The Bush administration's response to critics of the USA PATRIOT Act was always something on the order of, "Don't worry; we're going after only the terrorists. We'll respect your rights. Everything's fine!"

Actually, appearing at a campaign event in Buffalo, NY in April 2004, the president said, "When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."

One of the USA PATRIOT Act's requirements is that the FBI report to Congress annually on the ways in which it has used its expanded powers; specifically, the FBI must report on the number of times it has issued "national security letters," which are search warrants with built-in gag orders. If you receive a national security letter, (1) the FBI demands access to confidential information that you have about someone else; and (2) you're not permitted to discuss what information the FBI wanted, or even disclose the fact that the FBI was there and gave you a national security letter.

As of yet, however, the FBI has not fully reported to Congress on its use of national security letters, which automatically -- and without judicial oversight -- grant the FBI access to information that would normally require a search warrant, as long as the FBI believes the information to be relevant "to an ongoing investigation" in The War on Terr'.

That's all changed. The FBI reported to Congress yesterday, and it doesn't look pretty.

Actually, it wasn't even the FBI, under its USA PATRIOT Act requirements, that did the reporting. It was the Justice Department's Inspector General! (How long until he gets canned for "performance-related" reasons, consisting of competently doing a job that happens to rankle the people upstairs?)

The Inspector General found that "FBI agents sometimes demanded the data without proper authorization," and "the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances." The Inspector General's 126-page audit also found that national security letters were sometimes signed by people who were not authorized to sign national security letters. Interestingly, the use of national security increased by a factor of six and-a-half from 2000 to 2005. In 2000, the FBI issued 8,500 letters; in 2005, it issued -- wait for it -- 56,000 national security letters! Were there really that many more suspected terrorists hanging out in the United States?

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and -- gasp! a Republican who defends civil liberties! -- was upset by these findings. "This is, regrettably, part of an ongoing process where the federal authorities are not really sensitive to privacy and go far beyond what we have authorized," he said.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller both issued prosaic statements commending the Inspector General for doing his job. At least someone will protest if he suddenly "loses the confidence" of the Attorney General and gets mysteriously fired for doing a job that is politically inconvenient for the Bush administration.