Posted May 26, 2003.

Report: Justice Dept. Sent Agents to 50 Libraries in 2003

Reps. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) and John Y. Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) released May 20 a 60-page Justice Department response they received to their April 1 letter inquiring into DOJ’s surveillance activities under the USA Patriot Act. Testifying before a House Judiciary subcommittee that same day, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh revealed that federal agents paid visits to about 50 libraries in the past year, asserting that most contacts were at the request of librarians reporting suspicious activity. “Libraries and bookstores should not be allowed to become safe havens for terrorists,” Dinh told the subcommittee. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), who chaired the hearing, commented: “As we move forward in the process of providing the strong measures that are necessary to combat terrorism, we must also keep in mind the importance of protecting civil liberties Americans hold dear.”

The number of library visits Dinh cited is much fewer than the 444 libraries that reported contacts from federal agents in 2002, according to a survey released in January by the Library Research Center of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

ALA President Maurice J. Freedman remarked that the DOJ documents “raise more questions than they answer.” Emphasizing that ALA “joins the Justice Department and all Americans in its opposition to terrorism,” Freedman suggested that the U.S. government can fight terrorism without “incursions into the civil liberties of library users and the dismantling of due process.” The Patriot Act permits federal agents with a court order access to the records of library and bookstore patrons and bars librarians and booksellers from notifying investigated patrons.

Ironically, the report’s release came on the same day that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against a freedom-of-information suit brought last fall by ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union after civil-liberties groups had been unable to obtain similar data.

Posted May 26, 2003.