Senators Question FBI's Use of National Security Letter to Internet Archive
A bipartisan group of Senators is questioning the FBI on its use of an administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter to attempt to obtain records from the Internet Archive, a digital library.
The National Security Letter is intended to be tailored for communications service providers. So the senators, in a letter sent Thursday to FBI Director Robert Mueller, want to know if the FBI reported the request to the oversight board as a possible violation of federal law, Wired reports.
Earlier this month, the FBI withdrew its push for the records after the Internet Archive, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation, filed suit.
The Archive operates the Wayback Machine, which stores archived versions of websites. The Archives’ challenge and victory shed light on an otherwise secretive terrorism-fighting tool used liberally by the FBI, which issues tens of thousands of NSLs each year to Internet service providers, phone companies and credit bureaus.
Wired reports that the senators, including Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., want to know whether the FBI believed the Archive was a communications service provider. If, however, the Archive was considered a library, the NSL may be illegal and should be reported to the Intelligence Oversight Board.
