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National Security Letters — Part 1

1188 pages · May 11, 2026 · Document date: Dec 4, 1981 · Broad topic: General · Topic: National Security Letters · 1018 pages OCR'd
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So we're not -- trust me. I'm not happy that we have this report and thal I'm in a position of saying, you know, we failed. ELLISON: Excuse me, Ms. Caproni, if] could just go back to Mr. Fine. Mr. Fine, one of the changes that was made in the Patriot Act was to say, I think, people other than headquarters officials could issue these fetfers. Should the authority for issuance of the letters be retracted to what it was before the Patriot Act? FINE: I’m not sure of that, and I don't want to necessarily give legislation that should occur. I do think it's important, if that authority is out there, that it has to be overseen. And bringing things back to headquarters may or may not be the answer. As you recall in the September 11th attacks with the Moussaoui case, one of the concerns was headquarters was controlling the field too much. And so, there are considerations on both sides of this issue. I do think that when it does go out there, it has to be used appropriately and overseen appropriately. ELLISON: But if you had a narrower route through which these letters were authorized, wouldn't you have greater accountability? FINE: You could. You could have greater accountability. On the other hand, the effectiveness could be diminished significantly. So | think that's the balance that has to be struck, Congressman. CONYERS: Time of the gentleman has expired. But I would like to say to Mr. Ellison, he's raised the point that we need to try to figure out at this hearing: Are there in existence the resources that are required and needed to reveal all of these people who have been abused or violated by this system? CONYERS: For this hearing to close down with the gentleman from California, Mr. Berman, who will be recognized next, without us having figured out, for example, that we don't have anywhere near the resources, as I've been talking with the gentleman from Catifornia, Mr. Lungren, about, either in the Federal Bureau of Investigation or in the Office of the Inspector General. If resources don't exist here, we may end up very well correcting everything from this point on, but how many thousands of people will have been violated that will -- we'll all be saying from now on, “Not to worry. It's all over with.” And that is a troubling consideration, Mr. Lungren, that we've had under discussion, that I'm still looking for the answer to.
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