[Dialogue] Librarians Defy the FBI

Tue Jun 6 12:53:36 EDT 2006

AlterNet

Librarians Defy the FBI

By Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story
Posted on June 2, 2006, Printed on June 6, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/36953/

Four Connecticut librarians, members of Library Connection
<http://www.libraryconnection.info/> , a not-for profit cooperative
organization for resource sharing across 26 Connecticut library branches
sharing a centralized computer, were served with a National Security Letter
(NSL) in August of last year as part of the FBI's attempt to attain access
to patron's records.

The NSL is a little known statute in the Patriot Act that permits law
enforcement to obtain records of people not suspected of any wrongdoing and
without a court order. As part of the NSL, those served with the document
are gagged and prohibited from disclosing that they have even been served.

The foursome of Barbara Bailey, Peter Chase, George Christian, and Jan Nocek
were automatically gagged from disclosing that they had received the letter,
the contents of the letter, and even from discussions surrounding the
Patriot Act.

The librarians, via the national and Connecticut branches of the ACLU, filed
suit challenging the Patriot Act on first amendment grounds.

"People ask about private and confidential things in the library setting ...
like about their health, their family issues and related books they take out
... these are confidential and we did this to protect our patrons from
authorized snooping," said Peter Chase, Vice President of Library
Connection."

On September 9 of last year, a federal judge lifted the gag order and
rejected the government's argument that identifying the plaintiff would pose
a threat to national security.

Yet the government continued to appeal the case throughout the
reauthorization debate, passionately arguing that not a single incident of
civil liberties violations by the Patriot Act had occurred. By continuing
the appeal, the government effectively silenced any evidence to counter
their claims.

"This all happened during the reauthorization debate and the government was
saying no one's rights were being violated," said George Christian, staff
liaison for Library Connection and one of the plaintiffs in the case.

As the debate over the reauthorization of the Patriot Act heated up, the
librarians and others gagged by the NSL had to watch in silence, intimately
aware of dangers they believed were not being exposed.

"We could not speak to Congress until after the renewal of the Patriot Act,"
Said Barbara Bailey, President of Library Connection and one of four
plaintiffs in the case.

Although the ACLU, representing the librarians, filed the case on August 9
of last year, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales decried any civil
liberties violations in a Washington
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/13/AR200512130
1476.html>  Post op-ed in December, stating that "There have been no
verified civil liberties abuses in the four years of the [Patriot] act's
existence."

The suit names Alberto Gonzales, Robert Mueller, and an un-named FBI
official as the defendants in the case. The plaintiffs are collectively
referred to in all court filings as simply John Doe.

"My testimony was informed not only by the successes of the act but also by
my personal meetings with representatives from groups such as the ACLU and
the American Library Association," wrote Gonzales in his Washington Post
piece. During the reauthorization discussion, I asked that certain
provisions be clarified to ensure the protection of civil liberties, and
Congress responded."

After the Patriot Act was reauthorized in March of this year, the government
stopped its appeals. Last Wednesday, the Connecticut librarians were finally
allowed to say that they were the John Doe in the case, but they are still
prohibited from discussing the case or the NSL.

"There are other people who have been served with these letters. We hope by
our testimony that more people are aware of this and people are able to
speak out," said Jan Nocek, Secretary for Library Connection and one of the
four plaintiffs in the case.

"Our clients were gagged by the government at a time when Congress needed to
hear their voices the most," said Ann Beeson, ACLU's lead attorney in the
case. "This administration has repeatedly shown that it will hide behind the
cloak of national security to silence its critics and cover up embarrassing
facts. Every time the government invokes national security in defense of
secrecy -- as they've done most recently with NSA wiretapping -- the
American public should remember these four librarians."

It is unknown how many NSLs have been served and to whom. A University of
Illinois survey
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002/06/25/fbi-libraries.htm>
conducted in 2002 found that out of roughly one thousand libraries asked,
eighty five libraries said they were asked by law enforcement for patrons'
records.

According to an ABC News report, Assistant Attorney General William
Moschella told members of Congress "that 9,254 National Security Letters
were issued in 2005 involving 3,501 people."

But much like his successor, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft claimed
<http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:r2Lt0dw3x00J:www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar
ticle.cgi%3Ffile%3D/news/archive/2003/09/17/national2200EDT0844.DTL+%22www.s
fgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ffile%3D/news/archive/2003/09/17/national2200
EDT084>  that the Patriot Act did not violate civil liberties and said that
it has never been used to obtain library records.

Earlier this year, the Justice Department's inspector general issued no less
than six reports
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-03-01-opposing-view_x.
htm>  to the relevant Congressional oversight committees indicating that
there were no allegations of abuse and no violations of civil liberties
since the original enactment of the Patriot Act days after the September 11,
2001 attacks. 

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