FBI Searches Records of Ordinary, Unaccused Americans in Search for Terrorists
A case in Connecticut affords a rare glimpse of an exponentially growing practice of domestic surveillance under the USA Patriot Act. "National security letters," created in the 1970s for espionage and terrorism investigations, originated as narrow exceptions in consumer privacy law, enabling the FBI to review in secret the customer records of suspected foreign agents. The Patriot Act, and Bush administration guidelines for its use, transformed those letters by permitting clandestine scrutiny of U.S. residents and visitors who are not alleged to be terrorists or spies. The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources.
The FBI's Secret Scrutiny, Washington Post, November 6, 2005.
