FBI searches library for terrorists

I really think the FBI is looking in the wrong spot.

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FBI trawls libraries for terrorist readers

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 [of]," Emily Sheketoff, the executive director of the library association's Washington office, told the New York Times.

The use of the patriot act to request information from librarians came to public attention last year when a library in Washington state received a demand for information after a user took out a book on Bin Laden and found a handwritten note in the margin that said: "Hostility toward America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded by God."

The borrower went to the FBI who in turn went to the library seeking names and information on borrowers who had taken out the biography since 2001.

The library turned down the request and fought a subsequent subpoena.

Critics claim that the patriot act is an infringement of civil liberties and that it has increasingly been the subject of debate in Congress.

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source: www.infowars.net...

You see, this is what the patriot act has done to our freedoms, sad huh? Not everyone who agrees with the government or reads obout Osama is a terrorist. they should spend that money on feeding the poor, instead of searching libraries.


[edit on 1-7-2005 by BigPimpin]

[edit on 1-7-2005 by BigPimpin]

That is going on for a Long Time.

FBI and the CIA and Other Agencies have the Access to the Library data bases, so that they can always get the List of all books some guy have borrowed.

And there are certain books that are on the RED List (or something like that), and if you borrow them enough, you could be treated as a potential Threat.

Usually they did that in case of Mass Murderes and other Cyco Killers.

But it can be used for Other puproses, such as this one - you just change the list of the Books.

Oy.

My recent library list has included:

Three textbooks on forensic pathology, two with graphic images.
Four books on the psychology behind serial killers.
Two books about Islam (for beginners. It's not an area with which I'm intimately familiar, and I gotta learn more, you know...)
Two books about the history of the Taliban.
A book about crime scene investigation.
One about police forensic work.

So....

I suppose that puts me right up there on that list?

Would my affinity for bad 80s horror novellas paint me in a bad light, too?

Should I disavow knowledge of Patricia Cornwell?

Seriously....what...the....heck?!??!?!!