http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/12/politics/12RECO.html
November 12, 2003
F.B.I.'s Reach Into Records Is Set to Grow
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
ASHINGTON, Nov. 11 A little-noticed measure approved by both the House and
Senate would significantly expand the F.B.I.'s power to demand financial
records, without a judge's approval, from car dealers, travel agents,
pawnbrokers and many other businesses, officials said on Tuesday.
Traditional financial institutions like banks and credit unions are
frequently subject to administrative subpoenas from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to produce financial records in terrorism and espionage
investigations. Such subpoenas, which are known as national security
letters, do not require the bureau to seek a judge's approval before
issuing them.
The measure now awaiting final approval in Congress would significantly
broaden the law to include securities dealers, currency exchanges, car
dealers, travel agencies, post offices, casinos, pawnbrokers and any other
institution doing cash transactions with "a high degree of usefulness in
criminal, tax or regulatory matters."
Officials said the measure, which is tucked away in the intelligence
community's authorization bill for 2004, gives agents greater flexibility
and speed in seeking to trace the financial assets of people suspected of
terrorism and espionage. It mirrors a proposal that President Bush outlined
in a speech two months ago to expand the use of administrative subpoenas in
terrorism cases.
Critics said the measure would give the federal government greater power to
pry into people's private lives.
"This dramatically expands the government's authority to get private
business records," said Timothy H. Edgar, legislative counsel for the
American Civil Liberties Union. "You buy a ring for your grandmother from a
pawnbroker, and the record on that will now be considered a financial
record that the government can get."
The provision is in the authorization bills passed by both houses of
Congress. Some Democrats have begun to question whether the measure goes
too far and have hinted that they may try to have it pulled when the bill
comes before a House-Senate conference committee. Other officials predicted
that the measure would probably survive any challenges in conference and be
signed into law by President Bush, in part because the provisions already
approved in the House and the Senate are identical.
The intelligence committees considered the proposal at the request of
George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, officials said.
Officials at the C.I.A. and the Justice Department declined to comment on
Tuesday about the measure.
A senior Congressional official who supports the provision said that "this
is meant to provide agents with the same amount of flexibility in terrorism
investigations that they have in other types of investigations."
"This was really just a technical change to reflect the new breed of
financial institutions," the official added.
Asked what had prompted the measure, the official said: "This is coming
from 3,000 dead people. There's an ever-expanding universe of places where
terrorists can hide financial transactions, and it's only prudent and wise
to anticipate where they might be and to give law enforcement the tools
that they need to find them."
Christopher Wray, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general in
charge of the criminal division, also addressed the issue last month at a
Senate hearing.
Mr. Wray said that compared with the antiterrorism law that allowed agents
to demand business records with court approval, the F.B.I.'s administrative
subpoenas were more limited. The administrative subpoenas "do provide for
production of some records," he said, but "they don't cover as many types
of business records."