Number of FBI intelligence database searches on Americans has dropped in last year, report says

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of FBI searches of a vast foreign intelligence repository for information about Americans and people in the United States plummeted over the last year from the prior 12 months, according to a U.S. government report released Tuesday. The annual report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence comes more than a week after a bitterly divided Congress voted to reauthorize a surveillance program that administration officials say is crucial for national security but critics say results in privacy abuses of Americans. The program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners located in other countries.