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Big Brother at the library
By MARK SOMMER - Buffalo News Staff Reporter
Silence is golden to librarians and booksellers. Being muzzled by a gag order isn't.
That's one of several concerns librarians have with a provision in the USA Patriot Act, passed by Congress last year in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It gives the FBI authority to search library and bookstore circulation records and, where applicable, Internet user records, in an investigation of international terrorism or for other intelligence probes. Unlike most search warrants, the FBI doesn't have to show evidence of wrongdoing or that the target of its investigation is involved in terrorism. Instead, the agent must only claim he believes the records he wants may be related to an ongoing investigation. The streamlined process and lower threshold of suspected guilt were passed to allow the bureau to respond more quickly to terrorist threats. "It's a First Amendment issue and privacy issue versus being a good citizen and wanting to help. It's really tough to walk that fine line," said Diane Chrisman, director of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library system. One year after passage of the act, the Big Brother concerns of civil libertarians appear to be hypothetical. Or are they? It's hard to say for sure, since everything is shrouded in secrecy. Under the USA Patriot Act, librarians and booksellers served with a court order are prohibited from disclosing, under threat of prosecution, whether an FBI warrant was served or records were released. Then again, they probably wouldn't know anyway, because, according to Paul Moskal, a spokesman for the FBI's Buffalo field office, electronic surveillance is typically done off site, without anyone else's knowledge.

posted by A Curmudgeon 9:47 AM