FBI says subpoenas improperly used to obtain Americans' personal data

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI says it improperly used national security letters in 2006 to obtain personal data on Americans during terror and spy investigations.

But FBI director Robert Mueller (MUHL'-ur) tells the Senate Judiciary Committee that the privacy breach by FBI agents and lawyers occurred a year before the bureau implemented sweeping new reforms. He says the FBI is committed to maintaining the vital trust of the American people.

Details on the abuses are expected to come out this week in a report by the Justice Department's inspector general. It's a follow-up to an audit last year that found the FBI demanded personal data on people from banks, phone and Internet providers and credit bureaus without official authorization. It happened in non-emergency situations between 2003 and 2005.