FBI posted a perfect record on snooping requests in 2010

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By GCN Staff
 

Connecting state and local government leaders

By GCN Staff

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The court that reviews the FBI’s requests for secret electronic surveillance of U.S. residents granted 100 percent of them in 2010, raising concerns that it’s merely rubber-stamping the requests.

The FBI batted a perfect 1.000 in 2010 on its requests to electronically snoop on suspected foreign agents or terrorists in the United States, according to Wired.com’s David Kravets for Ars Technica.

A Justice Department report requested by the Federation of American Scientists states that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved all 1,506 requests in 2010 for electronic monitoring, which allows the FBI to secretly collect intelligence from electronic communications without the target knowing about the warrant, Kravets writes. In addition to electronic surveillance warrants, the FBI sent more than 24,000 national security letters to a variety of sources, such as banks, credit companies and Internet service providers, compelling them to provide information on more than 14,000 people, according to the report Kravets cites.

The FBI’s perfect record in 2010 followed its 2009 performance in which the court denied only two of 1,329 requests, according to Kravets. That high success rate has generated concerns that the court’s reviews are merely a formality, though Justice argues that the FBI knows exactly what the court is looking for and limits requests to meet those expectations.

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