A look at one of the FBI's secret weapons against terrorism

Dec 1, 2015 15:50 GMT  ·  By

A landmark in US law was established yesterday after Nicholas Merrill was cleared by a judge to unveil to the public a National Security Letter he had received in 2004 while being the CEO of the Calyx Internet Service Provider.

National Security Letters are administrative subpoenas that are issued under the United States government's authority, used by various law enforcement agencies to gather information for national security purposes.

NSLs, the FBI's secret weapon

Companies or individuals that receive an NSL have to comply with its requests and are virtually gagged from revealing any details about the letter's content, otherwise risk punishment by law.

The US Government introduced NSLs in 1978, but the Patriot Act boosted their use after the 9/11 attacks.

Because NSLs never required to be approved by a judge, civil liberties groups accused the FBI, NSA, and other law enforcement agencies of abusing the power these documents provide. According to official documents, the FBI issued over 300,000 NSLs since 2001.

The end of an 11-year-old lawsuit

Nicholas Merrill received an NSL in 2004 when the FBI asked the now-defunct Calyx ISP to reveal various details about a suspect.

The SNL asked him to disclose information about the customer's account, his address, billing info, but also more privacy-intrusive data like his browsing history, usernames the suspect used online, email addresses, orders he may have made online, and others.

Mr. Merrill considered the letter too broad, and wanted to disclose the fact that he received one, he cooperated with authorities, and what information he released.

The Bureau disagreed, but now, after 11 years of litigation, in August this year, a judge allowed him to do so after the FBI failed to demonstrate that by revealing the letter there would be any security risks.

Mr. Merrill waited for the FBI to file an appeal, but since three months passed without one, he published the first instance of a post-9/11 FBI-issued SNL online.