◆ SpookStack

major organizational changes while responding to continuing terrorist threats and conducting many counterterrorism investigations both internationally and domestically. Second, it is also important (o recognize that in most, but not all of the cases we examined, the FBI was seeking information it could have obtained properly through national security letters if it had followed applicable statutes, guidelines and internal policies. Third, we did not find that the FBI employees sought to intentionally misuse NSLs or sought information that they knew they were not entitled to obtain. Instead, we believe the misuses and the problems we found generally were the product of mistakes, carelessness, confusion, sloppiness lack of training, lack of adequate guidance and lack of adequate oversight. I do not believe that any of my observations, however, excuses the FBI's misuse of national security letters. When the Patriot Act enabled the FBI to obtain sensitive information through NSLs on a much larger scale, the FBI should have established sufficient controls and oversight to ensure the proper use of those authorities. The FBI did tot do so. The FBI's failures, in my view, were serious and unacceptable. TI would now like to highlight our review’s main findings. Our review found that after enactment of the Patriot Act, the FBI's use of national security letters increased dramatically. In 2000, the last full year prior to passage of the Patriot Act, the FBI issued approximately 8.500 NSL requests. After the Patriot Act, the number of NSL requests increased to approximately 39,000 in 2003, approximately 56,000 in 2004, and approximately 47,000 in 2005. In total, during the three-year period, the FE] issued more than 143,000 NSL requests. FINE: However, we believe that these numbers, which are based on information from the FBI's database, significantly understate the total number of NSL requests. During our file reviews in four FBI field offices, we found additional NSL requests in the files than were contained in the FBI database. In addition, many NSL requests were not included in the department's reports to Congress. Our review also atlempted to assess the effectiveness of national security letters. NSLs have various uses, including to develop links between subjects of FBI investigations and other individuals and to provide leads and evidence to allow FBI agents to initiate or close investigations. Many FBI headquarters and field personnel from agents in the field to senior officials told the OIG that NSLs are indispensable investigative tools in counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations, and they provided us with examples and evidence of the importance to these investigations. The OIG review also examined whether there were any improper or illegal uses of NSL authorities. From 2003 through 2005, the FBI identified 26 possible intelligence violations involving its used of NSLs.