IP: ACLU,EPIC, Booksellers FOIA On the Patriot Act

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Barry Steinhardt <Bsteinhardt () aclu org>
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 12:39:44 -0400
To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: ACLU,EPIC, Booksellers FOIA On the Patriot Act

Dave,

The ACLU, EPIC and the American Booksellers Foundation have filed an
extensive Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI and the Justice
Department in an effort to learn how the surveillance provisions of the
"Patriot" Act have been implemented.  Below you will find out press release
and more information is available on the ACLU web site at
http://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy/USAPA_feature.htm.

Barry Steinhardt
Director ACLU Program on Technology and Liberty

NEW YORK- Saying that the American people have a right to know how the
government is using its extraordinary new surveillance powers, the American
Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act request
demanding that the Department of Justice provide information about the
pervasiveness of domestic spying. “This Administration’s penchant for
secrecy is matched only by its contempt for accountability to the American
people and their elected representatives,” said Barry Steinhardt, Director
of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Program. “Attorney General Ashcroft
bullied a panicked Congress into an overnight revision of the nation’s
surveillance laws just six weeks after the September 11 attacks,” Steinhardt
added. “The nation needs to know if these powers are truly making us any
safer or just less free.” The ACLU made the request jointly with the
Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Booksellers
Foundation for Free Expression, which said it was concerned that the new
surveillance laws threaten the First Amendment-protected activities of book
publishers, investigative journalists, booksellers, librarians, and readers.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which was accompanied by a
request for expedited processing, seeks information on 14 different
categories of agency records, including the number of times the government
has: ·       Conducted sneak and peek” searches, which allow law enforcement
to enter people  homes and search their belongings without informing them
until long after; ·       Directed a library, bookstore or newspaper to
produce tangible things,” e.g, the titles of books an individual has
purchased or borrowed or the identity of individuals who have purchased or
borrowed certain books;
·       Authorized the use of devices to trace the telephone calls or
e-mails of people who are not suspected of any crime;
·       Investigated American citizens and permanent legal residents and
sought information on the basis of activities protected by the First
Amendment (e.g., writing a letter to the editor or attending a rally).
Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU staff attorney, emphasized that the government’s
investigative powers extend to people not suspected of any terrorist
activities and that those ordered to provide information are barred from
mentioning the investigation to anyone. “The searches could extend to
doctors’ offices, banks and other institutions that, like libraries, were
previously off-limits under the law,” he said. The ACLU FOIA request comes
after a similar request was made in July by House Judiciary Chairman James
Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and ranking member John Conyers (D-MI). Following the
government’s failure to respond to most of those questions, Rep.
Sensenbrenner, whose committee has oversight of the Justice Department, said
yesterday that he may take the unusual step of issuing a subpoena to
Attorney General John Ashcroft if satisfactory answers to his 50 written
questions are not forthcoming by Labor Day. “The refusal of the Justice
Department to tell Congress how many times it has used its powers is even
more unsettling because it naturally leads to the suspicion that it is using
them a lot,” said Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers group.
“When the FBI is given the power to investigate what people are reading, the
American people deserve to know how that power is being used.” David Sobel,
General Counsel to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that the
request filed today does not seek any information that could compromise a
terrorism investigation. “Much of the information that the Justice
Department claims is classified consists of statistical information whose
release could not possibly endanger national security or any other
legitimate government interest,” he said. Under law, the government is
required to respond to the FOIA request within 20 working days; requests for
expedited processing require a response within 10 calendar days. The groups
said they may file a lawsuit if the government does not respond in a timely
way. The attorneys in the case are Ann Beeson, litigation director of the
ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Program, Jaffer, and Sobel of the Electronic
Privacy Information Center. A web feature on the FOIA action, including
links to the request and the Sensenbrenner letter to Attorney General
Ashcroft, is online at http://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy/USAPA_feature.html



------ End of Forwarded Message