THE BUSH administration, Congress and civil liberties groups are heading for a showdown over Patriot Act provisions on library searches.
Unfortunately, the Justice Department is using a blizzard of fabrications to defend its new post 9/11 powers. Public libraries are rapidly becoming the front line for determining how far the Feds will be permitted to intrude into Americans' lives in the name of anti-terrorism.
A secret court now has jurisdiction over the reading habits of the American people. Section 215 of the Patriot Act empowers FBI agents to go to any library or bookstore and demand a list of what people have borrowed or bought -- or even what people have asked about.
As part of a terrorist investigation, the FBI need not have any evidence of wrongdoing, only a blanket authorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which never holds public hearings and always grants the government's request for search warrants and other intrusions.
The Patriot Act nullified federal, state and local laws protecting the privacy of library users and bookstore customers from federal agents. Within months after 9/11, federal or local lawmen had already visited nearly 10 percent of the nation's public libraries "seeking September 11-related information about patron reading habits," according to a University of Illinois survey.
The Patriot Act gags librarians and bookstore employees, prohibiting them from disclosing to targeted individuals that the FBI is probing their literary proclivities. Many librarians are protesting the new policies.
Libraries in Santa Cruz, Calif., posted warnings to their patrons informing them that the Patriot Act "prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you. Questions about this policy should be directed to Attorney General John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530."
Dale Canelas, library director at the University of Florida at Gainesville, observed: "Just because you read a book about explosives, doesn't mean you're going to blow something up."
Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo continually seeks to blunt criticism of the library searches by misrepresenting the law. He told the Florida Today newspaper: "This is limited only to foreign intelligence. U.S. citizens cannot be investigated under this act."
