[Infowarrior] - ACLU: Military skirting law to spy

[Richard Forno]

 ACLU: Military skirting law to spy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080402/ap_on_re_us/national_security_letters&pr
inter=1;_ylt=AisCpuTSCnT3gg3T7LVmhzRH2ocA

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press WriterWed Apr 2, 6:39 AM ET

The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic
surveillance to obtain private records of Americans' Internet service
providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, the ACLU said
Tuesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union based its conclusion on a review of more
than 1,000 documents turned over by the Defense Department after it sued the
agency last year for documents related to national security letters, or
NSLs, investigative tools used to compel businesses to turn over customer
information without a judge's order or grand jury subpoena.

"Newly unredacted documents released today reveal that the Department of
Defense is using the FBI to circumvent legal limits on its own NSL power,"
said the ACLU, whose lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court.

ACLU lawyer Melissa Goodman said the documents the civil rights group
studied "make us incredibly concerned." She said it would be understandable
if the military relied on help from the FBI on joint investigations, but not
when the FBI was not involved in a probe.

The FBI referred requests for comment Tuesday to the Defense Department. A
department spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, said in an e-mail
that the department had made "focused, limited and judicious" use of the
letters since Congress extended the capability to investigatory entities
other than the FBI in 2001.

He said the department had acted legally in using a necessary investigatory
tool and noted that "unusual financial activity of people affiliated with
DoD can be an indication of potential espionage or terrorist-related
activity."

Ryder said the information in the ACLU claims came in part from an internal
review of DoD's use of the letters.

"We have since developed training and provided it to the services for their
use," he said.

He said that there was no law requiring it to track use of the letters but
that the department had decided it was in its best interest to do so.

Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, said the
military is allowed to demand financial and credit records in certain
instances but does not have the authority to get e-mail and phone records or
lists of Web sites that people have visited. That is the kind of information
that the FBI can get by using a national security letter, she said.

"That's why we're particularly concerned. The DoD may be accessing the kinds
of records they are not allowed to get," she said.

Goodman also noted that legal limits are placed on the Defense Department
"because the military doing domestic investigations tends to make us leery."

In other allegations, the ACLU said:

€ The Navy's use of the letters to demand domestic records has increased
significantly since the Sept. 11 attacks.

€ The military wrongly claimed its use of the letters was limited to
investigating only Defense Department employees.

€ The Defense Department has not kept track of how many national security
letters the military issues or what information it obtained through the
orders.

€ The military provided misleading information to Congress and silenced
letter recipients from speaking out about the records requests.

Goodman said Congress should provide stricter guidelines and meaningful
oversight of how the military and FBI make national security letter
requests.

"Any government agency's ability to demand these kinds of personal,
financial or Internet records in the United States is an intrusive
surveillance power," she said.