National Security Letters: The Need for Greater Accountability and Oversight: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary
by
United States Congress Senate
Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2008. LC Number: KF26 .J8 2008c OCLC Number: (OCoLC ...
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Original publisher: Washington: U.S. G.P.O.: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 2008. LC Number: KF26 .J8 2008c OCLC Number: (OCoLC)232975930 Subject: Privacy, Right of -- United States. Excerpt: ... 11 elor's degree from the University of Rochester and his law degree from the University of Virginia. Go ahead, sir. STATEMENT OF GREGORY T. NOJEIM, DIRECTOR, PROJECT ON FREEDOM, SECURITY & TECHNOLOGY, CENTER FOR DE-MOCRACY & TECHNOLOGY, WASHINGTON, D.C. Mr. N. Thank you, Senator Leahy, Senator Specter, mem-OJEIM bers of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of CDT. The DOJ Inspector General found widespread errors and viola-tions in the FBI's use of NSLs to obtain bank, credit, and commu-nication records of U.S. citizens without prior judicial review. These violations are the natural, predictable outcome of the PA-TRIOT Act and other legal and technology changes. They weakened the rules under which FBI agents make these demands while dra-matically expanding their scope. In response, the FBI issued de-tailed guidance on NSLs that contains many useful elements. But internal reforms can only fix so much. The only way to truly address the problems is to legislate traditional checks and balances under which a judge must approve governmental access to sen-sitive information. So far, NSL legislation has been a one-way street. With almost every change in the law, more records from more businesses with more personal information about people increasingly distant from the target of the investigation have been made available to more people in government, with more coercion and less judicial over-sight. And, the judicial review that has been provided for has been largely toothless. Self-policing doesn't work. Going to a judge makes a difference in a way that is unachievable by merely internal reviews or by re-views conducted by attorneys in a different part of the executive branch. Senator Specter said, ' ' Thank God for the...
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