Librarians Against the Patriot Act

Front Page Magazine ^ | 2-27-06 | Michael P. Tremoglie

[Migraine]

Librarians are highly territorial.

[muawiyah]

The librarians around here were "dating" Middle Easterners who turned out to be the ground support team for the AlQaida operation run out of Dulles Airport.

I'm guessing their lobbyists are located in this area.

No doubt they were "dating" the same guys.

No librarian can be trusted in this war.

[muawiyah]

The librarians around here were "dating" Middle Easterners who turned out to be the ground support team for the AlQaida operation run out of Dulles Airport.

I'm guessing their lobbyists are located in this area.

No doubt they were "dating" the same guys.

No librarian can be trusted in this war.

[Verginius Rufus]

Hentoff could also have cited the ALA's refusal to condemn the deliberate destruction of the national library of Bosnia by Karadzic's men during the siege of Sarajevo, which burned up a large portion of the original documents from the Ottoman centuries of Bosnian history...an outrage comparable to the German destruction of the library in Louvain in 1914, or maybe worse in its impact.

[Mears]

"

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Terror threat sparks Newton librarian/FBI standoff
Boston Herald ^ | 01/25/06 | Dan Atkinson


Posted on 01/25/2006 3:05:00 PM EST by danno3150


Newton officials are calling their refusal to allow FBI agents access to library computers without a warrant during a terrorist threat last week “their finest hour.”

Law enforcement officials say it’s a “nightmare.”

Police rushed to the Newton Free Library after tracing a terrorist threat e-mailed to Brandeis University to a computer at the library.

But requests to examine computers Jan. 18 were rebuffed by Newton library Director Kathy Glick-Weil and Mayor David Cohen on the grounds that they did not have a warrant.

Cohen, defending the library’s actions, called the legal standoff one of Newton’s “finest hours.”

“We showed you can enforce the law — without jeopardizing the privacy of innocent citizens,” the mayor said.

It took U.S. attorneys several hours to finally secure a warrant, Glick-Weil said, and they took the computer from the library at about 11:30 that night, after the library had closed.

Brandeis received the alleged e-mail threat at about 11 a.m., according to Waltham Lt. Brian Navin. While police reportedly didn’t find anything threatening after evacuating 12 buildings at Brandeis and a nearby elementary school, by about 2 p.m., the e-mail was traced to a computer at the Newton Free Library.

Newton police, followed shortly by FBI and state police officers, rushed to the library to lock the building down, Glick-Weil said.

“There was a lot of excitement going on,” she said.

An FBI spokesman, as well as Lt. Bruce Apotheker of the Newton police, both said their offices would not comment on the investigation.

But a law enforcement official close to the investigation said in an e-mail the confrontation was a “nightmare.”

Nancy Murray, director of education for the Boston branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she was surprised the FBI asked for information without a warrant.

“They couldn’t possibly expect to get (the computer) without a warrant,” she said. “Good for the library for knowing more about warrants than the police.”

[LegendHasIt]

And liberal as heck.

I donated three copies of Buzz Patterson's "Derelection of Duty" to my local library when it was first published (I've given them hundreds of books from pretty rare local history books to modern fiction and non fiction over the years).

When I laid them on the desk and the librarian saw Bill Clinton's smarmy grinning face on the cover she was effusive if not orgasmic in her thank yous.

A little later, when I was on my way out of the library, after she got a chance to get an idea what the content of the books was, she (literally) used a yardstick to push the books back at me as if she feared contamination by conservative and patriotic ideals and said : "We don't need THESE kinds of books in THIS library."

There are SEVERAL copies of Hillary's and Bill's pseudo-biographies on the shelves and in the catalog, but almost no current books of a conservative nature.

And I've quit donating books of any sort to them.

When I was a kid, seemed like every librarian loved to get any kind of book, regardless of content. Now the lefties teaching "library science" in the colleges, they only want books that are completely apolitical and amoral, or ones that reinforce their leftwing, anti-American agenda.

[Mears]

What they did to you is book burning without the flames.

See my Post 6 for what I have to put up with at my public library.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Nowadays librarians appear to be liberals who have no problem with people watching porn all day or checking out bomb-making sites in their library.

[Honcho Bongs]

The ALA is also silent on the cartoons of Mohammed even though they claim to be the world's defenders of free speech and even though the majority of their members support free speech:

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/aldirecta/2006pollresults/2006polls.htm

I guess that means the ALA leadership thinks you should only be free to see porn at taxpayer expense at your local library.

Mark Rosensweig, the communist librarian mentioned in this article is also infamous for saying "F**k the troops!" in messages sent to members of the Intellectual Freedom Forum mailing list of the ALA. The man is a pathetic excuse for a human being.

Most librarians are normal, intelligent people, but the librarians who seek the leadership positions seem to be myopic collectivists who are dragging the whole profession into the sewer. Too bad.

[concentric circles]

Hentoff Renounces ALA Freedom Award

...I had received the prized ALA Immroth Award for Intellectual Freedom. The citation reads: "For courageous and articulate advocacy of the First Amendment as an author, speaker, and activist for human rights" (June 1983).

I now publicly renounce the Immroth Award and demand that the American Library Association remove me from the list of recipients of that honor. To me, it is no longer an honor...

[barj]

Can't be trusted, eh? Well I'm one.

If a law enforcement agency has a warrant, libraries will and do comply. Various acts, passed recently, are asking librarians to keep records they normally do not carry. Check out records simply do not exist after the property borrowed is returned. Material viewed in a library is not recorded as having been viewed. Various agencies are in effect looking for us to do their bidding, do their work, and pay for it too. The FBI, nor any other agency wishes to fund any form of record keeping or surveillience they wish librarians to perform. These agencies are effectively on fishing expeditions, which the constitution strictly forbids. What they are doing is akin to going into a book store and asking a clerk who bought what.

Furthermore, where do such invasions end? Perhaps every site you visit on the WEB should be reported? Perhaps every video you rent should be made available to law enforcement? Perhaps all reading material you purchase should be recorded somehow, just in case? Perhaps all your firearms should be recorded in a national data base? After all, it's simply information and there isn't much to prohibit such registration.

They had the information they needed to prevent 9/11 and they failed. Not that I fault them for that, there were likely tons of similar information available and sorting out which is pressing and which isn't is a monumental task. But to piss away our freedoms and rights to fight this so called war is silly. The more restrictive and invasive we allow the government to become, the more they, that is the terrorists win.

[KittyKares]

I am a librarian, too, but I have a different understanding of what we are required to do. My library goes out of its way to try not to have any records so that if a subpoena is issued, they will have nothing to provide. I never heard of having to create records, nor of fishing expeditions. There has to be enough credible evidence that a judge will issue a subpoena for records. My library would not turn over anything without one, so I see no danger of patrons having every web site they view being scrutinized.

Looking through the lenses of liberal bias can distort what one sees.

[rlmorel]

"...to fight this so called war is silly. The more restrictive and invasive we allow the government to become, the more they, that is the terrorists win."

I take issue with your rhetoric. What do you mean "so called war"?

You don't know who this guy is.

This fellow was an acquaintance of mine. His name was David Kovalcin, he had a wife and two daughters, and he was killed on 9/11 on American Flight 11. There were 3000 other people that day who had simliar stories. A so called war?

That is damned easy for you to say.

You can disagree with the way the war is being fought, but people on your end of the spectrum, contributed to the inability of our government to see and take action in time to prevent something like 9/11.

You are all too happy to take the moral high ground and have pristine hands, while you let others do the dirty work behind the scenes as you condemn them. You, and plenty of people like you don't mind taking a free ride on the backs of others who guarantee your safety.

Liberals.

[barj]

There has been talk in congress and in the FBI in the past of requiring libraries to maintain records. Sorry I cannot recall articles directly, but I do remember reading such. Personally, I see nothing wrong with the way libraries are run now, sans records.

The insidiousness of what the gov desires, I think, is evident in the NAIS (National Animal Identification System). Such a system is precurser for keeping track of much more than animals.

Nice to meet a librarian who is of a conservative nature. I needn't tell you what the general crop is like.

[rlmorel]

"...Police rushed to the Newton Free Library after tracing a terrorist threat e-mailed to Brandeis University to a computer at the library. "

Gee, they sure are very proud of themselves. Let's hope it isn't their children who happen to be in the daycare at the bottom of the next imploding skyscraper.

[rlmorel]

You have my sympathy. You live in Newton. Well, know there are other things Newton has going for it, but the entire city of Newton, MA is to the left of Cambridge. No, I take that back. Berkeley, CA and Madison, WI are to the left of Newton.

[barj]

Nice. Your smarminess doesn't go far with me. Parading the dead around as a shield for your position is pathetic. Did you take a lesson from Cindy's book? As a former Marine, I understand sacrifice. I am truly sorry about your friend, but I do not believe we should give up what we have here to catch these guys. Even were it 2 million people killed rather than 2000, I do not believe we give up our rights to win this battle. It would certainly be easier to catach criminals, terrorists and othe bad guys if the constitution were not in the way, but talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. I say so called, because every time the government wants to look at what I am doing it is in the name of winning the war. It is BS.

[KittyKares]

I hope there is never a National Human Identification System.

Are you of the conservative persuasion? That indeed is rare in this profession. I usually find it prudent to keep my comments at work in the neutral zone, which is why it is so freeing to turn into a Freeper after work and be able to let my hair down.

[Porterville]

This should not be a group. Books are not difficult to organize.