FBI Begins Visiting Libraries

Associated Press ^ | June 24, 2002 | Christopher Newton

[billybudd]

So it begins.

[RJCogburn]

Why does this recall the checking out what movies Judge Bork rented?

[Bobby777]

be especially suspicious of anyone reshelving books out of Dewey Decimal Sequence ... also anyone returning books with late fees and no library card ... hehe ...

[LenS]

So it begins.

Good.

They can start by arresting the librarians mentioned in this article, and sending them off to live in the Arab world. That way they can discover what real oppression is like.

[billybudd]

You're right, our standard of comparison should always be the worst the world has to offer, not our very own Constitution.

[mombonn]

Note to librarians:

You are either with us, or with the terrorists.

Given your track record, I'd like to be pleasantly surprised for once.

[Bobby777]

yeah except the librarians over there say "shhh!!!" and then they cut your, ahem, library card off ...

[Kerberos]

On the one hand I understand that we have an increased need to protect ourselves here. But by the same token, when I read through this article, I get a real unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach.

All I can say is that I hope they don't check out my library account. They would find out that I have been reading books on the Constitution and that might not go over real big with some liberals.

[Salman]

Round up everybody who reads Tom Clancy's novels.

[Phillip Augustus]

Can you please cite to the applicable provision of the United States Constitution that holds, "you are either with us or with the terrorists"? Thanks!

[Phillip Augustus]

Exactly. Should Hillary Clinton become President, how much abuse can we expect in the enforcement of this law? I daresay a lot.

[chance33_98]

Over the years I have checked out many math and physics books, books on missle guidance systems, Radio control airplanes, electronics, programming, Tibet, American Indians, Rush Limbaugh, and tons of religious and psychology books. Not to mention those about serial killers and organized crime.

If I fail to post anything in the next few days, worry about me :)

[southern rock]

You are either with us, or with the terrorists.

3rd option: You could be with the constitution.

[Asmodeus]

? ?

[Rebelbase]

[Steve Eisenberg]

"Patron information is sacrosanct here. It's nobody's business what you read," said Kari Hanson, director of the Bridgeview Public Library in suburban Chicago.

I liked the old system -- not really that old -- where you wrote your name in a card in the book. What was so terrible about my knowing that, say, the book I was reading had also been read, or at least taken out, by my town's mayor? Occasionally, biographers would use these cards to track down the supposed reading of those they wrote about. This "violation of privacy" did not let others know what we thought, just what we (started to) read. It still is the system in a lot of synogogue (and probably other small) libraries. What is so bad about that?

[Rebelbase]

I went through a spell where I checked out every book on middle-east cooking I could find. Egads, I could be an accomplice too.

[Steve Eisenberg]

To expand on what I just wrote: Librarians never cared a fig about patron privacy until it became easier to keep information private than to let it hang out.

[My Favorite Headache]

Left image...number 6 image...what is that from? I saw Neil Peart of Rush wearing a pin just like that in 1979 and NEVER found out what it was.