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Libraries Report Being Asked for Records

While Attorney General John Ashcroft maintains that no library records have been sought in the wake of 9/11 and enactment of the Patriot Act, libraries reported differently in June, 2002, according to this USA today article.

... the University of Illinois conducted a survey of 1,020 public libraries in January and February and found that 85 libraries had been asked by federal or local law enforcement officers for information about patrons related to Sept. 11, said Ed Lakner, assistant director of research at the school's Library Research Center.

....Kari Hanson, director of the Bridgeview Public Library in suburban Chicago, said an FBI agent came seeking information about a person, but her library had no record of the person. Federal prosecutors allege Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity based in the Chicago suburb, has ties to Osama bin Laden's terror network

...In Florida, Broward County library director Sam Morrison said the FBI had recently contacted his office. He declined to elaborate on the request or how many branch libraries were involved. "We've heard from them and that's all I can tell you," Morrison said. He said the FBI specifically instructed him not to reveal any information about the request.

The library system has been contacted before. A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI subpoenaed Morrison to provide information on the possible use of computer terminals by some of the suspected hijackers in the Hollywood, Fla., area. In October, investigators revisited the county's main library in Fort Lauderdale and checked a regional library in Coral Springs.

The article went on to discuss how library record requests work under the Patriot Act:

The process by which the FBI gains access to library records is quick and mostly secret under the Patriot Act. First, the FBI must obtain a search warrant from a court that meets in secret to hear the agency's case. The FBI must show it has reason to suspect that a person is involved with a terrorist or a terrorist plot — far less difficult than meeting the tougher legal standards of probable cause, required for traditional search warrants. With the warrant, FBI investigators can visit a library and gain immediate access to the records.

USA Today asked the Justice Department to comment on the library records searches for the article.

A Justice Department official in the civil rights division and FBI officials declined to comment Monday, except to say that such searches are now legal under the Patriot Act that President Bush signed last October.

[links via Demisemisblog, who aptly asks, "Those didn't count? They were under some other law? They didn't happen? Or what?"]

Put another way, who's telling the truth?

Update: Arthur at Light of Reason explains the problem to Jonah. Atrios says, "Get him under oath." Quark Soup wonders if the library records in the above article were obtained by criminal subpoena under pre-patriot act powers rather than under FISA powers granted by the Patriot Act.

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