FBI Chief Blames Computers for Surveillance Controversy

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday said secret "national security letters" are invaluable in unearthing telephone and e-mail logs and blamed computer snafus for deceiving Congress about how often the technique is used.

In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mueller attempted to downplay widespread concerns about the FBI's illegal use of the letters, which came to light in an inspector general's report earlier this month. The report found that the FBI underreported the number of national security letters and concluded there was "serious misuse" of the surveillance power.

Robert Mueller

Robert Mueller

The 2001 Patriot Act dramatically expanded the power of the FBI to send the secret letters--which do not require court approval--to obtain confidential information on Americans from banks, credit card companies, credit bureaus, telephone companies and Internet service providers. (The recipient is secretly ordered to turn over logs of e-mail messages and telephone calls but not the actual contents of the communication.)

The FBI once used 3x5 index cards to track use of the letters but then switched to a more modern database operated by the bureau's general counsel. But that database has never been linked to the FBI's home-brewed "Automated Case Support," a famously archaic system with IBM terminals as a front-end that has been the subject of a series of devastating internal critiques.