FBI Won't Reveal NSLs at Libraries

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 5/1/2007

While the FBI has been quite willing to announce that it has not used Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act to seek records from libraries (see News, LJ 4/1/07, p. 14ff.), it has balked at public disclosure of its use of National Security Letters (NSLs), another method to gain such records and the one that American Library Association officials consider a more likely avenue.

The issue came up at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing March 27 regarding oversight of the FBI, notably the findings by the Department of Justice Inspector General that the FBI, in pursuit of some NSLs (though not necessarily library ones), had sought personal data without proper authorization and improperly obtained telephone records.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the committee chair, grilled FBI director Robert Mueller about the use of NSLs, citing the 2005 effort to gain records from the Library Connection consortium in Windsor, CT, calling it “Kafka at the extreme,” because the librarians were unable to discuss or contest the request publicly. (The effort was ultimately dropped, and the law was modified to allow recipients to contest the action.)

While Mueller said he didn't know how many times NSLs had been used at libraries, he said he'd get the answer by the end of the week. Later, the FBI did provide a number, but a Leahy staffer told LJ that the answer was classified and thus could not be publicly shared.