FBI Attorney Discusses USA Patriot Act
at Albany Public Library
Some 70 people, half of them area librarians, turned up at the Albany (N.Y.) Public Library auditorium September 25 to hear an FBI attorney’s views on the USA Patriot Act. The library had invited Lee Pugh, chief counsel with the FBI’s Albany Division, for a Banned Books Week program on how the expanded powers of the FBI affect public libraries.
Pugh said that the FBI was pulled in different directions, by those who advocate civil rights and by those who criticize the FBI for not doing enough to prevent terrorism, the September 26 Schenectady Gazette reported. “In the past, someone was put in jail after a crime,” Pugh said. “Now we have to get a person in jail to prevent him from committing a terrorist attack.”
Library Public Information Officer John Cirrin told American Libraries that Pugh “wasn’t able to finish his opening presentation because it soon evolved into a question-and-answer session, with aggressive questions from both the public and the librarians present.” Audience members vigorously interrupted both Pugh and each other with questions and comments, at one point prompting him to ask that no one throw tomatoes.
“My major concern is that [the Patriot Act] sends a chilling effect to people who believed that what they read and listen to was private,” Library Director Jeffrey W. Cannell told the Gazette. “If I take out too many Tom Clancy books, will people think I’m too interested in World War II?”
Cirrin said that although Pugh appeared uncomfortable at times during the presentation, he stayed afterwards for an informal discussion. “It was agreed,” Cirrin added, “that this was an important beginning to what should become an ongoing dialog between libraries, the public, and the federal government.”
Posted September 30, 2002.
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