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Increase in domestic spying

Justice Department official says domestic surveillance efforts rose by nearly a fifth in 2005 from prior year

BY TOM BRUNE | Newsday Washington Bureau

May 2, 2006

WASHINGTON - The federal government increased its domestic surveillance in pursuit of terrorists and spies last year in part because it had more lawyers working on applications for eavesdropping, searches and records requests, a Justice Department official said yesterday.

The number of applications approved by a special secret court for domestic electronic surveillance and physical searches rose by nearly a fifth last year, to a record 2,072 from 1,754 in 2004, according to a report the Justice Department gave Congress late Friday.

Requests for the business records of individuals under Section 215 of the Patriot Act - the controversial so-called "library records" provision - hit 155 last year, up from 35 in the previous two years, according to the report and officials.

And, for the first time, the report disclosed that the FBI issued 9,254 national security letters - administrative subpoenas that do not require court or grand jury approval - to demand bank, credit card, Internet and other business records for 3,501 citizens and others in the United States.

The number of national security letters - a controversial technique attacked by civil liberties groups for its invasion of privacy - in previous years remains classified, the Justice Department said.

A Justice official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, called the reported increase "marginal" and said it was not an actual expansion of domestic surveillance.

Instead, the official said, it was in part the result of a congressional appropriation that allowed the Office of Intelligence and Policy Review to add lawyers to process surveillance requests more quickly.

Budget records show Congress appropriated funds for 30 new positions in the office for fiscal year 2005.

Some privacy and civil liberties groups, however, said they were troubled by increased government spying.

"The missing number is how many Americans have been spied upon without a warrant," said Lisa Graves of the ACLU.

Graves said the report does not say how many people's international or domestic calls and e-mails have been intercepted by the National Security Agency under the president's controversial warrantless wiretap program, disclosed in December, or other programs that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has dropped hints about in congressional testimony.

Marc Rotenberg of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center called the reported increase in surveillance "a serious development."

He said, "The government is today less accountable in its use of electronic surveillance than at any time in the last 40 years."