Analyst's note:  Absolutely thought you'd like to know.  There is no question that some requests for information must be kept secret ... we must insist that it be for the correct reasons.  Valid information requested by our the government regarding “international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities certainly fits that category.  In God we trust, all others we check ... that includes OUR federal gov't.  This is especially true since we know that the federal gov't has members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood embedded working to collapse our nation from within.

Here is just a sample of the items you will find:

• Shariah, the Threat to America: An exercise in competitive analysis, Report of Team 'B' II http://www.altadenagroup.com/CSIA/post_details.asp?p_ID=8523
  

• Team B II Wants Islamist Penetration of U.S. Government Investigated http://www.altadenagroup.com/CSIA/post_details.asp?p_ID=8766
  

• Mohamed Elibiary (Muslim Brotherhood Member) on DHS Staff with Security Clearance Undermines Nat'l Security http://www.altadenagroup.com/CSIA/post_details.asp?p_ID=9558

• FBI busy purging its training materials of all traces of truth about Islam and jihad http://www.altadenagroup.com/CSIA/post_details.asp?p_ID=9932
  

• Documents show feds servile relationship with Muslim radicals http://www.altadenagroup.com/CSIA/post_details.asp?p_ID=9817

• Muslim Children in America are Being Taught to Hate http://www.altadenagroup.com/CSIA/post_details.asp?p_ID=9813
  

• ABSOLUTELY MUST WATCH VIDEO: Daniel Hannan at CPAC 2012 - U.S. 'screeching toward cliff' of socialism http://www.altadenagroup.com/CSIA/post_details.asp?p_ID=9919

Semper Fidelis --   “I, (state your name), having been appointed a (rank) in the United States (branch of service), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foriegn and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the office upon which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

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In 2010 alone, Wired’s Threat Level explains, the government sent more than 24,000 National Security Letters to Internet service providers and other companies such as credit and financial institutions. Letters such as these come with a gag order in place, which requires the companies to stay mum on the fact that the government was seeking to acquire information on individuals.

(Related: Report: Government requests Google users’ data 31 times each day)

One company served with an NSL earlier this year is pushing back on this request for silence. Wired reports that it wants to tell its customers that their information has been requested by the government and give them the opportunity to take it to court, should they wish. This “minor defiance,” Wired states, has caused the government to file a request that the company, which remains unnamed, be forced to remain quiet because speaking out “may endanger the national security of the United States.”

Wired has more on a case that it believes “shed a little light” on NSLs post-9/11 when they were reformed to not require a court order and come with forced gag orders on companies:

The public has become aware of only a handful of some 300,000 NSLs handed out over the last decade, and those became public only after the recipients launched legal battles opposing them. As a result of these battles, courts have chipped away at the gag order requirement as a violation of the First Amendment, and internal watchdogs have uncovered some abuses of the FBI’s NSL authority. But the letters are still one of the FBI’s most powerful tools; a tool that is rarely discussed inside or outside Congress these days.

[...] NSLs are a powerful tool because an FBI agent looking into a possible anti-terrorism case can essentially self-issue the NSL to a credit bureau, ISP or phone company with only the sign-off of the Special Agent in Charge of their office. The FBI has to merely assert that the information is “relevant” to an investigation.

The gag orders raise the possibility for extensive abuse of NSLs, under the cover of secrecy. In fact, in 2007, a Justice Department Inspector General audit found that the FBI, which issued almost 200,000 NSLs between 2003 and 2006, had indeed abused its authority and misused NSLs.

The inspector general found that the FBI evaded limits on (and sometimes illegally issued) NSLs to obtain phone, e-mail and financial information on American citizens, and that it had also underreported the use of NSLs to Congress. In 2006 alone, the FBI issued more than 49,000 NSLs, but that number dropped dramatically to 16,804 in 2007 following the inspector general’s report. After the Justice Department claimed it instituted reforms to address the legal lapses, the number of NSLs issued increased to 24,744 in 2008. In 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the FBI issued 24,287 NSLs.

[....] In the more recent case of the unnamed company “with employees dispersed across the world,” Wired reports that it challenged the gag order last week. This brings us to the FBI asking the court to enforce the gag because information requested by the government includes “international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.”

The FBI did not respond to Wired’s request for comment on the case.