Pat Says...

Here are the specifics for those who haven't been keeping score:

• The FBI can issue warrantless National Security Letters to obtain records about people.
  
• The FBI is supposed to do so only in emergency situations.
  
• The letters are issued without court supervision.
  
• The FBI has failed to document these "exigencies" in sufficient detail, and not at all in some cases.
  
• Because the FBI failed to document its National Security Letters, it is unable to fulfill its mandate to report to Congress on the quantities of letters issued.
  
• Due to lack of documentation, the FBI cannot even provide a list of whom these letters were delivered to.
  
• Due to lack of documentation, the FBI cannot provide a list of Americans whose civil liberties were violated for lack of due process.
  

Who would have thought for a moment that the FBI, offered unaccountability, would fail to take advantage of that to collect as much information as it possibly could? Thank the authors of the Patriot Act, who set this abomination into motion.

This is a clear affront to Americans and the values we stand for. This is the type of unaccountable activity we expected from the Soviet Union two or three decades ago, and never did we think back then that this would happen in our own country.

Had they not already started to do so, I would now be calling on Congress to examine the use of these letters and put some reins on the process. Fortunately, they've already seen the light. This problem reeks so badly that both sides of the congressional aisle can't help but notice it. I'm hoping for real reform here, in the shape of accountability for these letters, and in the application of due process for production of these letters.