Bush wants to expand "National Security Letter"authority

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Lee Tien <tien () eff org>
Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 15:42:58 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: possibly for IP: Bush wants to expand "National Security
Letter"authority

Dave, you might want to put this on IP.  NSL authority is fairly
obscure, though some of your readers may be familiar with it.

> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/02/international/worldspecial/02TERR.html
>
>
> Broad Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon
> The New York Times 5-2-03
> By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
>
> WASHINGTON, May 1 - The Bush administration and leading Senate
> Republicans sought today to give the Central Intelligence Agency and the
> Pentagon far-reaching new powers to demand personal and financial
> records on people in the United States as part of foreign intelligence
> and terrorism operations, officials said.
>
> The proposal, which was beaten back, would have given the C.I.A. and
> the military the authority to issue administrative subpoenas - known as
> "national security letters" - requiring Internet providers, credit card
> companies, libraries and a range of other organizations to produce
> materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs. That
> authority now rests largely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
> and the subpoenas do not require court approval.
>
> The surprise proposal was tucked into a broader intelligence
> authorization bill now pending before Congress. It set off fierce debate
> today in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
> officials said. Democrats on the panel said they were stunned by the
> proposal because it appeared to expand significantly the role of the
> C.I.A. and the Pentagon in conducting domestic operations, despite a
> long history of tight restrictions, officials said.
>
> After raising objections, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and
> other Democrats succeeded in getting the provision pulled from the
> authorization bill, at least temporarily, Congressional officials said.
> In a closed vote, the committee passed the bill unanimously without the
> proposal.
>
> But Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the
> intelligence committee, indicated to panel members that he wanted to
> hold further hearings on the idea, officials said.
>
> [snip]


S. 436, the Domestic Surveillance Oversight Act of 2003, tries to
shed some light on exercises of NSL authority (as well as FISA
authority) by requiring statements to congressional committees:
--of all ECPA counterintelligence requests (2709(b)) directed at
public, high school, and college libraries
--of all NSL requests under the Right to Financial Privacy Act
--of all NSL requests under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

It was introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Chuck Grassley and Arlen
Specter. 
-- 
**********************************
Lee Tien
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
454 Shotwell Street
San Francisco, CA  94110
(415) 436-9333 x 102 (tel)
(415) 436-9993 (fax)
tien () eff org


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