[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ALACOUN:10303] Fwd: The Patriot Act and the National Archives: A True Story

[Al Kagan]

>Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 22:27:33 -0400
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>Subject: [ALACOUN:10303] Fwd:  The Patriot Act and the National 
>Archives: A True Story
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>>\
>>
>>Subject: The Patriot Act and the National Archives: A True Story
>>
>>
>>: http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030812221737540
>>:
>>: Secret Saudi History
>>: Tuesday, August 12 2003 @ 10:17 PM GMT
>>:
>>:      "I smiled at my own joke, but the clerk's smile
>>:      disappeared. 'Ask again,' he hissed, 'and I will
>>:      call security to remove you from the building and
>>:      have you barred as a security risk ..'"
>>:
>>: By Sarah Whalen*
>>:
>>: "I'm sorry," the clerk at the U.S. National Archives
>>: says: "You can't see the Saudi Arabian documents." I'm
>>: surprised. All the National Archive's documents are
>>: already reviewed and then declassified or removed. In
>>: theory, whatever's there is no longer secret.
>>:
>>: Until 9/11.
>>:
>>: "It's part of the Patriot Act," the clerk averred,
>>: referring to Public Law 107-56, the hastily-passed
>>: legislation entitled, "Uniting and Strengthening America
>>: by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
>>: Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001."
>>:
>>: "The U.S. State Department records you requested are
>>: indeed declassified and theoretically available. But
>>: they also may contain information that terrorists can
>>: use, like names and addresses and information of U.S.
>>: citizens." I gave a blank look. "So?" The clerk's brow
>>: furrowed with concern. "A terrorist could come into the
>>: National Archives and try to steal their identities or
>>: target them for assassination."
>>:
>>: I protested: "The documents I seek are over thirty years
>>: old and even older." Now the clerk's smile became
>>: nothing but teeth, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
>>:
>>: I persisted: "Any person the record concerns will be
>>: either quite elderly or already dead."
>>:
>>: The clerk's brittle smile remained fixed. "I'm sorry,
>>: you can't look at the Saudi records even if they are a
>>: hundred years old."
>>:
>>: I tried again. "Come on. Who's identity would a
>>: terrorist be able to steal from these records? Dwight
>>: Eisenhower's? Nixon's or Kissinger's? King Faisel's?
>>: They're not easy identities to steal."
>>:
>>: Getting no response, I tried again. "Who'd want to be
>>: Kissinger, anyway? I guess you could get a good table at
>>: Lutece."
>>:
>>: I smiled at my own joke, but the clerk's smile
>>: disappeared. "Ask again," he hissed, "and I will call
>>: security to remove you from the building and have you
>>: barred as a security risk."
>>:
>>: I was stunned by the clerk's absolute refusal, and stung
>>: by his implication that I, a wife, mother, and published
>>: researcher and writer, was some kind of horrid criminal.
>>: But this is only a taste of the Patriot Act's damage to
>>: the American mind. If the mere desire to research Saudi
>>: history is met with stern threats of arrest or
>>: detention, imagine what it is like to be a Saudi in
>>: America today. Or a Muslim. Or someone from the Middle
>>: East.
>>:
>>: Arrest would be shameful and inconvenient. I'm due to
>>: take my son to the Smithsonian in a few hours to look at
>>: dinosaurs, and I teach a law class on Wednesdays. But
>>: the true American in me refuses to just walk meekly
>>: away.
>>:
>>: I'm a U.S. taxpayer, and some of my taxes go to support
>>: the Archives building, its surly clerk, and others, all
>>: of whom are part of a public trust that uniquely
>>: safeguards the records on which the continuation of U.S.
>>: democracy ultimately depends. These records belong to me
>>: and to all U.S. citizens. They document our common
>>: heritage and the individual and collective experiences
>>: of our people and nation. A true democracy allows and
>>: enables people to inspect for themselves the record of
>>: what government has done. The clerk himself knows this
>>: because it's on the National Archives' own website.
>>:
>>: I smile at the scowling clerk: "Could I please see a
>>: supervisor?"
>>:
>>: The supervisor appears, as conciliatory as any diplomat,
>>: with profuse apologies for the records being withheld.
>>: He reiterates the problem of stolen identities and the
>>: assassination threats to leaders elderly or already long
>>: dead. He then whispers conspiratorily, "Why are you
>>: looking at Saudi Arabia, anyway?"
>>:
>>: "I'm researching a history of the State Department's
>>: positions on Wahhabism," I whisper back.
>>:
>>: "Ooooooh, that's soooo interesting!" the supervisor
>>: replies. He chats me up: "Are you writing a book or an
>>: article? Who publishes your work?"
>>:
>>: Now it's my turn to lose my smile. In seven years of
>>: research, no one at the Archives has ever been
>>: interested in my work. "Why do you want to know?" I ask.
>>: The National Archives keeps all records of documents
>>: requests by requestor's name and I've produced a
>>: passport and other identification for my pass. "Am I on
>>: a some kind of list?" An eavesdropping researcher at a
>>: nearby desk laughs out loud and replies, "All of us
>>: researchers are on some kind of list now, I'm afraid."
>>:
>>: The supervisor is unflappable. He chuckles along with
>>: the researcher. We again discuss the Patriot Act's
>>: requirement that all archival documents be re-screened
>>: because of possible identity theft or assassination
>>: plots by terrorists. I just chuckle and nod, not wanting
>>: to be threatened with arrest again. "I'm sorry you were
>>: threatened with arrest," the supervisor adds, "but a lot
>>: of people become angry or hysterical when they're told
>>: they can't see the documents. We sometimes have to
>>: remove them from the building." He is sympathetic. "A
>>: lot of people come here with very little money, and it's
>>: their one shot." I nod. That certainly describes me.
>>:
>>: He thinks: "Perhaps you can find something in the Nixon
>>: archives on Saudi Arabia, since those have already been
>>: rescreened," the supervisor suggests. I agree. It's
>>: something to look at, anyway. But all I find is a
>>: strange little set of memos indicating that in his
>>: troubled second presidential term, Nixon decided that
>>: his valuable time would only be spent with foreign heads
>>: of state. Kissinger had suggested that Nixon meet with
>>: the Saudi Crown Prince even though King Faisel was the
>>: actual head of state. The file consists of a letter from
>>: Bebe Rebozo, Nixon's informal advisor, who mentions
>>: Adnan Kashoggi's request that the Prince be given an
>>: audience, and then a short analysis by the State
>>: Department, which favored a meeting. A note is jotted at
>>: the bottom of the page by Nixon himself: "Fifteen
>>: minutes." One by Kissinger follows/: "Lunch?"
>>:
>>: There's nothing else to indicate whether the meeting
>>: took place or even what they had for lunch if it did.
>>: Riyad to Washington, D.C. is a distant journey. Fifteen
>>: minutes and a sandwich seems shockingly austere. I
>>: compare it to the hospitable splendor of lunch in the
>>: Middle East, an event that both law and custom conspire
>>: to create an act of utter humanity for wayfarers,
>>: whether friend or foe. I think: How different our
>>: societies are; how difficult it will be to learn the
>>: truth about each other and ourselves if the documents of
>>: our relations are all swept off the shelves.
>>:
>>: I leave the Archives and head for the dinosaurs, who
>>: presumably no longer present any security risks. I pass
>>: through the Archive's security gates uneasily, knowing
>>: that my country has lost something important. We're
>>: hardly any safer for keeping Saudi history a secret. The
>>: 9/11 terrorists committed a horrendous crime, but they
>>: did not take away our national security. We have done
>>: this to ourselves.
>>:
>>: *The Author is a professor at Loyola University School
>>: of Law
>>:
>>:
>>:
>>:
>>:


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu