Late night browsing turns up an anonymous column in today’s Washington Post. This reports on the person’s experience with having been served one of the National Security letters.
He no longer has to report to the FBI on any client’s information, but he isn’t free to admit that he received the letter. In fact, he must lie to friends and family about the situation, cannot admit the circumstances that he has gone to the ACLU and filed a suit for relief.
This would be a dreadful way to be constrained!
Note: Found this at Democratic Underground, but the link is to the Post.
Update [2007-3-24 14:32:33 by Books Alive]:
Written statement of House testimony by Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office is on their website. Out of the 140,000 national security letters sent from 2003 to 2006, only one conviction and 153 criminal proceedings (federal grand juries, search warrant, indictments and trials) resulted.
Sen Leahy’s statement includes his objections and reasons for voting against the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Inspector General Fine’s written testimony is at the Judiciary Committee website.
