8A the university daily kansan
news
friday, april 16, 2004
FBI issuing more surveillance warrants
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The number of secret surveillance warrants sought by the FBI has increased 85 percent in the past three years, a pace that has outstripped the Justice Department's ability to quickly process them.
Even after warrants are approved, the FBI often does not have enough agents or other personnel with the expertise to conduct the surveillance. The FBI still is trying to build a key group of translators who can understand conversations that are intercepted in such languages as Arabic, Pashto and Farsi.
These findings are among those of investigators for the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, which has harshly criticized the intelligence-gathering efforts of the CIA and FBI.
FBI and Justice Department officials said Thursday they are working to address all three issues, which limit the government's ability to gather the kind of
intelligence needed to head off another catastrophic terrorist attack.
The warrants, authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allow for wiretaps, video surveillance, property searches and other spying on people believed to be terrorists or spies.
After the 2001 Patriot Act and a key 2002 court decision crumbled the legal wall separating the FBI's criminal and intelligence investigations, use of FISA warrants has soared as sharing of information has become easier.
Since 2001, the number of warrants has risen from 934 to more than 1,700 in 2003, according to the FBL. The FBI adopted streamlined requests to move the warrant requests quickly from the field offices to headquarters after Sept. 11.
Attorney General John Ashcroft is issuing new guidelines for the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and
Review, which handles FISA requests, spokesman Mark Corallo said. The changes are aimed at reducing and preventing backlogs, he said.
The inability to gather enough evidence for a FISA warrant caused the FBI problems in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. The FBI turned to the CIA to help produce evidence needed to show that Moussaoui might be connected to a foreign terrorist group, which would enable agents to get a FISA warrant to search Moussaoui's computer. That led to an Aug. 23-24 briefing memo to CIA Director George Tenet headlined "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly," but nothing was done before the 19 hijackers completed the Sept. 11 plot that took nearly 3,000 lives.
The commission said it is possible that if the government had acted more quickly on the information involving Moussaoui it could have led authorities to the hijackers.
Some lawmakers and privacy activists worry that FISA remains ripe for g.house. Legislation introduced on Capitol Hill would require the Justice Department to publicly account for the number of Americans subjected to FISA surveillance and how often it is used in criminal cases.
"What it will do is go a long way toward assuaging growing public mistrust of the government," said Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Even if the FISA delays are solved, the FBI is struggling to provide the surveillance experts necessary to carry out the warrants. The commission staff found shortages at every FBI field office they visited and noted that some of these personnel "are not treated as part of an integrated intelligence program" and do not meet regularly with case agents working terrorism suspects.
Unemployment claims increase
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — New claims for unemployment benefits increased last week by 30,000, the biggest jump in 16 months. Still, analysts said yesterday they believed the labor market has turned a corner, pointing the way to a sustainable economic recovery.
The Labor Department reported that there were 360,000 newly unemployed workers filing for jobless benefits last week. A week earlier the number was 330,000 — the lowest in more than three years.
The increase was far above the 7,000 rise in new claims that analysts had expected. It was the largest one-week gain since December 2002, when the country was struggling to rebound from the 2001 recession.
Analysts pointed to a number of factors that skewed last week's number. For one, it was the first
week in a new quarter - a time when claims often temporarily surge.
The four-week moving average for claims, which smooths out some of the volatility, rose a smaller 6,750 to stand at 344,250 still below 350,000—a level generally seen as denoting an improving job market.
Also seen as encouraging was the decline of continuing claims by 22,000, to 2.98 million last week. That was the lowest since July 2001 and an indication that unemployed workers are having more luck getting work.
Wall Street had a lackluster session yesterday as investors continued to worry that stronger economic growth and higher inflation will lead the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates sooner than expected. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 19.51 points at 10,397.46.
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