But as this report, the eighth in a special series on civil liberties after 9/11, makes clear, the barriers have been lowered and the lines redrawn. The PATRIOT Act that was rushed through Congress after the attacks, under pressure from the Justice Department, greatly expanded the FBI's authority to monitor people living in the United States. One section in particular, giving the FBI unprecedented access to personal records and other belongings in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments, is misunderstood because officials haven't leveled with the press and public. Section 215 targets innocent people, not terrorists; it specifically gives the FBI authority to monitor people not engaged in criminal activity or espionage, and to do so in complete secrecy.

There should be no wiggle room in "inalienable rights." But according to information detailed in this report, the FBI can use the provision to obtain personal belongings directly from your home. It can also get your medical or psychiatric records, and lists of people who have borrowed a particular book, visited a particular Web site, or worshipped at a particular church, mosque, temple or synagogue.

Unpatriotic Acts is fact-filled, explicit and deeply unsettling. Once you've read it, I think you will find it hard to be complacent.

A Rom

ANTHONY D. ROMERO
Executive Director

American Civil Liberties Union

An ACLU Report.

MAGINE THIS SCENARIO: You flee Iraq after being imprisoned and persecuted for your political views. When you arrive in the United States, a local charity helps you find housing and medical care. You start a small business, join a mosque, and become active in a Muslim community association. You use email at a public library to keep in touch with your extended family in Iraq, and to discuss politics with friends. Two years later, you are grateful for the freedoms you enjoy in your new home.

When the U.S. invades Iraq, you are thankful to be rid of Saddam but angry about civilian casualties and the extended U.S. occupation. You write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper encouraging a quick transfer of power to Iraqi civilians.

An FBI agent who is conducting an investigation of other Iraqi-Americans notices your letter and finds it troubling. Based on the letter, the sound of your name, and the outside possibility that you may be connected to the people he's investigating, he decides to investigate you. He goes to a secret court and gets an order that forces the library and its Internet service provider to turn over all your email messages. Then he gets another secret order to obtain records from the charity that helped you when you first arrived in the United States. Those records lead him to the local hospital, where he obtains records of medical treatment you received. He serves another order on the local mosque to find out whether or not you're a member or serve in a leadership position. Though he uncovered nothing suspicious about you in his fishing expedition, he gets another secret order forcing the Muslim commu

nity association to turn over its entire membership list. If not you, he thinks, maybe another member has some connection to those people he's investigating...

As it turns out, you never learn that the FBI is spying on you. The FBI certainly doesn't tell you. And the library, the charity, the hospital, the mosque, and the community association are all prohibited forever - from telling you or anyone else that the FBI has asked for your records. You simply never learn that the government has been rifling through your life.

Could such a thing happen to you or someone you know? Perhaps it already has. The USA PATRIOT Act vastly expands the FBI's authority to monitor people living in the United States. These powers can be used not only against terrorists and spies but also against ordinary, lawabiding people - immigrants from Iraq or Italy, dentists from Detroit or Denver, truck drivers from Tampa or Tulsa, painters from Peoria or Pittsburgh. Indeed, the FBI can use these powers to spy on any United States citizen or resident.

This report examines in detail one PATRIOT Act provision, Section 215, which gives the FBI unprecedented access to sensitive, personal records and any "tangible things." The report explains why Section 215 is misguided, dangerous, and unconstitutional. It reviews the history of unlawful surveillance, and explains why it would be a serious mistake for us to rely on the government to police itself. The report also documents attempts by Congress and the ACLU to challenge the secrecy surrounding the FBI's use of Section 215. It exposes a government disin

SECTION 215 VASTLY EXPANDS THE FBI'S SPYING POWERS.

What the Law Says

Section 215 vastly expands the FBI's power to spy on ordinary people living in the United States, including United States citizens and permanent residents. It lets the government obtain personal records or things about anyone from libraries, Internet service providers, hospitals, or any business - merely by asserting that the items are "sought for" an ongoing terrorism investigation. Section 215 threatens individual privacy, because it allows the government free reign to monitor our activities. It also endangers freedom

Section 215 amends an obscure law called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which became law in 1978. FISA set out the procedures that the FBI had to follow when it wanted to conduct surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes. The system is extraordinary not least because the FISA Court meets in secret, almost never publishes its decisions, and allows only the government to appear before it. But of course it applied only to foreign spies. Thanks to the PATRIOT Act, the FBI can now use FISA even in investigations that don't involve foreign spies. In fact, under Section 215 the FBI can now spy on ordinary, law-abiding Americans.

To obtain your personal records or things under Section 215, the FBI does not need to show

An ACLU Report

"probable cause" - or any reason - to believe that you have done anything wrong. It does not need to show that you are involved in terrorism, directly or indirectly, or that you work for a country that sponsors terrorism. If you are a United States citizen or permanent resident, the FBI can obtain a Section 215 order against you based in part on your First Amendment activity based, for example, on the books that you borrowed from the library, the Web sites you visited, the religious services you attended, or the political organizations that you joined. If you are not a citizen or permanent resident, the FBI can obtain a Section 215 order against you based solely on your First Amendment activity.

In fact, Section 215 authorizes federal officials to fish through personal records and belongings even if they are not investigating any person in particular. Under Section 215, the FBI could demand a list of every person who has checked out a particular book on Islamic fundamentalism. It could demand a list of people who had visited a particular Web site. It could demand a client list from a charity that offers social services to immigrants.

A gag order in the law prevents anyone served with a Section 215 order from telling anyone else that the FBI demanded information. Because the gag order remains in effect forever, surveillance targets - even wholly innocent ones - are never notified that their privacy has been compromised. If the government uses Section 215 to keep track of the books you read, the Web sites you visit, or the political events you attend, you will simply never know.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Congress created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in 1978 to oversee FBI surveillance in foreign-intelligence investigations. The FISC hears FBI applications for foreign-intelligence surveillance orders and warrants, including Section 215 orders. It is comprised of 11 district court judges who are appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court for terms of up to seven years Since 1978, the FISC has heard approximately 15,000 FBI wiretap and electronic surveillance applications. (This number does not include Section 215 orders, which the FBI is not required to report.) Of these applications, the FISC summarily approved without modification all but five, and it did not reject

even one.

While the FISC has traditionally granted FBI surveillance applications, in May 2002 its judges issued an extraordinary, unanimous opinion rejecting the Attorney General's bid for more power to conduct electronic surveillance under the PATRIOT Act. Unfortunately, that historic opinion was overturned by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR), an appeals court that had never convened before (The ACLU filed a friend-of-thecourt brief but was not permitted to argue before the Court. More information about the extraordinary litigation before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review is posted at http: www.aclu.org SafeandFree.) After the FISCR opinion, it is less likely that the FISC will again attempt to serve as a meaningful check on FBI surveillance