[OPLINLIST] FW: FW: 30, 000 Patriot Act information requestsannually? Whats the Source?

[Kent Oliver]

Friends, I have been following the e-dialog regarding the Patriot Act
requests and thought I would ask ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom
about their take on the 30,000 number. Ms. Caldwell works extensively on
the Patriot Act issue for OIF and this was her response to my question.

Kent Oliver, Executive Director
Stark County District Library
715 Market Ave., N., Canton, OH 44702
W: 330 458 2710 FAX: 330 455 9596
KOliver at starklibrary.org
" If God had him no balls and two strikes, he'd still get a hit." -
American League umpire Steve Palermo on George Brett



-----Original Message-----
From: Deborah Caldwell-Stone [mailto:dstone at ala.org] 
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 1:09 PM
To: Kent Oliver
Cc: Jonathan Kelley
Subject: Re: FW: [OPLINLIST] 30,000 Patriot Act information
requestsannually? Whats the Sour ce?


Kent, 

Jonathan Kelley asked me to respond to your question.   

The claim that the FBI has issued 30,000 National Security Letters was
first made by reporter Barton Gellman in the Washington Post:

The FBI's Secret Scrutiny
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR200511
0501366.html

Specifically, he writes: "The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national
security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold
increase over historic norms."

He cites only anonymous government sources for his information.  This is
not surprising, as Congressional reports about NSL use are classified
and the DOJ has called any disclosure of those numbers "inappropriate"
due to national security interests.  

As for the discrepancy between the numbers in the ALA survey and the
30,000 NSLs reported by Gellman, it must be remembered that NSLs target
other records besides library records.  (The ALA survey sought
information from only a relatively small representative population of
libraries.)   NSLs can be used to obtain telephone records, credit
reports, banking records, and ISP records, along with electronic
communication records held by libraries.  Given the size of the US
population, the number of possible terror suspects represented by
immigrants, members of political groups, and other suspects, and the
current emphasis on the War on Terror, the number is large but is not
outside the realm of possibility.  

The government has responded to Gellman's story.  Here is the Washington
Post account:

Report on FBI Tool Is Disputed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR200511
2901655.html


William Moschella, the author of the letter, is quoted as disputing the
number, but not offering an alternative.  He says: "To be sure, some
people whose records are produced in response to an NSL may not be
terrorists or spies or associated with terrorists or spies. But in these
vital investigations, the FBI needs to be able to check out every tip
and track down every lead."

In my own opinion, the inquiry should not focus on the accuracy of the
number, but on whether the FBI should have unlimited power to obtain
personal records in secret without judicial supervision or any provision
for checks and balances on the FBI's powers.  Some might argue that
under those circumstances, even one NSL is one too many.  

I hope this is helpful.   Please let me know if I can help further.

Deborah

Deborah Caldwell-Stone
Deputy Director 
Office for Intellectual Freedom

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