Last year, for the first time, the US government issued more secret surveillance warrants than it approved wiretaps in criminal cases. This, according to a Dan Eggen and Susan Schmidt article in this morning’s Washington Post, marks a shift in strategy in the government’s use of surveillance:
“Federal and state courts authorized the use of wiretaps and other electronic surveillance in 1,442 criminal cases last year, according to data released yesterday by the Administrative Office of the US Courts. By comparison, the FBI says the number of warrants filed last year with the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington jumped to more than 1,700.”
The increase in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrants — an 85 percent increase over the 2001 total of 934 — is especially disturbing because the law enforcement agency requesting the warrant does not have to meet the probable cause standards required in criminal cases. This increase in secret surveillance clearly marks a move by the Bush administration to subvert the basic protections offered by the criminal justice process.
“‘This really amounts to the first statistical proof that the Justice Department has redefined its mission and has undergone a fundamental shift in the way it conducts surveillance,’ said David L. Sobel, general counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which monitors government surveillance policies. ‘The fact that it is now a secret court that is overseeing the majority of surveillance activity, in cases that do not require probable cause, does raise significant privacy and constitutional issues.'”
The boom in surveillance requests has resulted in a backlog. No worries, Attorney General John Ashcroft can go to the head of the line whenever he likes by simply requesting an emergency order while waiting for his standard warrant to be approved.
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US surveillance shifts from criminals to terrorists was originally published by ARTS & FARCES internet on Saturday, 1 May 2004 at 10:48 PM CDT. Copyright © ARTS & FARCES LLC. All rights reserved. | ISSN: 1535-8119 | OCLC: 48219498 | Digital fingerprint: 974a89ee1284e6e92dd256bbfbef3751 (64.237.45.114)