Patriot Act swells tally of covert searches

WASHINGTON — Underscoring changes in domestic surveillance allowed under the Patriot Act, the Justice Department said in a report released Sunday that it conducted hundreds more secret searches around the U.S. last year under foreign intelligence surveillance laws.

The department said the use of covert search powers, which were enhanced under the Patriot Act, shows how federal investigators have stepped up the war against terrorism in the U.S. over the last 32 months.

But civil liberties groups expressed concern over the increase because the targets of the searches are given fewer legal protections than suspects in normal criminal cases. The process of obtaining approval and executing the searches and surveillance is also shrouded in secrecy.

In an annual report to Congress, the Justice Department said it obtained approval to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches in more than 1,700 cases last year. According to the Justice Department, the number of searches has surged 85 percent in the last two years; about 1,200 searches were authorized in 2002, and just 900 in 2001.

The report did not identify or discuss specific cases.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a prepared statement that the data illustrated how the Justice Department and the FBI are "acting judiciously and moving aggressively" to uncover and prevent terrorist attacks in the U.S.

"These court-approved surveillance and search orders are vital to keeping America safe from terror," Ashcroft asserted.

The burst of activity is a direct result of the easing of standards for intelligence-gathering that was authorized by the Patriot Act, the terror-fighting law enacted by Congress six weeks after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

Under the new law, the government can obtain secret warrants by showing that a significant purpose of the search has to do with intelligence-gathering, as opposed to a criminal investigation. Before the change, the law was interpreted as requiring the government to show that intelligence-gathering was the primary reason for the request.

Many experts believe that the old rules were too restrictive, and unduly impeded the hunt for potential terrorists. The new procedures were upheld in court in November 2002.