News:

Library Bristles At Patriot Act

The Planet needs your help.
Give to the
Fund for Local Reporting! Each night, the computer at Berkeley's downtown library erases everything that happened that day on its 50 Internet terminals. Titles of several thousand or so books returned that day disappear from the borrower's record. Once a month, the names of anyone who took out a particular book, whether "Winnie the Pooh" or "Das Capital," vanish as well.

Regular record-purging is part of the library's defiance of the supposedly anti-terrorist U.S. Patriot Act, which lets the FBI and other agencies freely investigate the reading habits of library users.

The FBI sent a speaker to a library panel discussion in February but so far hasn't asked to see any records, library director Jackie Griffin said in an interview this week.

If they do, she said, "I would have to consult with the city attorney and decide, according to the circumstances, what to do.

“I don't want to spit in their eye, but if they serve me with a subpoena, I certainly have the support of my board of directors, my staff and the city, not to honor it," Griffin said.

Resistance to the Patriot Act — which opponents say does more damage to civil liberties than it does to terrorists — has been increasing.

A survey of 1,500 libraries completed in February by the University of Illinois, reported that 444 had been approached for information by the FBI or other agencies. Some 219 libraries cooperated and 225 refused, the survey said.

Nationwide, 91 communities, including Berkeley, have passed resolutions urging municipal employees and residents not to cooperate with government inquiries that violate civil liberties. Similar resolutions have been passed in Oakland, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, San Francisco and Mill Valley.

Some 83 congressmen, including Rep. Barbara Lee (D-9th District), now are cosponsoring the Freedom to Read Protection Act, introduced in March by Rep. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.)

Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R-Utah), the Patriot Act's staunchest supporter, recently withdrew a measure that would make the act permanent. It is now due to expire in 2005.

Running 342 pages and titled the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act", the Patriot Act was passed by Congress Oct. 25, 2001, six weeks after the attack on the World Trade Center.

It passed the House 357 to 66 with nine not voting. Rep. Lee voted against it.

It passed the Senate 96 to one with three not voting. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein voted for it. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.) cast the only "no" vote.

The act expands existing government surveillance powers by removing certain Constitutional restraints. One provision allows the government to secretly arrest non-citizens and hold them indefinitely without charge or access to an attorney.

In the case of libraries, it doesn't require "probable cause" or a specific reason to ask to see records but permits generalized searches. It makes it a crime for librarians to report such searches.

Berkeley civil liberties lawyer Jim Chanin said, "They can get anyone who ever used any library book and the library is

prohibited under criminal sanctions from telling anyone about it. If that's not a definition of a police state, then I don't know what is," said Chanin, who is past president and a current board member of the Berkeley-Albany-Richmond-Kensington Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Other opponents, such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee say that even if no records are actually searched, the threat has a chilling effect.

Bowman Enrie regularly uses the library though he doesn't have a library card. He said the government "should mind its own business and get a clue."

Sylvia Salgado came out of the library with a sack full of books. "Yes, I would care if they looked at my records. I came here from Colombia 28 years ago. There they can do anything — stop you when they want, search you when they want.

"Now, it’s getting like that here.”