Section 1011(b) authorizes the FBI to obtain the credit reports of individuals without a warrant if a designee of the Attorney General sends a letter to the credit bureau stating that the subject is the target of a counter-intelligence investigation and they have "specific and articulable facts" that the person is a foreign agent.

I wonder whether exchange of encrypted e-mail with a foreign national would constitute specific and srticulatable facts that a US citizen was a foreign agent.... - Carl