MOsanthrope

Posted by Chris on April 29, 2006 at 9:58 am.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court’s approval, the Justice Department said Friday.

Wow. That’s a lot of terrorists. I wonder if I’m a terrorist.

It was the first time the Bush administration has publicly disclosed how often it uses the administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without a judge’s approval or a grand jury subpoena.

* * *

The numbers from previous years remain classified, officials said.

Don’t worry:

The spike is expected to be temporary, however, because the Patriot Act renewal that President Bush signed in March made it easier for authorities to obtain subscriber information on telephone numbers captured through certain wiretaps.

Problem solved.

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Law