I’ve expressed my concerns about the George Orwell government the Bush administration has created. Its political actions are too often hidden from public view, it has been exempted, until now, by the Republican controlled Congress from revealing or explaining its political actions and it has created courts that conduct their business behind closed doors, but which authorize secret surveillance of citizens. (See post 11/6/06) Now we have a report about the actions of a secret court operating under the Patriot Act. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was created as part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 during the cold war. This court operates in almost total secrecy. It only allows government lawyers and agents to appear before it. There are no procedures for outside attorneys or litigants to file even memorandums or become involved in a case. An article in the Washington Post, explains that when the Republican controlled Congress passed the infamous Patriot Act in 2001, section 215 of the Act directed the Surveillance Court to govern applications by the FBI for "tangible things" for counter terrorism investigations. No outside lawyer is allowed to apply to it for relief from its orders. As CNN explained in an article, court sessions take place in the Justice Department Building, closed off from public view. The court room is protected by an electronic code of silence to prevent bugging or eavesdropping. No record of its proceedings are made public.

The Associated Press reports that in 2006 this secret court approved all but one of the government’s requests for search warrants or to wiretap. Some 2,176 warrants targeting citizens of the United States were approved in secret by this court. This information was just as a Senate intelligence panel is studying changes to the Patriot Act. However, the Justice Department would not release information as to how many times the FBI secretly requested telephone, Internet and banking records of U.S. citizens without court approval using so called "national security letters" in 2006. These letters are administrative subpoenas which do not involve any judge’s approval. However, we do know that in 2005 the FBI issued some 3,501 security letters to obtain information about American citizens without court approval and without their knowledge. The court also approved 43 warrants to secretly examine business records of American Citizens.

In March, an audit by government inspectors concluded that the FBI had improperly obtained personal information about Americans without any court approval. It also found the FBI had illegally obtained telephone records and for three years failed to report to Congress how often it had used the device of a security record to obtain personal information as required by law.

Orwell accurately portrayed the evil of secrecy in government. Woodrow Wilson once said:

"Government ought to be all outside and no inside…Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it is a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety."

As Lord Acton observed: "Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show it can bear discussion and publicity." Americans abhor concealment and secrecy by public officials and the justice system. They instinctively recognize that secrecy breeds abuse and corruption. They also are aware of the historical evidence of the abuse of civil rights in secret trials and government conducted behind closed doors. We should be ashamed that America endorses such a secret tribunal with its enormous power.