NY Times: Secret Warrants Increased in 2003

New York Times By ERIC LICHTBLAU

May 3, 2004

WASHINGTON, May 2 — The government's use of secret warrants to monitor and eavesdrop on suspects in terrorism and intelligence investigations continued to climb sharply in 2003, with more than 1,700 warrants sought, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

Federal authorities made a total of 1,727 applications last year before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret panel that oversees the country's most delicate terrorism and espionage investigations, according to the new data.

The total represents an increase of about 500 warrant applications over 2002 and a doubling of the applications since 2001, the Justice Department said in its report, which was submitted to the federal courts and to Vice President Dick Cheney as required by law.

All but three of applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches of suspects were approved in whole or part by the court. The Justice Department said it did not appeal any of the rejections, but it noted that in two of those cases, warrants were ultimately approved against the targets after changes were made in the applications. Because of the nature of the cases heard by the foreign intelligence court, no details were provided about the investigations.

Civil liberties advocates maintain that the sharp rise in the government's use of the secret warrants, made easier by the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, represents a worrisome trend because the authorities are held to a lower standard of proof in spying on suspects than they are in seeking traditional criminal warrants.

But Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement released Sunday that the new data demonstrated the Justice Department's commitment to tracking terrorism. "We are acting judiciously and moving aggressively by seeking increased surveillance orders" from the court, Mr. Ashcroft said.

In addition to the civil liberties concerns, the increased use of the secret warrants has produced logistical problems as well.

Government officials say investigators have complained of a backlog of weeks or sometimes months in warrant applications, and a staff report last month from the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks spoke of "bottlenecks in the process," which the Justice Department is seeking to correct through increased personnel and organizational changes.

Before the Sept. 11 attacks, there was widespread internal confusion regarding the process and standards for getting an intelligence warrant, leading to lapses in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, now charged with conspiracy in the plot.

The F.B.I. told the commission that "there is now less hesitancy" in seeking the intelligence warrants, the report said. Nonetheless, it added, "requests for such approvals are overwhelming the ability of the system to process them and to conduct the surveillance."