This is a tiny detail, but it rubs me the wrong way.
National Security Letters — secret demands for records and information from the FBI — have been in the news lately. Once an obscure tool that allowed the bureau to get information on suspected spies and terrorists without court approval, the Patriot Act expanded their application so that now they are reportedly used against U.S. journalists and other law-abiding Americans.
Here’s what bugs me: As ABC News and others have reported, Justice Department Assistant Attorney General William Moschella told Congress last month that 9,254 National Security Letters were issued in 2005 against 3,051 U.S. persons.
But last November, the Washington Post cited multiple anonymous “government sources” who put the number of NSLs issued by the FBI each year at 30,000.
At the time, Moschella wrote the Washington Post to complain about the piece and “disputed the article’s statistics on the use of national security letters,” the paper reported Nov. 30. “[B]ut he did not offer another figure.”
So what’s the deal? How many letters did the FBI issue? The Post was counting all NSLs, while Moschella reported only those issued against U.S. persons. Does that account for a discrepancy of more than 20,000 letters?
