Friday, June 23, 2006
Lawmakers agree that federal laws are likely being broken.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite the use of private data brokers by federal and local law enforcement agencies, the FBI said Thursday that practices by such companies to gather Americans' private telephone records without warrants or subpoenas are almost certainly illegal.
A senior FBI lawyer, Elaine N. Lammert, told lawmakers the bureau was still surveying agents around the U.S. but so far has found no "systemic" use of data brokers by the FBI seeking telephone records or other information without warrants or subpoenas.
Lammert, the bureau's deputy general counsel for its investigative law branch, told a congressional panel: "There are compelling reasons for the government to believe that these operations violate federal law."
Lawmakers agreed. Police use of such data brokers "might compromise sensitive law enforcement information, compromise operational security or maybe just violate the Constitution," said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
"Even though it may be tougher to go get a warrant, get a subpoena, that's the way the good guys do these things," Barton said.
FBI records
Lammert said one data broker, in a test, obtained the FBI's own telephone records, prompting bureau-wide warnings about the risks to undercover agents.
"There is no compelling law enforcement need to obtain confidential records from Internet data brokers," a Miami-Dade police official, Raul Ubieta, told lawmakers.
Related hearing
At a related congressional hearing earlier this week, David Gandal of Loveland, Colo., who traces deadbeats who default on car loans, testified that he once provided phone information to an FBI agent. Gandal also said a prominent data broker, Jim Welker of Universal Communications Co., boasted to him about working closely with FBI agents.
Welker, who also appeared at the hearing, cited his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and declined to answer questions from lawmakers.
Lammert said the FBI agent who worked with Gandal was inexperienced and that he was instructed by his supervisor afterward not to do it again.
A federal agent who acknowledged requesting phone records from data brokers without warrants or subpoenas told AP that he learned about such services from FBI investigators, who vouched for their use. The agent spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak with reporters.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.