Washington – Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday the Pentagon and CIA are not violating people’s rights by examining the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States.
National-security letters permit the executive branch to seek records about people in terrorism and spy investigations without a judge’s approval or grand jury subpoena.
“The Defense Department gets involved because we’ve got hundreds of bases inside the United States that are potential terrorist targets,” Cheney said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The Department of Defense has legitimate authority in this area. This is an authority that goes back three or four decades. It was reaffirmed in the Patriot Act.
“It’s perfectly legitimate activity. There’s nothing wrong with it or illegal. It doesn’t violate people’s civil rights.”
In a statement Sunday, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said his panel would take a look at those claims.
“Any expansion by the department into intelligence collection, particularly on U.S. soil, is something our committee will thoroughly review,” Reyes said.
The FBI, the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of national-security letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Pentagon and the CIA, to a lesser extent, have also used this little-known power, officials said.
The letters have generated criticism and court challenges from civil-liberties advocates who claim they invade the privacy of Americans’ lives, even though banks and other financial institutions typically turn over the records voluntarily.
The CIA has used these noncompulsory letters in espionage investigations and other circumstances, an official said.
“This is a dramatic story, but I think it’s important for people to understand here this is a legitimate security effort that’s been underway for a long time, and it does not represent a new departure from the standpoint of our efforts to protect ourselves against terrorist attacks,” Cheney said.
