http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news...s-records?lite
The FBI has dramatically increased its use of a controversial provision of the Patriot Act to secretly obtain a vast store of business records of U.S. citizens under President Barack Obama, according to recent Justice Department reports to Congress. The bureau filed 212 requests for such data to a national security court last year – a 1,000-percent increase from the number of such requests four years earlier, the reports show.
“Most people who followed this closely were not aware they were doing this. We’ve gone from producing records for a particular investigation to the production of all records for a massive pre-collection database. It’s incredibly sweeping.”
In contrast to standard grand jury subpoenas, material obtained under both Section 215 orders and national security letters must be turned over under so-called “gag orders” that forbid the business or institution that receives the order from notifying its customers or publicly referring to the matter.
From the earliest days of the Patriot Act, Section 215 was among the most hotly disputed of its provisions. Critics charged the language – “tangible things” -- was so broad that it would even permit the FBI to obtain library and bookstore records to inspect what citizens were reading.
“There should be no room for secret law,” said Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU’s deputy legal director, adding that disclosure of the FISC rulings is essential if the debate Obama called for is to take place. “The public has a right to know what limits apply to the government’s surveillance authority, and what safeguards are in place to protect individual privacy.”
i agree.
and obama says he 'welcomes the debate'. yeah, me too. only thing is, when will he be available to debate this??
now, not to make light of 9/11 by any means....but more people die in a
month from car wrecks in this country than have died in the last 12 years, including 9/11, from terrorist attacks. do we really want to have secret courts, secret orders, no public info on subpoenas, changes to amendments in the constitution, sweeping new govt powers, all of which is supposedly to 'make us safer'?! safer from whom???
those who say 'well, if you have nothing to hide...'. define nothing. who decides what's nefarious? how far will this go? drones killing u.s. citizens??? oh, wait, that's already happened-to hell with due process, right?