Editorial: Patriot Act’s probing problem

Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

About 30,000 times a year, FBI officials exercise a provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows agents to demand Americans' personal information from third parties. And Congress could soon add criminal penalties for refusing to comply.

The Patriot Act, a hastily crafted law rammed through Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, broadened authority of the FBI to use "national security letters." The letters were created in the 1970s to allow federal agents to obtain information on suspected foreign spies. The scope of these letters was, by design, narrow.

But the Patriot Act gave the FBI authority to investigate U.S. residents who are not suspected of being terrorists or spies, but may simply have visited a suspicious Web site, checked out an odd library book or received a telephone call from someone who may be connected to someone suspected of terrorist ties.

All of it is done without the person's knowledge. National security letters forbid recipients from revealing that they have been asked to provide such information. A recent Washington Post report says the FBI has issued 30,000 letters annually since its authority was expanded.

The FBI in December 2003 canvassed Las Vegas casinos demanding gaming and other information on tourists who arrived in advance of the New Year's Eve celebration, for which the Homeland Security Department had issued an orange-level terrorism alert. When casino executives balked at turning over guest information, the Post reported, the FBI threatened to issue the national security letters.

"I am deeply concerned by reports that the Justice Department is now issuing 30,000 national security letters a year, that it had badgered Las Vegas hotels for information about guests, and that it is keeping information about innocent visitors long after the end of an investigation," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the Las Vegas Sun this week.

A person who is investigated remains, in effect, guilty by association forever because the information stays in government files even after he is cleared of suspicion. Such information was destroyed before the Patriot Act.

The House and Senate recently voted to make refusing to comply with the letters a criminal act. And the House wants to impose a prison term on people who tell anyone they have received one. Protesting the government's action would become a criminal act.

The expanded use of the letters has made even some conservatives uneasy. "There's no checks and balances whatever on them," Bob Barr Jr., a Georgia Republican who served in the House and is a former CIA analyst, told the Post.

A government probing private citizens' backgrounds without their knowledge needs checks and balances. Congress needs to put the brakes on this far-reaching violation of Americans' basic rights.