Posted on 02/11/2006 8:39:10 AM PST by CyberAnt
On March 10, parts of the Patriot Act expire again.
Section 215, most famous for the alleged threat it poses to library patrons ... doesn't single out libraries but relates to official requests for "... books, records, ... etc.". The provision is not known to have been invoked yet ....
To hear the ALA talk, librarians are the last bulwark defending our most cherished civil liberties against government assault. Yet two recent examples show again that self-anointed guardians of the public good can be very selective about the people, and rights, they choose to protect.
One example came from Newton, Mass., on Jan. 18, after someone used a public-library computer to email a terrorist-attack threat to Brandeis University. Many school buildings were evacuated, and FBI agents rushed to the library hoping to track down the email sender in time to prevent an attack. Once there, however, they were held off for some nine hours by library director Kathy Glick-Weil--because they didn't have a warrant. Newton's mayor later praised Ms. Glick-Weil for "protecting the sense of privacy of many, many innocent users of the computers." More important, it seems, than protecting the lives of many, many innocent people who could have died if the threat had turned out to be imminent.
*******
More revealing than a single librarian's awful judgment is the ALA's forked tongue when it claims to defend all library freedoms. Since 1998, Cuban authorities have arrested and imprisoned citizens who operate "independent libraries," and destroyed their collections.
An organization that roars about the chilling effect of Section 215 on library users also looks pretty hypocritical when its own member-readers are discouraged from circulating their opinions openly.
All something to remember in March, or any time the ALA next tells us that, on issues of freedom, librarians know best.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Wasn't a search of library records how they caught the Uni-Bomber?
Hmmmm?? I thought a member of his family turned him in.
There is no right to privacy when using a public computer in a public library supported by public monies. Right to privacy is lost in a public facility.
I agree!
Here in Ft Lauderdale I cannot use a public library computer without entering my library card number. Two years ago things were looser. Some of the smaller older libraries here *might* let you get on line just by signing in
I live in Oklahoma City and the public library here just lets you sign on, no id or library card number. They do limit the time to 30 minutes and you can sign up and reserve a time slot. So, if I was a terrorist and I used a public computer at a public library here in OKC, there would be no way to track the use of that particular computer back to me.
"A cat jumped out of the bag at the ALA's January meeting in San Antonio, though, when keynote speaker and Romanian-born author Andrei Codrescu blasted the organization for abandoning the independent librarians. "Is this the same American Library Association that stands against censorship and for freedom of expression everywhere?" To add insult to injury for apoplectic ALA leaders, a subsequent informal poll of the rank-and-file in an electronic newsletter suggested that 75% want the organization to stand up for the Cubans.
On Sunday, ALA President Michael Gorman emailed the newsletter's editor to say that "we would be better off without these polls." That smells like censorship--from the very same people who bring us "Banned Books Week." "
Maybe ALA President Michael Gorman would be more comfortable working for the Iranian regime?
Newton, Brookline, Cambridge, the Axis of Liberalism.
It is in these three towns where a lot of the looniest of lefties reside in Massachusetts. Nothing should be surprising that comes out of these places.
Will someone explain to me how a librarian can stall about access to PUBLICALLY OWNED computer usage?
Every library system is different. You have a middle American population there so more trust and less check ups on you. Here the library is tight on using the computers party due to some famous transients who used our library computers. Some of the Muslims who flew the airplanes on 9/11/01.
Back then you just signed a sheet of paper to use the Broward library computers. Today you sign in with your library card number
They should have arrested this broad for obstruction, then maybe she will see the light. But the ACLU would probably jump right in the middle of this.
That's OK, in the Spanish department, they're protecting the rights of Castro. There are many small "independent libraries" in Cuba, often run by aging former pre-Castro librarians and professors, that are basically small collections of non-government approved books that people can read. Castro is always hot on the tail of these rebel librarians, and the ALA theoretically has a policy of supporting libraries suppressed by dictators, etc. Guess what it does in the case of Cuba?
You got it, nothing. It even passed a resolution not supporting the librarians there because they weren't "true" librarians (i.e., government funded and approved). This despite the fact that 70% of the membership of the ALA - totally leftwing at the top but not in its membership - wants them to support the Cuban libraries.
I think I heard Tom Sullivan mention it on Rush yesterday.
It was a relative, you are correct. But they did narrow it down using contents of his manifesto.
Parts were from a rare book that could only be found in very few libraries.
They were hot on the trail when his brother gave him up.
At least I think that's how the story went.
that's interesting .. I didn't know that about the libraries.
Who's to say that he is *not*? At least on an informal basis?
the infowarrior
After all those years Ted K was IDed by his own brother and located by the FBI using calls from the public and profilers.
His odd social life history, age, sex, NW rural location, university teaching post, possession of firearms, and handicraft hobbies were simple logical deductions that took under two weeks.
His published "Manifesto" was some help but most was already known.
Not that I would know anything about that.......
The DC Beltway Islamic snipers were also profiled accurately but the FBI did not act on it.
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