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Ashcroft: Feds Don’t Monitor “Ordinary” Patrons“The Patriot Act simply does not allow federal law enforcement free or unfettered access to local libraries, bookstores, or other businesses,” U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asserted June 19 during a one-day “Journalism and Homeland Security” conference in New York City. Ashcroft said that critics had charged that under the law, “the FBI has arbitrarily visited local libraries to check out the reading records of ordinary citizens,” an accusation he denied. Convened by the Aspen Institute, the meeting was also attended by several dozen media executives, who were asked by Ashcroft for help in “portraying accurately” the Patriot Act and how its “constitutional tools and methods [are] being used in the war against terror,” according to the June 20 New York Times. The attorney general’s remarks came a week after U.S. Reps. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), Joseph Hoeffel (D-Pa.), and John Conyers (D-Mich.) introduced the Surveillance Oversight and Disclosure Act, which requires the Justice Department to report more fully on how it is using its expanded investigative powers, including the manner in which library patrons’ records are obtained and used. After introducing H.R. 2429, Hoeffel stated in a press conference that the DOJ “has been unwilling to disclose the information that I believe the Congress needs, and the public needs” about how the Patriot Act has been applied, the Associated Press reported June 11. H.R. 2429 and its Senate counterpart, which is sponsored by Charles Grassley (R-Ia.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), is the fourth bill brought forward in Congress this year to modify the Patriot Act. “We’re not for thwarting any investigation,” Lynne Bradley of the American Library Association’s Washington Office told the June 20 Summit (Colo.) Daily News from the Association’s joint conference with the Canadian Library Association in Toronto. “We just want to know what these broad amounts of information from a large amount of individuals is going toward.” A survey released in January by the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign indicated that at least 178 libraries had been visited by the FBI during the preceding year. Posted June 23, 2003; modified July 21, 2003. |
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