Local Library 1 -- FBI 0
This is the US Constitution in action. A bucketload of people are decrying the Patriot Act saying that it will allow the US Gubbinmint to spy on them without any legal recourse or due cause. Give me a break. For one thing, if the government decided to spy on people indiscriminately, they would have to hire many many more people to monitor these 'illicit communications' and quite honestly, to the complainers, your lives are just not that interesting. I know that mine isn't...
A perfect example of the Constitution in action happened about 20 miles from where we live and was reported by
KOMO-TV.
One point of interest to bring up first is that I was looking for a local source for this story so I checked the
Bellingham Herald and the
Bellingham Weekly. Both are pretty much in the Democrat / Kerry / Anybody but Bush camp and neither of them had a peep about the story. There is another paper - the
Whatcom Independent - they publish every Friday so I'll wait to see if they report it. The Herald and the Weekly have both had a couple days to report on this and I'm really interested why they don't...
The story reported by
KOMO-TV is this:
bq.
Small Town Library Takes On The Feds
The FBI wants to know who checked out a book from a small library about Osama Bin Laden. But the library isn't giving out names, saying the government has no business knowing what their patrons read.
bq. The library in Deming isn't much larger than a family home. Located in rural Whatcom County, it hardly seems the site for a showdown with the feds.
bq. "I think we all figure it's places like the New York Library System that's going to be one of the first we hear about," said the attorney for the Whatcom County Library System, Deborra Garret.
bq. At the center of the issue, a book titled "Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America."
bq. The FBI confiscated the original book after a patron reported than some one hand wrote a bin Laden quote in the margin that read: "Let history be witness I am a criminal."
bq. The FBI demanded to know the names and addresses of everyone who ever checked out the book.
And the story goes on to say that:
bq. "Libraries are a haven where people should be able to seek whatever information they want to pursue without any threat of government intervention," said Director of Whatcom County Library System, Joan Airoldi.
bq. Because of privacy policies, the library does not give out circulation records without a court order. When the FBI got a grand jury subpoena, the library filed a motion to quash it -- citing the rights of all people who use the library.
bq. "Like the right to read and to read the material of one's choice without fear that someone will come around with questions about why you chose that book," said Garrett.
bq. The FBI withdrew the subpoena, reserving the right to file it again.
bq. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office says they are not permitted to discuss anything that involves the grand jury.
bq. If the feds had demanded the records under the Patriot Act, the library would have had to hand them over without question and without help from the courts.
bq. The FBI still has the bin Laden book.
bq. Librarians point out, it's overdue.
The Library in our town is in the same Library system and they seriously rock. Good staff, good selection of books and DVDs and a nice system of intra-library loans. This is for a town of maybe 300 people.
Posted by DaveH at October 5, 2004 10:38 PM