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Libraries Protest Potential FBI Snooping
"Across the country, libraries and bookstores are warning the public against what they say are vastly expanded government powers to snoop on citizens, authorized by the USA Patriot Act," according to the Chicago Tribune.
"In particular, librarians and booksellers warn that the law gives the FBI the ability to surreptitiously search customers' book-buying or book-reading records and Internet use without informing people they have become the subject of a search, and with gag orders prohibiting others from doing so."
Writing in "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Preserving Our Liberties While Fighting Terrorism", Timothy Lynch, the Cato Institute's director of the Project on Criminal Justice, warns that "if policymakers continue to respond to terrorist atrocities by 'enhancing' the power of government, it is not terribly difficult to discern the trend lines for the next 20 years. Power has been flowing, and will continue to flow, to the federal government and executive branch in particular. If present trends continue, it is likely that America will drift toward national identification cards, a national police force, and more extensive military involvement in domestic affairs. That ought to give pause to people of goodwill from all across the political spectrum - -- since those are the telltale signs of societies that are unfree."
Christopher Kilmer, editor, [email protected]
Web address is www.cato.org, go to article on Libraries and the FBI, one of the links takes you to a longish PDF Document, the text of the article.
"Across the country, libraries and bookstores are warning the public against what they say are vastly expanded government powers to snoop on citizens, authorized by the USA Patriot Act," according to the Chicago Tribune.
"In particular, librarians and booksellers warn that the law gives the FBI the ability to surreptitiously search customers' book-buying or book-reading records and Internet use without informing people they have become the subject of a search, and with gag orders prohibiting others from doing so."
Writing in "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Preserving Our Liberties While Fighting Terrorism", Timothy Lynch, the Cato Institute's director of the Project on Criminal Justice, warns that "if policymakers continue to respond to terrorist atrocities by 'enhancing' the power of government, it is not terribly difficult to discern the trend lines for the next 20 years. Power has been flowing, and will continue to flow, to the federal government and executive branch in particular. If present trends continue, it is likely that America will drift toward national identification cards, a national police force, and more extensive military involvement in domestic affairs. That ought to give pause to people of goodwill from all across the political spectrum - -- since those are the telltale signs of societies that are unfree."
Christopher Kilmer, editor, [email protected]
Web address is www.cato.org, go to article on Libraries and the FBI, one of the links takes you to a longish PDF Document, the text of the article.