Librarian's brush with FBI shapes her view of the USA Patriot Act

[pissed_American]

It was a moment that librarians had been dreading.


On June 8, 2004, an FBI agent stopped at the Deming branch of the Whatcom County Library System in northwest Washington and requested a list of the people who had borrowed a biography of Osama bin Laden. We said no.


We did not take this step lightly. First, our attorney called the local FBI office and asked why the information was important. She was told that one of our patrons had sent the FBI the book after discovering these words written in the margin: "If the things I'm doing is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Hostility toward America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded by God."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050518/cm_usatoday/librariansbrushwithfbishapesherviewoftheusapatriotact

Praise the librarians for having some balls.

What`s next?.. Can anyone say Orwell ?

[Sequoia]

1. Let's all go check one out!

[geckosfeet]

2. Its been "Orwell-esque" for years now.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. The ALA is on the rightwing hitlist...

because librarians do have some serious stones.

They're trained from day one to make information as freely available as possible. That's their job, and don't mess with it.

I'm on one librarian listserve, and while it usually stays apolitical, sometimes this kind of stuff gets on the list and you can hear the teeth gnashing.

Support your public library and the librarians. They're on the front lines of the information war.

[LostinVA]

27. As a librarian I say "thank you."

Remember, we're one your side completely. The ALA has a code of ethics that is an antithesis of the Patriot Act. Even the few Republican librarians I know don';t agree with it.

[blondeatlast]

40. I'm a library assistant in Collection Development.

I LOVE my job!

[brainshrub]

47. Americans owe all librarians a debt of gratitude.

Librarians rock.

[blondeatlast]

39. I work for a major city system. One of our branches was "mysteriously"

shut down for an entire day. It's rather unusual for this particular branch to be overrun with men in business attire, even on a weekday.

I have no idea what happened, we aren't supposed to know--or speculate. I leave that to you all...

[kath]

45. creepy.

[prairierose]

4. Yes, Librarians are very important and so are....

libraries. I have been appalled recently to see the general decline in funding for libraries. This is an important issue that I hope more people will begin to recognize.

[renaissanceguy]

5. The sheeple aren't interested in facts

or seeing points of view that would make them *gasp* think and defend their own!


http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.21272885

[Romulus]

6. hmm, whose Bios have I checked out?

Richard Montgomery?
Harriet Tubman?
Patrick Henry?

Do those get me on "the list?":shrug:

[suegeo]

7. FBI = Larry, Moe, Curly???

Anybody can walk up to a book on a library shelf and write something in the margins. You don't have to check something out to read it, or write in it.

Has the FBI figured that out yet?

BTW, here's another note to the crack FBI: bin Laden works for the CIA and and the conspiracy theory that the US Government put out surrounding 9.11 is bullshit. O'Neill, Rowley, the Minneapolis field office, that guy from AZ, were sold down the river by your "leaders." But they'd never do that to you, would they? Nah.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Wait just a minute!

What makes these geniuses assume someone who checked out the book made the notation in the margin? Could be someone jerking around in the stacks.

I can only imagine what lists I might be on given the books I have checked out to work on my Divinity degree...which is not coming from an evangelical seminary.

[unblock]

9. presumably (one hopes!) they only want to question those who check it out.

of course you are correct that anyone with access and a writing implement could have done it. but it's not unreasonable to think that questioning those who checked it out might be a fruitful path of investigation.

what's disturbing, of course, is that it's a ridiculous fishing expedition to see a sentence like that and think that that's something worth investigating at all, even in terms of resource allocation, nevermind to think that such an investigation trumps the obvious privacy concerns.

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. Well that's my primary problem with it.

What illegal activity are they investigating? Defacing public property? Seems they're a little out of their jurisdiction.

[unblock]

13. the pretense would be that they're on a fishing expedition

which is a stunning concept in and of itself. the real mission would probably be intimidation, investigation, and infiltration of a politically undesirable community (presumably the american islamic community).

scary.

[Walt Starr]

11. I refuse to borrow from libraries

I read what I want to read in the library and never check the books out or I purchase the book with cash from a bookstore.

[AP]

15. I'm afraid that if I don't take critical books out of the library, they...

...might think people aren't interested and they'll stop buying them.

[Walt Starr]

19. I don't want the FBI looking over my shoulder at what I read

The coming theocracy could determine my reading habits are a burnable offense.

[AP]

21. Billy Bragg: "If you got a blacklist, I want to be on it."

Martin Luther King's strategy was that if the lists were so long, and the jails so full of people exercising their civil and human rights, the next thing to break wouldn''t be the people. It would be the repression.

I don't think people should be afraid to act as sentient, thinking, critical human beings, and to be counted while doing so.

[Walt Starr]

23. MLK didn't live in a day where multiple databases could be cross

referenced in a matter of moments to provide multiple hits and flag specific people as "persons of interest" simply because their name shows up in too many of their "watch" databases.

It won't work any more, there are too many avenues to specifically target large lists.

[AP]

25. No, he lived in a day when people put their REAL selves on the line, and

not their virtual selves. And they did it in the communities in which they lived where the authorities didn't have to consult a database to know where you lived and who your close relatives were and where you worked.

[Walt Starr]

26. Apples and oranges

It's two completely different situations.

I'll continue purchasing books with cash.

[AP]

30. I think people acting legally shouldn't be afraid to light up the database

search software warning lights like a Christmas tree.

The more Americans who do it, the better. The norm should be that people are reading and watching things that inform them by asking and trying to answer uncomfortable questions.

[Walt Starr]

31. What the norm should be and what the reality is in bush's Amerika

are two seperate issues.

[AP]

32. My last words on this: "I'm not afraid."

I'm not going to conduct my life as if curiosity and the desire to have an informed opinion is criminal behavior.

As more people behave that way, the less effective database mining is as tool for predicting criminality (and it's not a good one to begin with -- it's only a tool to discourage legal behavior and having an informed opinion).

[Walt Starr]

33. I'll keep my informed opinion

but I'll conduct my information gathering in secret.

[bpilgrim]

36. the faster, the better

the more that show up on the lists, the better... because it WILL bog them down, which is the point.

most companies have a hard time keeping their own lists straight once they get large and i have no doubt that so too will the mans list overwhelm them.

can you say MASSIVE lawsuits ;->

peace

[MountainLaurel]

22. Yes, yes

Also know that weeding decisions about which books must be removed from the collection -- often for issues of available space -- are based to a large extent on the usage of an item. If a book hasn't been checked out in 20 years, it's a strong candidate for weeding.

[LostinVA]

28. Thank you -- I was just going to write that

Also, ask your local library (public, academic) what their records policy is. Many don't keep a history of your checkouts.

[Buns_of_Fire]

34. My county's library system doesn't keep long-term-records, either

My understanding is that, as soon as a book is returned, all references to it are removed from the patron's records. Why waste the disk space on unnecessary information?

Besides, the hill people in this part of Virginia never DID care much for them damned nosy revenooers pokin' around in our business, y'know? :evilgrin:

[carolinayellowdog]

35. Many/most public libraries cannot keep a history of checkouts

after the item is returned, because of server space limits. But one of my colleagues had a home-grown circulation system created by the county data department, and it *did* save history. (She didn't know this until she told the police otherwise and was corrected by a more techsavvy staffer.) Which led to her having to testify in court when a murder-for-hire suspect had apparently used a murder mystery as a how-to guide. (They found the book in the trunk of his car, but wanted proof that he had checked it out.) Normally, this is not something to worry about. NOTE that if your book is returned late and a fine is incurred, that can create a permanent record in systems that would not otherwise retain one.

[ribrepin]

43. Bingo

I work in a library and it matters which books are checked out. They get rid of books that haven't checked out in a while. With budget cuts, we have less shelf space and money for purchase of new books.

[AP]

The FBI is making citizens chose between curiosity and Schiaviosity --

if you want to get some information -- if you go read books which people who don't like the US might read -- you could get yourself investigated. Almost makes you wish you were brain dead.

[AP]

12. The FBI is making citizens chose between curiosity and Schiaviosity --

if you want to get some information -- if you go read books which people who don't like the US might read -- you could get yourself investigated. Almost makes you wish you were brain dead.

[rocktivity]

14. You don't have to check out a book to write in it

Someone could have taken the book off the shelf, written that message, and put the book back without checking it out.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Roland99]

17. And, we all know that terrorists don't dare set foot in a

Borders or Barnes and Noble or order a book off the internet.

And, seems an Al Qaeda terrorist would know a bit more about bin Laden than the average U.S. citizen and, therefore, wouldn't really need to be checking out books about him.

[nashville_brook]

38. yeah, and there's no intent: it sounds like a quote

bad enough they are snooping in library records, but to do so spuriously is just maddening.

[kainah]

16. but, but, but....

I've heard the Attorney General say that they've never used these provisions regarding libraries. I've heard BOTH of the bushie Attorney Generals say this. Are you saying that, gasp, THEY LIED?? Oh, that can't be! This must be a fake story, just like the one in Newsweek.

/sarcasm

[MountainLaurel]

24. Shit

Even as Ashcroft was spewing that line of bullshit, rumblings on librarian listservs and publications were telling a different story.

I'm just waiting for the FBI to show up here. I'm at a college library with a huge proportion of students from the Middle East.

[LostinVA]

29. They're lying -- They go into libraries EVERY DAY

That is all I'm saying, or I'LL be headed for Gitmo...

[Walt Starr]

18. The Ad Council Prophecied this

If you have Real Player, see the prophecy here:

http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_library_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil

[JohnyCanuck]

42. Paradoxical messages and brainwashing

From the article "Brainwashing America" by Dr. Norman Livergood, a former department head at the US Army War College.


Even intelligent people can be taken in by this brainwashing technology of paradoxical messaging. An example of this phenomenon is a current operation by the Advertising Council. The Ad Council expresses it overall purpose in this way: "We marshall the volunteer forces of advertising agencies and media companies to affect positive social change." You can, in the example below, interpret "effect positive change" as "brainwash people into fearful submission." One of the Council's current operations is called the "Campaign for Freedom." If you believe the Council, "The initiative is designed to assist Americans during the war on terrorism through the development and distribution of timely and relevant public service messages.

This first round of PSAs for the campaign has been created to celebrate our nation's freedom and remind Americans about the importance of freedom and the need to protect it for future generations." "According to research, Americans are looking for messages that will inform, involve and inspire them during the war on terrorism. This inspirational campaign is advertising's gift to America on the occasion of its birthday, Independence Day. All of the ads conclude with the powerful tagline, "Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it." The first of six video clip "messages" involves the image of an American urban block, with the voiceover: "On September eleventh, terrorists tried to change America forever." The image changes to the same urban street but this time with American flags hanging in front of every house. "Well, they succeeded."

Now, that seems rather prosaic, doesn't it? The message is: "We showed those terrorists what we're made of!" Nothing to quarrel with, is there? Well, maybe. Note the critical element of the image/message: EVERY house has a flag in front of it. So the paradoxical message is: America is changed forever to a 200 percent patriotism that can see no wrong with whatever the Bush administration does. I recommend you examine all six Ad Council "messages" to see the paradoxical communications in each.

<snip>

Theme: Library
Ordinary Message: Aren't you glad you live in a country where you can read what you want to and no one will bother you.
Paradoxical Message: You're living in a country where police and intelligence agencies monitor what you read and can arrest you on suspicion of subversive activity.

http://www.new-enlightenment.com/brainwash1.htm

[truth2power]

20. So...one of their patrons

"had sent the FBI the book after discovering these words written in the margin..."

The patron would have had to check out the book, I would think. Or maybe s/he stole it, I don't know. In any case, has the FBI launched an investigation into that particular patron? Seems like that person would as likely be a terrorist as anyone else.

Hmm...lessee...if I were a terrorist and wanted to divert attention AWAY from myself, I'd write that little ditty (for what purpose, I can't imagine), and then report on myself, so to speak! Yeah...that's it!

Ho-ly crap!!! So now the FBI is wasting their time on this silliness??? Fools, all of them! :banghead:

[MountainLaurel]

37. In a different library issue

Anyone familiar with this the bill mentioned here?

http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2005/may2005/schllibmandate.htm

[GetTheRightVote]

41. She must be a Dem, you just have to love a strong minded woman

:kick:

[struggle4progress]

44. kick

[roguevalley]

46. Librarians are heroes. My mom was one for 37 years and never

allowed a book banning or other crap. They are a mafia of support for each other.