Ability to seize personal data essential claims FBI

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The FBI has argued that its anti-terrorism work will suffer if the US Congress scales back its ability to obtain personal data.

The FBI said it had strengthened oversight of its use of so-called national security letters, which allow the agency to obtain bank records and other personal information without court oversight. A report made public two weeks ago found the FBI often used the letters improperly and sometimes illegally.

"We've had a lot of soul-searching at the FBI since then," FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni told the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. "We got an 'F' on our report card, and we're not used to that."

The Justice Department report rebuked the FBI for improperly obtaining customer records from telephone companies, internet service providers, banks and credit card issuers.

Civil liberties groups and some Democrats have called for Congress to revoke a section of the 2001 Patriot Act that made it easier for the FBI to use national security letters.

Caproni said national security letters "provide the basic building blocks" of the FBI's counterterrorism efforts. After the 2005 London train bombings, the letters enabled the FBI to quickly figure out who in the United States exchanged phone calls with those involved, she said.

Republicans on the committee said they would have a difficult time preventing Congress from revoking that ability if the agency didn't act with more responsibility.

"I hope this would be a lesson to the FBI that they can't get away with this and maintain public support," said Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who headed the committee when it was under Republican control. "Given the way the FBI has acted, I have my doubts."

Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said he would try to figure out who may have been harmed by investigative abuses before deciding whether it would be necessary to limit the FBI's authority.

"Changing the law is going to be pretty difficult, I don't have any illusions about that," Conyers said after the hearing.

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