[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ALACOUN:10355] Ashcroft speech targets librarians

[Alfred Kagan]

>Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 22:41:38 -0400
>To: ALA Council List <alacoun at ala1.ala.org>
>From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra at earthlink.net>
>Subject: [ALACOUN:10355] Ashcroft speech targets librarians
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>Ashcroft -- speaking in support of the PATRIOT Act and legislation 
>'strengthening ' it (but further trashing the Constitution) -- has 
>singled out librarians as conspicuous opponents of the 
>anti-Constitutional elements of both.
>
>See the following for details with ALAWO's  E. Sheketoff's response.
>
>http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=9&aid=D7TJ6M080_story
>
>Mark Rosenzweig
>
>  	Ashcroft Rips Anti-Patriot Act 'Hysteria'  
>
>September 15, 2003 09:44 PM EDT  
>
>
>WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft denounced as "hysteria" 
>the contention by some librarians and civil liberties groups that 
>the FBI can use a new anti-terror law to snoop into Americans' 
>reading habits.
>
>In a speech Monday to an American Restaurant Association conference, 
>Ashcroft said people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries 
>have been "surrounded by the FBI," with agents "dressed in 
>raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses. They stop everyone and 
>interrogate everyone like Joe Friday.
>
>"Now, you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, 
>something had to be wrong," Ashcroft said. "Do we at the Justice 
>Department really care what you are reading? No."
>
>A portion of the Patriot Act, passed shortly after the 2001 terror 
>attacks, gives federal authorities access to library, bookstore and 
>other business records as part of terrorism investigations. Some 
>libraries have begun purging their records more frequently and 
>posting signs warning that the records could be checked by the FBI.
>
>The provision has drawn a legal challenge in a federal lawsuit filed 
>in July by the American Civil Liberties Union and Islamic groups.
>
>Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library 
>Association's Washington office, said library records should be 
>treated differently from those of other businesses because of 
>privacy rights and constitutional free speech protections.
>
>The Justice Department should at least be required to publicly 
>describe how often FBI agents subpoena library records, she said. 
>That information is classified but is reported secretly to Congress 
>twice a year.
>
>"They are not taking this issue seriously, and the American people 
>are upset about this," Sheketoff said. "At least they could give us 
>some idea of the breadth of the problem."
>
>Ashcroft said, however, that subpoenas of library records are 
>closely scrutinized by federal judges, and the FBI, with 11,000 
>agents, could never begin to monitor the reading habits of millions 
>of library patrons even if it wanted to.
>
>The main reason an FBI agent would want library records is to track 
>use of its publicly available computers, which terrorists have been 
>known to use to communicate, Justice Department officials say. They 
>say use of the power is extremely infrequent.
>
>"The hysteria is ridiculous. Our job is not," Ashcroft said.
>
>Ashcroft's speech followed a recent 16-city tour in which he 
>repeatedly defended the Patriot Act as essential to the war on 
>terror. President Bush asked last week for three new legal tools, 
>including expansion of the "administrative subpoena" that 
>effectively bypasses judicial or grand jury oversight.
>
>---
>
>On the Net:
>
>Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov
>
>American Library Association: http://www.ala.org
>	 
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
>


-- 


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
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