U.S. legislators on Tuesday heard first
hand the findings of an internal
government report, which revealed that
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or
FBI, abused its powers in obtaining
personal information during
investigations of suspected terrorists.
Nearly 80 minutes into the hearing,
Judiciary Committee Chairman John
Conyers banged the gavel to restore
order after a member of the audience
briefly disrupted the proceedings.
The comment "We don't trust the FBI!"
underscored what the FBI's General
Counsel, Valerie Caproni, told the
committee earlier in the hearing - that
the bureau needs American public support
to fight terrorism, particularly in
neighborhoods susceptible to radical
influence. "We need people in those
communities to call us when they hear or
see something that looks amiss. We know
that we reduce the probability of that
call immeasurably, if we lose the
confidence of any part of the American
public," she said.
That trust, however, has been eroded
amid revelations that the FBI may have
misused so-called National Security
Letters to obtain private information
about people, without getting prior
approval from a judge or a grand jury.
Controls over how the letters are used
was loosened under the so-called Patriot
Act, a controversial law passed by
Congress to hunt for terrorists in the
aftermath of the September 11, 2001,
attacks on the United States.
In his testimony, Inspector General
Glenn Fine told the House Judiciary
Committee that the FBI dramatically
increased the number of National
Security letters in violation of
statues, and policies established by the
bureau and the U.S. Attorney General.
But Fine said the FBI did not
intentionally violate the law. "We
believe the misuses and problems that we
found generally were the problem of
mistakes, carelessness, confusion,
sloppiness, lack of training, lack of
adequate guidance and lack of adequate
oversight," he said.
Judiciary Committee Chairman John
Conyers, however, noted that the FBI was
aware of the abuses as early as 2004.
The Inspector General conceded that his
investigation did not inquire about the
actions of individuals. He said it would
be appropriate for the FBI to learn
exactly who was doing what, when and
why, and to hold people accountable for
any violations.
Committee member Jerrold Nadler, a New
York Democrat and critic of the Patriot
Act, said the FBI abuses could be
attributed to the law itself. "It is not
enough to mandate that the FBI fix
internal management problems and
record-keeping, because the statute
itself authorizes the unchecked
collection of information on innocent
Americans," he said.
But Republican Lamar Smith of Texas said
the problem is due to poor
implementation. "It is clear from the
report that these deficiencies are the
result of the poor implementation and
administration of national security
letter authority. In other words, the
problem is enforcement of the law, not
the law itself," he said.
Members of the Judiciary Committee
warned the FBI that it could lose its
expanded surveillance authority, if the
bureau fails to correct its mistakes. |
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美国国会议员星期二听取了一份政府内部报告，报告披露了联邦调查局在调查恐怖分子嫌疑人时为获得公民的个人资料而滥用权力的情况。
听证会进行到近80分钟的时候，司法委员会主席约翰.科尼尔斯在一名旁听者扰乱听证会后敲击议事锤以恢复秩序。
扰乱者大声说：“我们不信任联邦调查。”这句话突出了联邦调查局法律总顾问卡普罗尼在听证会开始时所表达观点的必要性。卡普罗尼说，联邦调查局需要美国公众的支持来进行反恐斗争，尤其是在那些容易受到极端主义影响的社区。卡普罗尼说：“我们需要社区民众在听到或者看见可疑情况时给我们打电话。我们知道，我们如果失去美国公众的信心，就将大大减少接到这种电话的可能性。”
不过，披露出来的情况表明，联邦调查局在没有获得法官或者大陪审团事先批准的情况下，为获取民众私人信息可能滥用了“国家安全信函”。这使得公众对于联邦调查局的信任受到损害。
根据爱国者法案，使用“国家安全信函”的控制已经放松。国会通过引起争议的爱国者法案的目的是在2001年9月11号针对美国的袭击事件发生后追剿恐怖分子。
司法部总监察长格兰.菲恩在证词中对司法委员会说，联邦调查局大大增加了使用“国家安全信函”的次数，违反了由联邦调查局以及美国司法部长订立的有关法律和政策。不过他说，联邦调查局并非有意违反有关法律。费恩说：“我们认为，
我们所发现的滥用职权等问题一般都是错误、粗心、不清楚规定、大意、缺少训练、指导不足、监督不够等方面的问题。”
司法委员会主席约翰.科尼尔斯指出，联邦调查局早在2004年初就意识到存在滥用职权问题。费恩承认，他的调查没有查询个人的行动。他说，联邦调查局确实应该准确了解个人的行为内容、时间以及原因，并且要求个人为违法行为负责。
委员会成员纳德勒是来自纽约的民主党议员，对爱国者法案持批评态度。他说，联邦调查局的滥用职权可以说与爱国者法案本身有关。纳德勒说：“授权联邦调查局治理内部的管理问题以及记录保存问题是不够的，因为这部法律授权他们对无辜美国民众进行没有限制的信息搜集。”
不过，德克萨斯州的共和党人史密斯说，问题是执法不善引起的。他说：“这份报告很清楚地表明，上述不足是国家安全信函权落实和管理不善的结果。换句话说，问题在于执法，而不在于法律本身。”
司法委员会成员警告联邦调查局，如果联邦调查局不能改正自己的错误，将有可能失去其扩大的监视权。 |
