Friday, January 10, 2014

The American Stasi Likes Things Just the Way They Are, Thank You Very Much

FBI Director James Comey on Thursday pushed back against proposed changes in a controversial investigative tool he called key to fighting terrorists. ... In Fiscal 2012, the FBI issued 21,000 national security letters. They are a form of administrative subpoena, issued without court order. ... "I don't see anything that is broken," Comey said.
First off, it's ludicrous to even submit that the FBI submitted 21,000 NSLs in one year alone solely for "fighting terrorists". That's just bullshit. The FBI submits NSLs for every kind of investigation they do. They submit NSLs on a whim and the FBI has had its dick slapped more than once for abusing NSLs.

In case you're not familiar, an NSL is a sooper-seekrit administrative letter that the FBI sends to banks, ISPs, libraries and anyone else that they damn well feel like. An NSL requires the recipients to d\turn over all sorts of information and the recipients are barred forever from ever talking about it to anyone. No judge issues an NSL, just some functionary in an FBI field office. As far as NSLs and the FBI are concerned, the Fourth Amendment doesn't exist.

NSLs need to go away, right now, and permanently. The FBI should be required to apply for a search warrant when they want to go snoop through people's records. Just like the Framers of the Constitution intended.

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