Letter to Inspector General Charles McCullough III, Director of National Intelligence - Surveillance Authorities

Letter

September 23, 2013

The Honorable I. Charles McCullough III
Inspector General of the Intelligence Community
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Washington, DC 20511

Dear Inspector General McCullough:

Recent disclosures about classified government surveillance activities have generated significant public discussion about the breadth of these programs, many of which are conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the need for appropriate oversight and checks and balances.

In particular, concerns have arisen about activities conducted under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of FISA, which was enacted as part of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Recently declassified documents appear to reveal numerous violations of law and policy in the implementation of these authorities, including what the FISA Court characterized as three "substantial misrepresentation[s]" to the Court. These declassified documents also demonstrate that the implementation of these authorities involves several components of the Intelligence Community (IC), including the National Security Agency, Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, among others.

We urge you to conduct comprehensive reviews of these authorities and provide a full accounting of how these authorities are being implemented across the Intelligence Community.

The IC Inspector General was created in 2010 for this very purpose. Comprehensive and independent reviews by your office of the implementation of Sections 215 and 702 will fulfill a critical oversight role. Providing a publicly available summary of the findings and conclusions of these reviews will help promote greater oversight, transparency, and public accountability.

In conducting such reviews, we encourage you to draw on the excellent work already done by the Inspectors General of several agencies, including the Department of Justice, in reviewing these authorities. But only your office can bring to bear an IC-wide perspective that is critical to effective oversight of these programs. The reviews previously conducted have been more narrowly focused -- as might be expected -- on a specific agency.

In particular, we urge you to review for calendar years 2010 through 2013:

* the use and implementation of Section 215 and Section 702 authorities, including the manner in which information -- and in particular, information about U.S. persons -- is collected, retained, analyzed and disseminated;

* applicable minimization procedures and other relevant procedures and guidelines, including whether they are consistent across agencies and the extent to which they protect the privacy rights of U.S. persons;

* any improper or illegal use of the authorities or information collected pursuant to them; and

* an examination of the effectiveness of the authorities as investigative and intelligence tools.

We have urged appropriate oversight of these activities long before the problems with the implementation of these FISA authorities became public. We believe it is important for your office to begin this review without further delay.

Please proceed to administratively perform reviews of the implementation of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of FISA, and submit the reports no later than December 31, 2014. Thank you in advance for your efforts to ensure a full accounting of the implementation of these surveillance authorities across the Intelligence Community.

Sincerely,

PATRICK LEAHY
Chairman
Senate Judiciary Committee

CHARLES E. GRASSLEY
Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee

CHUCK SCHUMER
United States Senator

MIKE LEE
United States Senator

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE
United States Senator

TED CRUZ
United States Senator

CHRIS COONS
United States Senator

JEFF FLAKE
United States Senator

RICHARD BLUMENTHAL
United States Senator

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