FBI trawls libraries for terrorist readers

[emad]

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Tuesday June 21, 2005
The Guardian

The bookish calm of a public library might not seem like the most obvious place to hunt for terrorists, but according to a report, the FBI and other US law enforcement agencies involved in counter-terrorism have made more than 200 requests for information about borrowers from libraries since September 11.

A list of people who had borrowed a book about Osama bin Laden was among the information to have been demanded since the introduction of the patriot act, the legislation that has enhanced the government's powers to investigate alleged terrorist activity after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

The power to subpoena library records has been fiercely resisted by the American Library Association, which believes it could put people off reading certain books or subjects.
It commissioned the study after the justice department sought to play down the likely number of requests for library records.

"What this says to us is that agents are coming to libraries and they are asking for information at a level that is significant, and the findings are completely contrary to what the justice department has been trying to convince the public ," Emily Sheketoff, the executive director of the library association's Washington office, told the New York Times.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1510892,00.html

DIDN'T even know that Chimp could read.....

[liberal N proud]

1. I am afraid to go the library now!

There might be terrorist there.

I wonder if they probe who uses the public meeting rooms available in most libraries?
Our Local Democratic club meets in the library, will we all get investigated by the FBI?

[napi21]

2. I've not done it, but I have considered reading about Bin Laden,

fundimentalist Islam, and some other books, just to try to understand why these people hate the US so much. As far as I know, that doesn't make me a terrorist!