FBI abused a key Patriot Act power, known as a National Security Letter

FBI agents were routinely sloppy in using the self-issued subpoenas and issued hundreds that claimed fake emergencies

With the flawed follow-up letters, the Counterterrorism division attempted to provide retroactive legal justification for telephone data the division had gotten on 3,860 phone numbers, gotten either through verbal requests to the companies or false emergency requests

The letters are related to still-secret contracts the FBI's Communication Analysis Unit has with AT&T, Verizon and MCI. The contracts pay the companies to store subscribers' phone records for longer periods of time and to provide faster service for FBI subpoenas. Those contracts began in May 2003, but the FBI refuses to release them

Both the House and Senate have bills waiting to be marked up that will greatly limit this authority. Congress needs to act on this now

The 187-page report (.pdf) focused on NSL usage in 2006