-Caveat Lector-
From: Euphorian
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Now They Check the Books You Read
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By Joan E. Bertin
Joan E. Bertin is executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship.
September 16, 2002
In the post 9/11 world, there is undoubtedly a government official whose job is to
invent innocuous-sounding, if not reassuring, acronyms for government initiatives
against terrorism.
Operation TIPS is a case in point. The Terrorism Information and Prevention System
will recruit millions of utility, transportation and other workers to report on
"potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public places." In other words,
Operations TIPS is using private citizens to spy on each other.
The Bush administration's reliance on acronyms with public-relations punch was
apparent as early as last October when, still reeling from the events of Sept. 11, it
proposed and Congress swiftly passed the USA Patriot Act ("The Uniting and
Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism" Act of 2001). Like Operation TIPS, the label doesn't tell the
whole story.
Among the less well-known aspects of the Patriot Act are provisions permitting the
Justice Department to obtain information secretly from booksellers and librarians
about customers' and patrons' reading, Internet and book-buying habits, merely by
alleging that the records are relevant to an anti-terrorism investigation. The act
prohibits librarians and booksellers from disclosing these subpoenas, so the objects
of investigation don't know and therefore cannot defend themselves and their privacy,
or contest the government's actions in court.
In a sample of 1,000 libraries responding to a survey last February, 85 reported
receiving requests to turn over information about patrons to police or FBI agents. We
have no way to know how many other libraries, and how many booksellers, received
similar requests. We don't know how many requests were made under the Patriot Act,
because of its secrecy provisions. What we do know is that the Patriot Act authorizes
the government to obtain information secretly from librarians and booksellers about
customers' and patrons' interests and activities, and that law enforcement officials
are seeking such information. The Justice Department has refused to provide any data
about these investigations, even to Congress.
Librarians and booksellers have voiced their dismay at being conscripted, under court
order and threat of prosecution, to report covertly on their patrons and customers.
Secretly obtaining information about what people read, to try to figure out what they
think, undermines more than privacy; it threatens core First Amendment principles, as
many librarians and booksellers understand.
The Constitution clearly protects the right to read a book, embrace an idea or express
a thought - even an unpopular or "unpatriotic" book, idea or thought. The freedom of
thought and expression is so fundamental to our democracy that, as the Supreme Court
recently noted, the "government may not prohibit speech because it increases the
chance an unlawful act will be committed 'at some indefinite future time.'" In so
holding, the court relied on the "vital distinction between words and deed, between
ideas and conduct." In other words, the government is free to prohibit and punish
illegal conduct, but may not criminalize ideas or punish people for their thoughts.
Perversely, under the Patriot Act, reading certain books or researching certain topics
- both constitutionally protected activities - now apparently provide grounds for
criminal investigation.
The Justice Department's recent decision to repeal the domestic terrorism surveillance
guidelines unmistakably sends this signal. The guidelines were adopted in 1976 in
response to revelations that, under the infamous COINTELPRO ("counterintelligence")
program, civil rights and anti-war activists who were neither accused nor suspected of
crimes became targets of government investigation because of their outspoken criticism
of government policies. To prevent such abuses, the 1976 guidelines authorized
surveillance of political, religious and other groups only if there was actual
evidence of criminal activity. Without this restriction, covert surveillance of
political dissidents with no known connection to criminal activity is bound to resume.
According to a brief recently filed by the Justice Department in defense of secret
immigration hearings, the "First Amendment creates no general right of access to
government information or operations." The gag order imposed on librarians and
booksellers goes even further in withholding information from the object of an
investigation. As a result, proceedings under the act will be shrouded in secrecy, not
only making it impossible for targeted individuals to counter the government's
allegations, but also preventing the public at large from making an informed judgment
about whether the government is effectively countering terrorism or unfairly targeting
innocent people.
The rush to enact programs with reassuring-sounding names may have been understandable
a year ago. Now, however, it would be patriotic to consider whether, despite their
appealing acronyms, some hastily enacted programs threaten the freedoms we value most.
It is peculiar, to say the least, for our government to fight terrorists by adopting
their techniques - secrecy and intimidation.
Besides, exactly how many terrorists does the FBI expect to find through the local
library or the bookstore?
Copyright (c) 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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This article originally appeared at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpber162926090sep16(0,5172670).story
Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
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