Washington Times: FBI surveillance tactics jeopardized by fight over NSA phone snooping program by Phillip Swarts:

Congressional discord may cause the FBI to lose its ability to collect hotel bills, credit card slips and other “tangible things” they use to hunt down terrorists, spies and criminals.

The Intercept: FBI Flouts Obama Directive to Limit Gag Orders on National Security Letters by Dan Froomkin:

Despite the post-Snowden spotlight on mass surveillance, the intelligence community’s easiest end-run around the Fourth Amendment since 2001 has been something called a National Security Letter.

FBI agents can demand that an Internet service provider, telephone company, or financial institution turn over its records on any number of people — without any judicial review whatsoever — simply by writing a letter that says the information is needed for national security purposes. The FBI at one point was cranking out over 50,000 such letters a year; by the latest count, it still issues about 60 a day.

New American: Patriot Act’s Illegal Section 215 due to Expire June 1 by Bob Adelmann:

Section 215 of the Patriot Act is set to expire June 1, and each side in the upcoming battle to renew, reform, or let expire this unconstitutional abridgement of freedoms is rolling out its arguments.

Section 215 is often referred to as the Patriot Act’s “library records” provision because it allows the FBI to order a library or any other source to produce, without a warrant showing probable cause (as required under the Fourth Amendment), all “tangible things” belonging to its target of interest including “books, records, papers, documents, and other items.” That includes books borrowed and websites visited by the target while at the library. Niceties demanded by the Fourth Amendment are ignored in Section 215 as long as the FBI “specifies” that its order is “for an authorized investigation … to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.”