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Report Details Missteps in Data Collection
FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, center, publicly apologized for the FBI's improper use of national security letters.
(By Susan Walsh -- Associated Press)
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The tens of thousands of data-collection requests have produced few criminal charges directly related to terrorism or espionage, according to the inspector general's report. About half of the FBI's field offices did not refer any of those targeted by such requests to prosecutors, the report said, and the most common charges cited by others were fraud, immigration violations and money laundering.
Commercial firms and institutions, which face court action and contempt fines if they do not comply with data-collection requests, were generally exceptionally eager to do so, the report said.
In 19 of the 26 instances in which the FBI itself found a possible violation of the rules during this period, the recipient of such letters "provided more information than was requested or provided information on the wrong person," according to the report. In other instances of abuse discovered by the office of the inspector general, the FBI received "unauthorized information," such as unrequested telephone billing records or e-mail information for longer periods than the bureau sought, the report said.
But the field office errors were small compared with what the report described as major abuses by counterterrorism officials at FBI headquarters.
For example, the FBI on 739 occasions used secret contracts with three telephone companies to obtain records related to 3,000 phone numbers after asserting -- in most instances -- that the records were needed because of "exigent circumstances" and promising that requests for subpoenas had already been sent to U.S. attorney's offices.
In fact, many of these claims were false, according to the report: The letters were mostly used in "non-emergency circumstances"; no documentation existed of a connection to "pending national security investigations"; and "subpoenas requesting the information had not been provided to the U.S. Attorney's Office before the letters were sent."
In a second abuse, the headquarters staff sent 300 requests for data "in connection with a classified special project" without tying the requests to specific investigations, a violation of internal FBI rules, the inspector general's report said.
Staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
