Politics: Oh, Well, That Clears Everything Up

The Department of Justice has clarified some matters about the attacks on the privacy of innocent of Americans. If by clear up, you mean made much less clear. According to Declan McCullagh's Politech site, a NY Times report on library visits under FISA and other national security was incorrect. Eric Lichtblau in the Times reported that 50 library visits had taken place. The Justice Department disagrees. I'll let Politech pick up the rest. On his site, the Justice Department release "clarifying" what Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh actually said. :

AAG DINH: Mr. Chairman, Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, requires the Department of Justice to submit semi-annual reports to this committee and also to the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate counterparts on the number of times and the manner in which that section was used in total. We have made those reports. Unfortunately, because they occur in the context of national security investigation, that information is classified. We have made, in light of the recent public information concerning visits to the library, we have conducted an informal survey of the field offices, relating to its visits to libraries. And I think the results from this informal survey is that libraries have been contacted approximately 50 times, based on articulatable suspicion or voluntary calls from libraries regarding suspicious activities. Most, if not all of these contacts that we have identified were made in the context of a criminal investigation and pursuant to voluntary disclosure or a grand jury subpoena, in that context. (Transcript, House Subcommittee on the Constitution, May 20, 2003)

Well, once you put it that way, I can't imagine how a reporter could have mixed that up. But remind me not to ask Dinh for directions.