“One year ago, the Inspector General’s Office — the independent audit arm of the DOJ — issued a lengthy report (.pdf) detailing that the FBI, for the years 2003-2005, had used “National Security Letters” (NSLs) to gather information on thousands of Americans in violation of the law. Pursuant to the Patriot Act, “NSLs” permit the FBI and other federal agencies to obtain all sorts of invasive information from telecoms, Internet and email providers, even health care providers and the like without any judicial warrants or any other oversight of any kind.”