Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Spy game secrecy increasing

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 01:15:47 -0400

Spy game secrecy increasing
Report shows record warrants in 2003
By SHANNON MCCAFFREY
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON - The government's use of secret surveillance warrants to
track 
spies and terrorists surged to a record high in 2003, surpassing for the 
first time the number of wiretaps sought by law enforcement in
traditional 
criminal cases.

The new figures released Saturday show the extent to which the Justice 
Department and the FBI have shifted their focus to battling terrorism in 
the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and, in the process, turned to the 
nation's secret "spy court" for legal permission to do so.

"There's been a fundamental change in the way the government conducts 
surveillance," said David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic
Privacy 
Information Center. "And the result is a lot more secrecy and lot less 
accountability."

Federal agents sought 1,727 warrants from the Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Court for electronic eavesdropping and physical searches
last 
year, according to a Justice Department filing with Congress. Just four 
applications were rejected, although two of them were later revised and 
approved. The number of so-called FISA warrants jumped by 500 from 2002
and 
has almost doubled since 2001 when 934 applications were approved.

By comparison, there were 1,442 wiretap petitions in federal and state 
courts for crimes such as drugs and racketeering, according to a
separate 
report from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the new FISA figures show the
Justice 
Department "is deploying its legal resources to uncover and prevent 
terrorist attacks on Americans."

"To keep the United States and its people safe, it is critical that the 
Department of Justice use every legal means to detect, deter and disrupt 
foreign terrorists and their activities here in America," Ashcroft said.

But critics of the government's surveillance efforts called the sharp 
increase worrisome because the work of the FISA court is conducted in 
secret and allows a lower standard of proof. It's generally tougher for
a 
prosecutor to get permission for traditional wiretaps because they must 
demonstrate that there is probable cause that a suspect engaged in a
crime. 
There's no such requirement when agents are seeking to gather
intelligence 
from a suspected spy or terrorist.

"It's alarming," said Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the
American 
Civil Liberties Union. "We now know that most government surveillance
today 
is supervised by a secret court that does not operate under the
parameters 
of probable cause."

The number of FISA applications has grown so dramatically that a recent 
report by the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks warned that 
federal prosecutors in the Justice Department had fallen behind in 
processing the deluge of applications.

Passed in 1978, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act created a new 
court to oversee highly sensitive law enforcement activities related to 
espionage or terrorism. The Patriot Act, passed in the aftermath of the 
Sept. 11 attacks, broadened the government's ability to seek warrants 
through the secretive 11-member court by essentially knocking down the
wall 
that divided intelligence and law enforcement.

The Patriot Act has become controversial, with critics accusing it of 
infringing on civil liberties. President Bush has said it is essential
to 
the war on terrorism and, in a recent series of public appearances,
urged 
Congress to renew some portions of the law that are set to expire in
2005.

The new secret eavesdrop statistics were disclosed as the House
Judiciary 
Committee prepares to take up a bill in the coming week that would
expand 
the government's police surveillance powers even further.

The Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act is sponsored by
two 
powerful Republicans in the House of Representatives, Reps. James 
Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Porter
Goss, 
R-Fla., chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Among other things the bill would make it a crime for a business or
person 
who receives a national security letter from the FBI demanding
information 
to disclose that contact. The government could prosecute the recipient
if 
he or she failed to comply.

National security letters, which are used to obtain financial records, 
telephone logs and other data, are not subject to judicial oversight.

The ACLU is suing over the letters' use. The FBI has declined to say how 
often they use them.

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/world/8570338.htm

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