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FBI Trawls Libraries
For Terrorist Readers
By Jamie Wilson in Washington
The Guardian - UK
6-21-5
The bookish calm of a public library might not seem
like the most obvious place to hunt for terrorists,
but according to a report, the FBI and other US law
enforcement agencies involved in counter-terrorism
have made more than 200 requests for information about
borrowers from libraries since September 11.
A list of people who had borrowed a book about Osama
bin Laden was among the information to have been demanded
since the introduction of the patriot act, the legislation
that has enhanced the government's powers to investigate
alleged terrorist activity after the attacks on the
World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
Article continues The power to subpoena library records
has been fiercely resisted by the American Library
Association, which believes it could put people off
reading certain books or subjects.
It commissioned the study after the justice department
sought to play down the likely number of requests
for library records.
"What this says to us 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 [of],"
Emily Sheketoff, the executive director of the library
association's Washington office, told the New York
Times.
The use of the patriot act to request information
from librarians came to public attention last year
when a library in Washington state received a demand
for information after a user took out a book on Bin
Laden and found a handwritten note in the margin that
said: "Hostility toward America is a religious
duty and we hope to be rewarded by God."
The borrower went to the FBI who in turn went to the
library seeking names and information on borrowers
who had taken out the biography since 2001.
The library turned down the request and fought a subsequent
subpoena.
Critics claim that the patriot act is an infringement
of civil liberties and that it has increasingly been
the subject of debate in Congress.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1510892,00.html
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