Report finds FBI abuses

WASHINGTON -- The FBI continued improperly obtaining private telephone, e-mail and financial records five years after it was granted expanded powers under the USA Patriot Act, according to a report issued Thursday.

In a review focusing on FBI investigations in 2006, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine found numerous privacy breaches by the bureau in its use of national security letters, which allowed the bureau to obtain personal information on tens of thousands of Americans and foreigners without approval from a judge.

The findings mirror a report that Fine's office issued last year, which concluded that the FBI had improperly used the letters to obtain telephone logs, banking records and other personal data for the three previous years.

The pattern persisted in 2006, Fine concluded in the report issued Thursday, in part because the FBI had not yet halted the shoddy record-keeping, poor oversight and other practices that contributed to the problems. He also said it was unclear whether reforms the Justice Department and FBI enacted last year will address all the issues his investigators identified.

"The FBI and Department of Justice have shown a commitment to addressing these problems," Fine said in a statement. "However, several of the FBI's and the Department's corrective measures are not yet fully implemented, and it is too early to determine whether these measures will eliminate the problems."

Need for oversight

The findings reignited criticism Thursday from Democrats and civil liberties groups who said the FBI's repeated misuse of its information-gathering powers underscores the need for greater oversight by Congress and the courts to protect the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and legal residents.

Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, drew a comparison between the FBI's NSL abuses and the Bush administration's push to enact a new surveillance law that would expand the government's ability to spy on Americans without warrants. President Bush has threatened to veto a bill introduced this week by House Democrats that would place more limits on surveillance capabilities than the administration favors and would not give telecommunication companies immunity from lawsuits for past aid they provided the government.

"At the same time the administration is trying to intimidate the Congress into giving it additional spying power, we find out yet again that it has abused its authority to pry into the lives of law-abiding Americans," Conyers said in a statement.

Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said in a statement that Fine's report "should come as no surprise" because it focused on a period before a host of procedural changes were introduced at the FBI, including creation of the Office of Integrity and Compliance to oversee the use of security letters and other special powers.

"The Inspector General correctly emphasizes the need for sustained oversight of the FBI's use of NSLs, and concludes that the senior leadership of the Justice Department and the FBI are committed to addressing these issues and continue to devote significant energy, time and resources to this effort," Boyd said.

According to Fine's report, the FBI continued to rely heavily on national security letters in counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cybercrime investigations, issuing nearly 200,000 from 2003 through 2006.