The FBI came calling in Windsor, Conn., this summer with a document marked for delivery by hand. On Matianuk Avenue, across from the tennis courts, two special agents found their man. They gave George Christian the letter, which warned him to tell no one, ever, what it said.
Under the shield and stars of the FBI crest, the letter directed Christian to surrender “all subscriber information, billing information and access logs of any person ” who used a specific computer at a library branch some distance away. Christian, who manages digital records for three dozen Connecticut libraries, said in an affidavit that he configures his system for privacy. But the vendors of the software he operates said their databases can reveal the Web sites that visitors browse, the e-mail accounts they open and the books they borrow.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9939709/
Screw that. What I do is my business.
Why worry if you do no wrong you say? I do no wrong and I worry.
Read the article and tell me your thoughts.
Even more worrisome:
Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress. The executive branch maintains only statistics, which are incomplete and confined to classified reports. The Bush administration defeated legislation and a lawsuit to require a public accounting, and has offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot.
Greeeaaaaaat! Does no one understand the absolute importance of requiring audits and power-checks on police procedures? Please, someone, disprove this article and tell me this is not right. (Otherwise, New Zealand is sounding better and better…)
There is no apostrophe in “its” when it is used as a possessive.
The new Grammar Enforcement Division of the FBI will be arriving at your door shortly.
I would not be the least bit surprised.
JustAnotherGeek:
Greeeaaaaaat! Does no one understand the absolute importance of requiring audits and power-checks on police procedures? Please, someone, disprove this article and tell me this is not right. (Otherwise, New Zealand is sounding better and better…)
Wow…somebody finally noticed that these things exist (remember, they were one of Carter’s creations) and now freedom is on it’s last legs. Well…FYI, the FBI isn’t the ONLY group which has letters like these. The DoD has them and can issue them through the Army’s CID, USAF OSI, and USN’s NCIS. DHS can do it too, under FEMA of all departments. C’mon, this shit’s been around forever. Ain’t gonna do any more harm than before.
~Mang
Squink
November 7, 2005, 3:54am
6
Even more worrisome:
In late 2003, the Bush administration reversed a long-standing policy requiring agents to destroy their files on innocent American citizens, companies and residents when investigations closed. Late last month, President Bush signed Executive Order 13388, expanding access to those files for “state, local and tribal” governments and for “appropriate private sector entities,” which are not defined.
Oh goody, now they’re going to sell my name and information to fucking spammers, or worse, credit card companys, religious groups and organized crime. Hell, maybe they’ll blackmail me with it when I write a letter to the editor that they don’t like.
fushj00mang:
Wow…somebody finally noticed that these things exist (remember, they were one of Carter’s creations) and now freedom is on it’s last legs. Well…FYI, the FBI isn’t the ONLY group which has letters like these. The DoD has them and can issue them through the Army’s CID, USAF OSI, and USN’s NCIS. DHS can do it too, under FEMA of all departments. C’mon, this shit’s been around forever. Ain’t gonna do any more harm than before.
~Mang
From the same article:
The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms
That ain’t business as usual.
The worst thing is that from a practicle standpoint the effort expended keeping track of thousands of innocent people will divert the necessary resources from hunting down the bad guys.
Here’s the Washington Post’s version of the article. It’s a very long and appalling article, and here is my favorite snippet:
If agents had to wait for grounds to suspect a person of ill intent, said Joseph Billy Jr., the FBI’s deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, they would already know what they want to find out with a national security letter. “It’s all chicken and egg,” he said. “We’re trying to determine if someone warrants scrutiny or doesn’t.”
Another good 'un:
“The beef with the NSLs is that they don’t have even a pretense of judicial or impartial scrutiny,” said former representative Robert L. Barr Jr. (Ga.), who finds himself allied with the American Civil Liberties Union after a career as prosecutor, CIA analyst and conservative GOP stalwart. “There’s no checks and balances whatever on them. It is simply some bureaucrat’s decision that they want information, and they can basically just go and get it.”
Our freedom has been on its last legs since 1787.
lno
November 7, 2005, 10:16pm
10
Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. There’s an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we’ll aggressively pursue them.
Do you want to wait for a mushroom cloud over your city because the government’s hands are tied by bureaucratic red tape? After all, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
I value my privacy. I fear losing something of value.
Miller
November 7, 2005, 10:35pm
12
Luckily, he’ll be out of office in three years.
lno:
Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. There’s an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we’ll aggressively pursue them.
Do you want to wait for a mushroom cloud over your city because the government’s hands are tied by bureaucratic red tape? After all, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
The 1950s just called, they want their arguments back.
Maeglin
November 7, 2005, 10:39pm
14
lno:
Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. There’s an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we’ll aggressively pursue them.
Do you want to wait for a mushroom cloud over your city because the government’s hands are tied by bureaucratic red tape? After all, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
Finally, a man who loves America.
lno:
Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. There’s an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we’ll aggressively pursue them.
Do you want to wait for a mushroom cloud over your city because the government’s hands are tied by bureaucratic red tape? After all, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
Well, then, I urge you to be the first to put up your medical records, credit card statements, bank statements…ohh, and let any of us Dopers feel free to come through and rummage through your house. After all, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
SteveG1
November 7, 2005, 10:51pm
16
lno:
Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. There’s an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we’ll aggressively pursue them.
Do you want to wait for a mushroom cloud over your city because the government’s hands are tied by bureaucratic red tape? After all, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
I’m sorry, but that’s a steaming load of fucking horse shit.
lno
November 7, 2005, 10:54pm
17
For god’s sake, people, doesn’t anyone but Miller read the news?
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/07/iraq.main/index.html
The announcement came on a day when President Bush told reporters that the United States does not condone torture.
“Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people,” Bush said in Panama City, Panama. “There is an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. So you bet we’ll aggressively pursue them. But we will do so under the law.”
lno
November 7, 2005, 10:55pm
18
(And pretend that I got Miller ’s joke and decided to pretend that he got my reference and that … oh, it’s just easier to go get drunk.)
Maeglin
November 7, 2005, 10:57pm
19
What am I, chopped livah?
lno
November 7, 2005, 10:58pm
20
I can’t fellate you in every thread, Maegs. People would start to talk.