Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

At F.B.I., Frustration Over Limits on an Antiterror Law

This article is intriguing, but only tells about half the story. While FBI agents decry “radical militant librarians” perhaps they should be looking at what exactly they are doing. Perhaps agents are not given permission to apply USAPA so broadly because — rather than it being a PR problem — the things they are doing go *way* beyond legal constitutional limits.

Another thought that is not brought out in this story is the fact that, despite not being able to apply USAPA’s draconian measures to spy on US citizens, there have not been *any* terrorist atttacks in the US in the last 4 years. On the other side, history tells us that our government has a nasty habit of abusing police powers when there is no oversight (remember COINTELPRO ?).

I would argue that USAPA needs to sunset NOW! Congress is currently discussing renewal of USAPA. Please call your representatives and tell them enough is enough!

One internal F.B.I. message, sent in October 2003, criticized the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review at the Justice Department, which reviews and approves terrorist warrants, as regularly blocking requests from the F.B.I. to use a section of the antiterrorism law that gave the bureau broader authority to demand records from institutions like banks, Internet providers and libraries.

“While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR’s failure to let us use the tools given to us,” read the e-mail message, which was sent by an unidentified F.B.I. official. “This should be an OIPR priority!!!”

Llibrary sues over controversial Patriot Act, By Chris Sanders, Thu Aug 25, 2005, Reuters

The suit — filed on August 9 and made public by the ACLU on Thursday — calls the FBI’s order to produce library records “unconstitutional on its face” and said a gag order preventing public discussion of the lawsuit is an unlawful restraint on speech.

PRIVACY, INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM AND THE PATRIOT ACT: What Does It All Mean?
(streaming Quicktime format)

Speaking on the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act:
Judith F. Krug,
Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom;
Karen G. Schneider, Chair of the California Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee
and a member of the ALA Council and Director of LII.org, the Librarians’ Index to the Internet;
and Candace M. Carroll, Attorney in private practice in San Diego, specializing in civil appeals.

This is a video of a session
at Weaver Center, Institute of the Americas, University of California San Diego on
Wednesday, May 19, 2004.
The
program was sponsored by
the UCSD Research & Professional Development Committee, Librarian’s Association of the University of California.

You will need QuickTime software to view this video (available free here:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
and here:
http://www.download.com/3000-2194-10002208.html?legacy=cnet.

American Civil Liberties Union : Ashcroft’s Patriot Act Report to Congress Omits Key Information, ACLU Says

…The ACLU said the Justice Department also continues to inflate its claims of Patriot Act success. Numerous investigative reports have revealed that while the DOJ prosecuted about 180 cases defined as international terrorism, close to half received jail sentences of less than a year and involved low-level immigration offenses.

The report also highlights the fact that the Patriot Act, touted as an anti-terrorism tool, is frequently used in non-terrorism cases.

There’s just so much wrong with Ashcroft’s latest missive. The report can be read here. USAPA is not a “laser-guided weapon to prevent terrorist attacks” (yup he said that!) but is more like a giant flood that has eroded our basic civil rights and brought us back to the age of Cointelpro. I’m not just making this up folks.

White House Moves to Protect Right to Spy on Readers

The White House has gone to preventive war — to protect the US government’s newly-acquired right to spy on readers as part of counterterrorism investigations, promising to veto a multibillion-dollar spending bill if these powers are curtailed.

OMB Watch - FBI Used Controversial Patriot Act Provision

The FBI applied to use a section of the USA Patriot Act less than a month after Attorney General John Ashcroft stated it had never been used, according to new documents. Section 215 allows the government to track the public’s reading habits in bookstores and libraries…

LibraryLaw Blog: Strickland, Minow and Lipinski on USA PATRIOT Act

EFF: Let the Sun Set on PATRIOT

Apologists justified the broad, civil-liberties corroding powers granted to the government under the USA PATRIOT Act by arguing that they would be used to put terrorists behind bars. Yet several provisions can be used against Americans in a wide range of investigations that have nothing to do with terrorism. Others are too vague, jeopardizing legitimate activities protected under the First Amendment. Worse, the Department of Justice has worked to expand and/or make permanent a number of these provisions — despite the fact that they were sold to the public as “temporary” measures and are scheduled to expire, or “sunset,” in December of 2005.

ACLU Was Forced to Revise Release on Patriot Act Suit. By Dan Eggen, Washington Post,
Thursday, May 13, 2004; Page A27.

When a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the American Civil Liberties Union could finally reveal the existence of a lawsuit challenging the USA Patriot Act, the group issued a news release.

But the next day, according to new documents released yesterday, the ACLU was forced to remove two paragraphs from the release posted on its Web site, after the Justice Department complained that the group had violated court secrecy rules.

Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act By Dan Eggen
Washington Post.
Thursday, April 29, 2004; Page A17.

The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit three weeks ago challenging the FBI’s methods of obtaining many business records, but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until now.