So it would appear that the FBI was leaning hard on the Patriot Act last year. Were they trying to get their kicks in before the party was to end with the inauguration of President Obama?
From Wired:
FISA-court authorizations for national security and counter-terrorism wiretaps dropped last year by almost 300, a new Justice Department report to Congress shows. But the FBI’s use of “national security letters†to get information on Americans without a court order increased dramatically, from 16,804 in 2007 to 24,744 in 2008.
The 2008 requests targeted 7,225 U.S. people.
This is still much lower than the number of NSLs issued in 2006 — more than 49,000 — but indicates that the FBI’s reliance on the self-authorized subpoenas is rebounding, after audits in 2006 and 2007 revealed the bureau had been abusing the tool.
So how is the tracking for 2009? I’d be interested i those kind of stats are available.
