March 26, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 22, 1424

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LOS ANGELES, March 25: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Monday said the US Justice Department is acquiring new spy powers that will allow the department to force banks, internet service providers (ISPs), telephone companies, and credit card agencies to turn over their customers’ records without any judicial approval.

In a press statement it said: “Without judicial oversight, there is simply no assurance that the Attorney General is using this authority in keeping with democratic principles and constitutional rights,” said Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Technology and Liberty Programme.

Information about the government’s surveillance powers was obtained through a Freedom of Information

Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed jointly with the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the Freedom to Read Foundation.

According to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the government employs “National Security Letters” — signed by Attorney General Ashcroft or a delegate and with no judicial approval — to “compel the production of a substantial amount of relevant information”.

The government can use the power to obtain records about people living in the United States, including American citizens, without probable cause that the person has committed any crime.

Entities that are forced to turn over records are prohibited from disclosing to their customers — or to anyone else — that the FBI has demanded the records.

The American Civil Liberties Union had always been critical of the letters because they do not require judicial review. However, said Jaffer, under the Patriot Act, “the letters have become a far more invasive and nefarious tool”.

Before the Patriot Act, Jaffer explained, National Security Letters could be issued only against people who were reasonably suspected of espionage.

The Patriot Act allows the attorney general to issue National Security Letters even against people who are not suspected of criminal activity or of acting on behalf of a foreign power.

The government had refused to say how extensively it was using its authority to issue the letters.

But Jaffer said that the length of the blacked-out lists of National Security Letters suggested that the government was using the power more extensively than other surveillance powers under the Patriot Act that required court approval.

The American Civil Liberties Union had created a special web feature with samples of the blacked-out documents and government memos describing the new powers.

Other recently obtained documents confirmed that the FBI was conducting wiretaps and secret searches in criminal investigations without complying with the usual probable cause requirements; the government was using an extraordinarily broad surveillance provision that could be used to force libraries and bookstores to report on their patrons’ and customers’ reading habits; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was aggressively using pen registers and trap-and-trace devices that allowed them to track phone calls and emails; the government had planned to use its new surveillance powers not only against suspected terrorists but also against ordinary Americans and permanent residents.