revealed in this report 
would be an enormous understatement," Gonzales told the privacy 
officials. "Failure to adequately protect information privacy simply is 
a failure to do our jobs."

Senators outraged over the conclusions signaled they would provide 
tougher oversight of the FBI — and perhaps limit its power.

"The report indicates abuse of the authority" Congress gave the FBI, 
said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (news, bio, 
voting record), D-Vt. "You cannot have people act as free agents on 
something where they're going to be delving into your privacy."

The committee's top Republican, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (news, 
bio, voting record), said the FBI appears to have "badly misused 
national security letters." The senator said, "This is, regrettably, 
part of an ongoing process where the federal authorities are not really 
sensitive to privacy and go far beyond what we have authorized."

Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis., another member on 
the panel that oversees the FBI, said the report "proves that 'trust us' 
doesn't cut it."

The *American Civil Liberties Union* said the audit proves Congress must 
amend the Patriot Act to require judicial approval anytime the FBI wants 
access to sensitive personal information. "The Attorney General and the 
FBI are part of the problem and they cannot be trusted to be part of the 
solution," said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU's executive director.
___

On the Net:
The report is at: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/index.htm
Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov

-- 

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; 
We must do. –Leonardo DaVinci
Wesley C. Rolley
17211 Quail Court
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408)778-3024 - http://cagreening.blogspot.com