Key Take-Aways:

1. Illegal acquisition of phone records on thousands of Americans from 2003 to 2006.

2. Top officials at FBI's counter-terroism division signed blanket subpoenas "retroactively to justify the FBI's acquisition of data through the exigent letters or or other informal requests," the Justice Department's Inspector General Glenn Fine found.

3. FBI has secret contracts with AT&T, Verizon, and MCI and won't release those companies from the contracts.

4. None of the subpoenas or National Security Letters were cleared with FBI's general counsel.

5. FBI agents issue tens of thousands of National Security Letters annually to get phone records, portions of credit histories, and track down IP addresses without getting a judge's approval in cases involving suspected terrorism, computer crimes or espionage.

6. Highest number of NSL requests came in 2004, an election year. Just a coincidence?

7. Some of those retroactive NSLs sought records that the FBI was not au

8. The NSL usage report (pdf) can be read here:
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0803b/final.pdf

9. Congress have bills waiting to be signed that will limit the government's surveillance power and reinstate our constitutional right to privacy.

10. We need to care about this!!!