This is totally UnAmerican!

The Washington Post publishes an anonymous letter from a recipient of a "National Security Letter" (with associated Gag Order) from the FBI.

The Justice Department's inspector general revealed on March 9 that the FBI has been systematically abusing one of the most controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act: the expanded power to issue "national security letters." It no doubt surprised most Americans to learn that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 specific demands under this provision -- demands issued without a showing of probable cause or prior judicial approval -- to obtain potentially sensitive information about U.S. citizens and residents. [Snip]

The inspector general's report makes clear that NSL gag orders have had even more pernicious effects. Without the gag orders issued on recipients of the letters, it is doubtful that the FBI would have been able to abuse the NSL power the way that it did. Some recipients would have spoken out about perceived abuses, and the FBI's actions would have been subject to some degree of public scrutiny. [Snip]

I found it particularly difficult to be silent about my concerns while Congress was debating the reauthorization of the Patriot Act in 2005 and early 2006. If I hadn't been under a gag order, I would have contacted members of Congress to discuss my experiences and to advocate changes in the law. The inspector general's report confirms that Congress lacked a complete picture of the problem during a critical time: Even though the NSL statute requires the director of the FBI to fully inform members of the House and Senate about all requests issued under the statute, the FBI significantly underrepresented the number of NSL requests in 2003, 2004 and 2005, according to the report.

The combination of the automatic gag order and the lack of any judicial review (or any other review outside the FBI) is especially pernicious. It allows people in the FBI to simply send the letters for any reason or no reason at all, then their actions are expected to never to be reviewed.

Then, as indicated above, to petition Congress for redress becomes a crime against the gag order - a gag order never issued by a Judge. Some GS-11 or GS-12 FBI agent who wants (not necessarily needs) some additional information simply picks up a pre-written form, adds a name and address and signs it, then hands it to a clerk to act on. No investigator ever needs less information because you never know for sure where the next surprise will come from.

In the government investigations I performed as a Social Security Claims Representative, I always wanted more information on my target. Each new potential source of information was milked for every possible data item. I had routine methods of gathering information, and I was not an official investigator. I was trying to show that a crime might have occurred, in which case my boss would send my investigation and results to the Department of Justice for any action they thought necessary. But the motivation of the investigator is the same. You always want more data. The investigation itself is all the justification you need to try to obtain at least one more item of data. An outside evaluator - like a Judge - is needed to determine how far the investigation should be allowed to go and whether pushing for the next source of data is justified.

The Patriot Act made searching telecommunications into a routine data source, just like checking the phone book. Then, because the authors of that provision knew it would have a backlash, they placed an automatic gag order on it so that the recipient of the request (demand) for data was not allowed to complain.

This is giving too much trust to the government! Where were the Conservatives who distrust government? Oh, yeah. They were the guys who wrote this damned Bill and defend it today, aren't they?