What do you get when you cross Kafka with Orwell…National Security Letters

“Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress…and (have) offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot.” In effect, we are now under complete and legal surveillance by the FBI. This is not some conspiracy plot or accusation. National Security Letters (NSL) have increased 100 fold according to the Washington Post, some 30,000.

They present you the letter and you are not allowed to let anyone know your situation. In other words, even receiving the letter is confidential. You may not, under risk of criminal prosecution, reveal that you have received such a letter. These letters are given to large corporations, libraries and other vast information gathering networks. As a US citizen under the 1^st and 4^th amendments you are granted rights which can not be dismantled by the government. Privacy (4^th) and speech (1^st) are under attack by the NSL’s. Moreover the information is then deposited into a central network governed and held by the government. “Unannounced decision to deposit all the information they yield into government data banks. President Bush signed Executive Order 13388, expanding access to those files for "state, local and tribal" governments and for "appropriate private sector entities," which are not defined.”

All of this is to protect us from the terrorist networks lurking in our libraries and colleges. Thus the logic of preemption is now slowly moving throughout the US. Rights and freedoms we have enjoyed for over 250 years are simply deluded for government proposes and the average citizen can do nothing about it. In fact, “The records it yields describe where a person makes and spends money, with whom he lives and lived before, how much he gambles, what he buys online, what he pawns and borrows, where he travels, how he invests, what he searches for and reads on the Web, and who telephones or e-mails him at home and at work.” And if you resist, “The House and Senate have voted to make noncompliance with a national security letter a criminal offense.”

So if , like K from The Trial , you are not sure what crime you have commented, it does not matter; for the government is now in the position to place you under arrest for the mere questioning of authority. The FBI’s burden of proof is also weak and vague, for “now the bureau needs only to certify that the records are "sought for" or "relevant to" an investigation "to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." Thus, any link to a book or a web site can gather you into the web of guilt. This is deemed 'linking'. Consequently, you are now guilty for performing any number of benign acts; such as reading a book, checking your email and of course corresponding over the phone.

However, Mr. Billy Jr. tries to clam our unwarranted and irrational fears of governmental intrusion. “Joseph Billy Jr., the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism…said he understands that "merely being in a government or FBI database . . . gives everybody, you know, neck hair standing up." Innocent Americans, he said, "should take comfort at least knowing that it is done under a great deal of investigative care, oversight, within the parameters of the law." Unfortunately, wording for NSL's by FBI agents is far from, as Mr. Billy states, ‘done under a great deal of investigative care.’ For example, “A model request for a supervisor's signature, according to internal FBI guidelines, offers this one-sentence suggestion: "This subscriber information is being requested to determine the individuals or entities that the subject has been in contact with during the past six months." Yes, all I have to prove is that in the last six months someone, anyone, could be linked in anyway to anyone else. Lastly, “What national security letters add to government data banks is information that no commercial service can lawfully possess. Strict privacy laws, for example, govern financial and communications records. National security letters -- along with the more powerful but much less frequently used secret subpoenas from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- override them.”