Posted January 28, 2005.

Ashcroft Hints Patriot Act Invoked in New York Library

In an interview published in the January 24 issue of Newsweek, outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft admitted that Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act had been used in the arrest of a New York man who later pleaded guilty to smuggling money and supplies to an al Qaeda member in Pakistan. The controversial section eases the restrictions on federal agents in obtaining a subpoena to access library records in a terrorist investigation.

Justice Department officials confirmed that they learned of Mohammed Junaid Babar’s activities last year through monitoring his Internet use at an undisclosed library in New York City, where he allegedly exchanged messages with his Pakistani contact.

According to the October 25, 2004, National Review, Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee September 22, “We found out after we locked this guy up that he was going there because that library’s hard drives were scrubbed after each user was done, and he was using that library to e-mail other al Qaeda associates around the world. He knew that that was a sanctuary.”

Ashcroft had asserted in September 2003, before the Babar investigation, that Section 215 had never been used by federal agents.

Posted January 28, 2005.