The ACLU filed a government sunshine suit Thursday against the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, seeking to force the agencies to disclose documents about their use of a powerful and secretive Patriot Act power known as a National Security Letter.
The ACLU requested information via the Freedom of Information Act on whether and how these agencies are using the letters, which let the government get communication and financial records without getting a judge's approval, following a New York Times story that uncovered the practice. Additionally, the letters prohibit the recipients from ever disclosing they got one and it's not clear that either of these agencies, which are largely forbidden by law from operating inside the United States, can actually use the tool legally.
The FBI is already under scrutiny for its usage of National Security Letters following a devastating inspector general report and a subsequent internal audit. Those reports revealed that FBI agents issued letters covering at least 143,000 targets from 2003 to 2005, struck secret deals with telecoms to expedite delivery of Americans' records and may have broken the law thousands of times by violating the agency's own guidelines on how to issue the letters.
Separately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently won a similar suit against the Justice Department, which now has to turn over thousands of NSL-related documents a month starting July 6.
For its part, THREAT LEVEL attempted to force the FBI to turn over its contracting documents with the nation's largest telecoms, but the FBI, in violation of its own rules, ignored the request.
ACLU complaint (.pdf) Photo: Ljubisa Bojic
