National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: A Glimpse of the Legal Background and Recent Amendments, December 27, 2010

摘要

Five statutory provisions vest government agencies responsible for certain foreign intelligence investigations (principally the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)) with authority to issue written commands comparable to administrative subpoenas. These National Security Letters (NSLs) seek customer and consumer transaction information in national security investigations from communications providers, financial institutions, and credit agencies. This is an abridged version of CRS Report RL33320, National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Legal Background and Recent Amendments, without the footnotes, appendixes, and most of the citations to authority found in the longer report.