[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:16980] Fwd: patriot act:Libraries say yes officials do quiz them

[Alfred Kagan]

You may find this interesting.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra at earthlink.net>
> Date: June 20, 2005 4:37:34 AM CDT
> To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
> Cc: srrtac-l at ala.org
> Subject: [SRRTAC-L:16980] Fwd: patriot act:Libraries say yes officials  
> do quiz them
> Reply-To: srrtac-l at ala.org
>
> FYI
>>
>> June 20, 2005
>> Libraries Say Yes, Officials Do Quiz Them About Users
>> By ERIC LICHTBLAU
>> WASHINGTON, June 19 - Law enforcement officials have made at least  
>> 200 formal and informal inquiries to libraries for information on  
>> reading material and other internal matters since October 2001,  
>> according to a new study that adds grist to the growing debate in  
>> Congress over the government's counterterrorism powers.
>> In some cases, agents used subpoenas or other formal demands to  
>> obtain information like lists of users checking out a book on Osama  
>> bin Laden. Other requests were informal - and were sometimes turned  
>> down by librarians who chafed at the notion of turning over such  
>> material, said the American Library Association, which commissioned  
>> the study.
>> The association, which is pushing to scale back the government's  
>> powers to gain information from libraries, said its $300,000 study  
>> was the first to examine a question that was central to a House vote  
>> last week on the USA Patriot Act: how frequently federal, state and  
>> local agents are demanding records from libraries.
>> The Bush administration says that while it is important for law  
>> enforcement officials to get information from libraries if needed in  
>> terrorism investigations, officials have yet to actually use their  
>> power under the Patriot Act to demand records from libraries or  
>> bookstores.
>> The library issue has become the most divisive in the debate on  
>> whether Congress should expand or curtail government powers under the  
>> Patriot Act, and it was at the center of last week's vote in the  
>> House approving a measure to restrict investigators' access to  
>> libraries.
>> The study does not directly answer how or whether the Patriot Act has  
>> been used to search libraries. The association said it decided it was  
>> constrained from asking direct questions on the law because of  
>> secrecy provisions that could make it a crime for a librarian to  
>> respond. Federal intelligence law bans those who receive certain  
>> types of demands for records from challenging the order or even  
>> telling anyone they have received it.
>> As a result, the study sought to determine the frequency of law  
>> enforcement inquiries at all levels without detailing their nature.  
>> Even so, organizers said the data suggested that investigators were  
>> seeking information from libraries far more frequently than Bush  
>> administration officials had acknowledged.
>> "What this says to us," said Emily Sheketoff, the executive director  
>> of the library association's Washington office, "is that agents are  
>> coming to libraries and they are asking for information at a level  
>> that is significant, and the findings are completely contrary to what  
>> the Justice Department has been trying to convince the public."
>> Kevin Madden, a Justice Department spokesman, said that the  
>> department had not yet seen the findings and that he could not  
>> comment specifically on them. But Mr. Madden questioned the relevance  
>> of the data to the debate over the Patriot Act, noting that the types  
>> of inquiries found in the survey could relate to a wide range of law  
>> enforcement investigations unconnected to terrorism or intelligence.
>> "Any conclusion that federal law enforcement has an extraordinary  
>> interest in libraries is wholly manufactured as a result of  
>> misinformation," Mr. Madden said.
>> The study, which surveyed 1,500 public libraries and 4,000 academic  
>> libraries, used anonymous responses to address legal concerns. A  
>> large majority of those who responded to the survey said they had not  
>> been contacted by any law enforcement agencies since October 2001,  
>> when the Patriot Act was passed.
>> But there were 137 formal requests or demands for information in that  
>> time, 49 from federal officials and the remainder from state or local  
>> investigators. Federal officials have sometimes used local  
>> investigators on joint terrorism task forces to conduct library  
>> inquiries.
>> In addition, the survey found that 66 libraries had received informal  
>> law enforcement requests without an official legal order, including  
>> 24 federal requests. Association officials said the survey results,  
>> if extrapolated from the 500 public libraries that responded, would  
>> amount to a total of some 600 formal inquires since 2001.
>> One library reporting that it had received a records demand was the  
>> Whatcom County system in a rural area of northwest Washington.
>> Last June, a library user who took out a book there, "Bin Laden: The  
>> Man Who Declared War on America," noticed a handwritten note in the  
>> margin remarking that "Hostility toward America is a religious duty  
>> and we hope to be rewarded by God," and went to the Federal Bureau of  
>> Investigation. Agents, in turn, went to the library seeking names and  
>> information on anyone checking out the biography since 2001.
>> The library's lawyers turned down the request, and agents went back  
>> with a subpoena. Joan Airoldi, who runs the library, said in an  
>> interview that she was particularly alarmed after a Google search  
>> revealed that the handwritten line was an often-cited quotation from  
>> Mr. bin Laden that was included in the report issued by the Sept. 11  
>> commission.
>> The library fought the subpoena, and the F.B.I. withdrew its demand.
>> "A fishing expedition like this just seems so un-American to me," Ms.  
>> Airoldi said. "The question is, how many basic liberties are we  
>> willing to give up in the war on terrorism, and who are the real  
>> victims?"
>> The survey also found what library association officials described as  
>> a "chilling effect" caused by public concerns about the government's  
>> powers. Nearly 40 percent of the libraries responding reported that  
>> users had asked about changes in practices related to the Patriot  
>> Act, and about 5 percent said they had altered their professional  
>> activities over the issues; for instance, by reviewing the types of  
>> books they bought.
>> Representative Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, who sponsored  
>> the House measure to curtail the power to demand library records,  
>> said he was struck by the 40 percent response.
>> "What this demonstrates is that there is widespread concern among the  
>> American people about the government having the power to monitor what  
>> they are reading," Mr. Sanders said.
>> The margin of the vote on Mr. Sanders's measure, which passed 238 to  
>> 187, with support from 38 Republicans, surprised even some backers,  
>> but Bush administration officials say they are hopeful the decision  
>> will be reversed and have threatened a veto of any measure that would  
>> limit powers under the Patriot Act.
>> Carol Brey-Casiano, who runs the library system in El Paso and is  
>> president of the library association, said she, too, sensed a public  
>> unease.
>> "We're concerned about protecting people's privacy," she said.  
>> "People will say to me, 'I've read about the Patriot Act, and does  
>> that mean the government can come in and ask you what I'm reading?'  
>> And my answer to them has to be, 'Yes, they can,' and quite frankly,  
>> I can't even tell anyone if that happened, because there's a gag  
>> order."
>> Investigators have long had the ability to seek out library records  
>> in tracking leads in criminal inquiries. In two of the most noted  
>> cases, investigators in the 1990's used library records to search for  
>> the Unabomber, who wrote detailed and unusual academic treatises in  
>> his string of bombings over almost two decades, and for New York's  
>> "Zodiac Killer," who had cited the writing of an obscure occult poet.
>> Government officials say that while they have no interest in using  
>> their expanded powers under the Patriot Act to monitor Americans'  
>> reading habits, they do not believe that libraries should be safe  
>> havens for terrorists. They point to several cases in which Sept. 11  
>> hijackers and other terror suspects used library computers to send  
>> e-mail messages.
>> Perhaps the fiercest counterattack from the Bush administration on  
>> the issue came in 2003 from John Ashcroft, then the attorney general,  
>> who said in a speech in Washington that groups like the American  
>> Library Association had bought into "breathless reports and baseless  
>> hysteria" about the government's interest in libraries.
>> "Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading?"  
>> Mr. Ashcroft asked. "No."
>> Ms. Sheketoff at the library association acknowledged that critics of  
>> the study may accuse the group of having a stake in the outcome of  
>> the Patriot Act debate. "Sure, we have a dog in this fight, but the  
>> other side has been mocking us for four years over our 'baseless  
>> hysteria,' and saying we have no reason to be concerned," she said.  
>> "Well, these findings say that we do have reason to be concerned."
>>
>>
>> Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/20/politics/20patriot.html? 
> pagewanted=print
> -- 
> MARK C ROSENZWEIG
>
>


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

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