[NYTr] ACLU: DoD Sought Citizens' Bank Records

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Riaz K. Tayob -activ-l (with no source)

[...but we found several stories, though not this AP piece.

THIS IS NOTHING NEW, either. It was reported by The Washington Post in
June, 2006. See: "Bank Records Secretly Tapped," June 23, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062300167.html

Here are some more references. Most of them concentrate on the
infamous "National Security Letters" that intimidate librarians,
bankers, telco's, ISSPs and anyone else to give Homeland Hysteria
private info without revealing (under pain of treason) that they
have been approached. But really --no one should be at all surprised.
NY Transfer]

There's a whole slew of google news results here:
http://tinyurl.com/yvpnp8

Also see:

Pentagon Faults Efforts to Obtain Bank Records  Boston Globe 10/14
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/10/14/pentagon_faults_efforts_to_obtain_bank_records&cid=1122071530

Problems Found in Efforts to Obtain Bank Records - NYT 10/14
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/washington/14letter.html

AP - Oct 15, 2007

ACLU: DoD Sought Citizens' Bank Records

The Associated Press

New York - The American Civil Liberties Union said Sunday that 
newly uncovered documents show that the Pentagon secretly sent hundreds 
of letters seeking the financial records of private citizens without 
court approval.

The ACLU said an analysis of 455 so-called national security 
letters issued after Sept. 11, 2001 shows that the Pentagon
collaborated with the FBI to circumvent the law and may have
overstepped its legal authority to obtain financial and credit records.
The ACLU has been reviewing the letters and the accompanying
documentation over the past few days.

"Once again, the Bush administration's unchecked authority has led 
to abuse and civil liberties violations," said ACLU Executive Director 
Anthony D. Romero in a statement. "The documents make clear that the 
Department of Defense may have secretly and illegally conducted 
surveillance beyond the powers it was granted by Congress."

No spokesman for the Pentagon was available for comment Sunday.

The New York Times first disclosed the military's use of the 
letters in January, and members of Congress and civil liberties groups 
said the practice conflicted with traditional Pentagon rules against 
domestic law-enforcement operations.

Vice President Dick Cheney defended the practice as a "perfectly 
legitimate activity" used to investigate possible acts of terrorism and 
espionage.

The documents relating to the letters were obtained through the 
Freedom of Information Act by the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier 
Foundation.

The Times reported Sunday that the documents show that the 
Pentagon's own review of the program found systemic problems and poor 
coordination.

According to the Times, the documents suggest that military 
officials used the FBI to collect records for what started as purely 
military investigations.

The Times said military officials defended the letters, which they 
said had been used to gather information about military personnel and 
contractors.

Maj. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Times that 
investigators could use the letters, for example, to examine the assets 
of a military contractor who seemed to have sudden and unexplained
wealth.

But the Times said internal memos issued by Defense Department 
agencies seemed in some cases to encourage the gathering of records on 
nonmilitary personnel.

Recipients of national security letters, including Internet
service providers, financial institutions and credit reporting
agencies, are generally forbidden to disclose that they have received
the letters.

The ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act requests with both the 
Defense Department and the CIA in April seeking all documents related
to their use of the letters to gain access to personal records of
people in the United States. And in June, the ACLU filed a lawsuit to
force those agencies to turn over the documents.

"The expanded role of the military in domestic intelligence 
gathering is troubling," Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the
ACLU's National Security Project, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
"These documents reveal that the military is gaining access to records
here in the U.S. in secret and without any meaningful oversight. There
are real concerns about the use of this intrusive surveillance power."