The American Cheka

Freedom of the Press Foundation has been suing the Justice Department (DOJ) under the Freedom of Information Act for [their secret rules for targeting journalists and sources with National Security Letters] for the past year. Just two weeks ago, a coalition of three dozen news organizations, including the New York Times and Associated Press, demanded the DOJ release them. The DOJ, so far, has refused.

  Freedom of the Press Foundation

But, guess what? The leaky ship that is the ship of state these days has passed them to The Intercept.

First, the rules clearly indicate—in two separate places—that NSLs can specifically be used to conduct surveillance on reporters and sources in leak investigations. This is quite disturbing, since the Justice Department spent two years trying to convince the public that it updated its “Media Guidelines” to create a very high and restrictive bar for when and how they could spy on journalists using regular subpoenas and court orders. These leaked rules prove that the FBI and DOJ can completely circumvent the Media Guidelines and just use an NSL in total secrecy.

This isn't shocking, and I suppose the reason is that these days we simply expect the government to be spying on us all, including journalists, "legally" or not.

Second, the DOJ told the New York Times in 2013 that, despite NSLs being exempt from the media guidelines, they were still used under a “strict legal regime.” Well, the “strict legal regime” here is basically non-existent. The only extra step the FBI has to go through to spy on journalists with an NSL—besides the normal, lax NSL procedures, which they have flagrantly and repeatedly violated over the past decade—is essentially get the sign off of a superior in the Justice Department. That’s it!

And we're so much safer for it.

The other major question here is: why are these rules secret in the first place?

It's just the nature of the government, I think.

The fact that the FBI has to get another person in the bureaucracy to sign off on a particular investigation should not be a state secret, nor would it remotely harm any ongoing investigation, nor would “tip off” any alleged criminals to how to evade surveillance.

What the government does is none of the citizens' business. Go buy stuff. Incur some debt.

Congress is now engaged in a debate to dramatically expand the FBI's use of National Security Letters.

Of course they are.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.