Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

Crossing the threshold. By Harvey A. Silverglate And Carl Takei.
Boston Phoenix, March 5 - 11, 2004.

Yet the hue and cry raised over the Patriot Act has distracted most of us from the Bush administrationÕs far more dangerous assault on another class of liberties, which might be called “threshold rights.” After all, the Patriot Act can be rolled back if the people decide that the government has overreached or the emergency has receded, and some provisions of the act have automatic expiration dates. But threshold rights Ñ fair elections, open and publicly accountable government, judicial review of executive action, the right of the accused to a public jury trial, separation of powers among the three branches of government, and the rights to free expression and free association Ñ are structural, and therefore changes to them are more enduring.

Two stories in The Chronicle of Higher Education this week paint a picture of government agencies investigating colleges without apparent justification.

• The Drake Affair, By Sharon Walsh. Section: The Faculty Volume 50, Issue 26, Page A8 March 5, 2004
• Texas Campus Is Puzzled by Federal Agents’ Inquiry Into Conference on
  Islam
  By Michael Arnone, Section: The Faculty
  Volume 50, Issue 26, Page A10 From the issue dated March 5, 2004

“…U.S. attorney subpoenaed Drake University last month for records of a student group and followed that up with a gag order…” after an anti-war demonstration.

At the University of Texas at Austin four U.S. Army officials visited the campus in February seeking information about a conference on “Islam and the Law: The Question of Sexism?”

The articles are available online to subscribers.

San Antonio Current.
“WITH A WHISPER, NOT A BANG”
By David Martin. December 24, 2003.
President George W. Bush signed into law the
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004
on a Saturday, the day Saddam Hussein was captured.
Tucked away in this law are new executive powers that expand the so-called P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act.

By signing the bill on the day of Hussein’s capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don’t suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.

See also House Members Criticize 2004 Intelligence Authorization Act.

Press Release. November 3, 2003.

Free speech groups representing booksellers, librarians, publishers, writers and others today filed a brief that strongly supports a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the provision of the USA Patriot Act that gives the FBI virtually unlimited access to personal, organization and business records, including bookstore and library records.

Setting the Record Straight: An Analysis of the Justice Department’s PATRIOT Act Website. Center for Democracy and Technology. October 27, 2003.

The PATRIOT Act continues to be controversial. While the administration has vehemently defended its actions under the act and the act itself, it arguments have not been convincing to many including the library community. The CDT describes their contribution to this dialog this way:

In an effort to correct some of the hyperbole associated with the PATRIOT Act, CDT has issued a new analysis of the Justice Department’s website defending the Act. CDT’s analysis notes that in large part the DOJ has failed to engage on substantive criticisms of the Act. Instead DOJ touts provisions no one is objecting to, while describing controversial provisions in misleading terms.

Patriot Act Curbing Data Retention
New York Times October 13, 2003, Monday, Late Edition - Final. By Bob Tedeschi. Section C; Page 6; Column 1; Business/Financial Desk.

This story explains how some retailers are concerned about the privacy of their records and are taking steps to keep their records private … and how others, like Amazon.com, are not.

Baltimore City Paper: Card Games (October 1 - October 7, 2003). By Joab Jackson.

This article is about those “loyalty cards” that 80 percent of supermarket chains use, granting small discounts in return for the ability to track what you buy. It is interesting to read about this and think about libraries and the issues of privacy of reading habits. Mining the data that they collect enables stores “…to know the customer’s lifestyle…”

DOJ Says It Has Never Used Key PATRIOT Provision, September 23, 2003. The PATRIOT Act and librarians’ response to it are in the news a lot this week. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has been excoriating librarians; Former Attorney General Edwin Meese has weighed in as well. Tirades from conservatives have begun appearing on op-ed pages. And now,
The Center For Democracy & Technology notes that
the Department of Justice, after defending the appropriateness of the Act and the rich resource that library records will give to fighting terrorism, has announced “that it had never once used a contentious provision of the USA PATRIOT Act authorizing the FBI to obtain access to business records containing personal information… What gives?”

ALA | ALA renews call for legislative amendments to Patriot Act.
In wake of declassified report, ALA renews call for legislative amendments to PATRIOT Act.
Details previous statements from the Justice Department that said the Act had been used.

Ashcroft Mocks Librarians and Others Who Oppose Parts of Counterterrorism Law
Tom Clancy, New York Times Sept. 15, 2003. (Paper edition:
September 16, 2003, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final, Section A; Page 23; Column 2.)

In an unusually pointed attack as part of his latest speech in defense of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism initiatives, Mr. Ashcroft mocked and condemned the American Library Association…

Also see,
Bernie Sanders’ response (September 17, 2003, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final, Section A; Page 26; Column 6)