By
John MillerLast Friday, the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General released a report on the FBI's use of national security letters. We made mistakes, and we accept responsibility.
The inspector general's audit found that the FBI's audit systems and databases failed accurately to track the numbers of NSLs issued and that potential violations of law or policy might have been underreported. Also of concern was the misuse in some cases of so-called exigent letters requesting telephone billing records before a national security letter was provided. All of these issues are of serious concern. FBI Director Robert Mueller publicly accepted full accountability for lapses in some internal controls on NSLs.
It is also important to note what the inspector general concluded did not happen.
Despite some of the sound bites and headlines, the inspector general did not find any deliberate or intentional misuse of national security authorities. The report did not find there was any intention to withhold information from the Congress or the public. The audit also found no indication of criminal misconduct on the part of FBI employees who made the errors cited. The inspector general found that in most cases, the FBI was seeking "to obtain information that it could have obtained properly," even though the processes used to get that information were sometimes legally flawed.
The report by Inspector General Glenn Fine was a necessary and productive step. The inspector general's role is to provide independent audits. While some of the shortcomings cited had been discovered by the FBI's internal processes, others had not. In each case, corrective steps have been taken.
A national security letter is a minimally intrusive tool used to gather records from third parties (such as telephone companies and banks) in terrorism and espionage cases. An NSL does not allow investigators to listen to calls or read e-mails, both of which require a warrant signed by a judge. NSLs are the tool Congress gave FBI agents to permit them to sort through the thousands of leads, threats, names and numbers that come up in terrorism cases from all over the world.
Cases such as the Madrid train bombings, the London subway attacks or the plot to crash U.S.-bound flights last summer produce hundreds of contacts between suspects overseas and people in the USA. Investigators must promptly follow all those leads to make sure that there are no related cells planning attacks in this country. The failure to prevent the September 11 attacks and the success since then in preventing planned attacks underscore how important it is for the FBI to quickly find needles in haystacks.
Last week, the attorney general and the FBI director outlined a list of significant steps being taken to strengthen our internal control systems. Those shortcomings identified by the inspector general must and will be addressed, but the national security letter remains an important tool that has contributed significantly to the prevention of further attacks on U.S. soil.
John Miller is the FBI's assistant director for public affairs. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-03-12-oppose_N.htm?csp=34
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