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In defense of civil liberties

Under the leadership of Glenn Fine, the Department of Justice Inspector General's Office is doing a yeoman's job investigating civil liberties violations within the department and issuing well-researched reports on the topic.

If only Congress were a little more interested in their conclusions.

Following 9/11 and the sweep of hundreds of Arab and Muslim immigrants that followed, Fine's office was the only organ of government to thoroughly investigate the claims that alien detainees were held for inordinately long periods of time without legal justification. A scathing report issued in 2003 found that the detainees had been denied access to lawyers, were held in unduly harsh conditions and some were severely mistreated by guards.

Congress barely raised an eyebrow at the distressing findings.

Now, the inspector general has found that over the last two years the FBI violated wiretapping and internal intelligence gathering procedures in more than 100 cases.

In some situations eavesdropping continued well past the expiration of a warrant. In others, FBI agents were given more private information than they were legally entitled to, such as the content of phone calls rather than just a register of numbers called and received. And in a small number of cases the FBI conducted physical searches that were not properly approved. The report suggested the errors have been getting more serious over time.

The report also revealed that two key additional investigations are under way. In one, the inspector general is investigating the department's use of a snooping tool known as a national security letter. In the other, the focus is on the treatment of material witnesses.

Since the broadening of its national security letter powers in the USA Patriot Act, the department has issued tens of thousands of these administrative subpoenas annually for use in obtaining personal and confidential records in terrorism investigations. It is not necessary to get a judge's approval before a national security letter is issued and there is reason to suspect that the tool has been misused to unduly invade the privacy of Americans.

Also, the Office of Professional Responsibility is looking into the way 21 people held as material witnesses in terror investigations were treated. Witnesses can be detained if they have information that is pivotal to a criminal investigation and are considered a flight risk. But the department used the statute as a form of preventive detention when there wasn't enough evidence to charge an individual with a terror-related crime. We know this because some ostensible material witnesses were held without any attempt being made to obtain their testimony.

The inspector general's office has been doing its job, unearthing and reporting on civil liberties violations that have occurred during terrorist investigations. But these reports haven't generated congressional hearings or stepped up oversight. The Bush administration and the Republican leadership in Congress simply aren't interested.

At least Glenn Fine still is, and for that he deserves our gratitude.

[Last modified March 13, 2006, 01:02:02]