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Banned
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An update on Rove/Plame and, to followup on comments in my last post here, an observation that our American Library Assoc. would not deem it necessary to "use servers in Canada" to search the internet to gather info for it's study of post 9/11 law enforcement inquiries of U.S. library patrons' reading activity, if the folks that Rove enables have not achieved a "chilling effect" on the habits and activities of Americans who believe that peaceful expression of dissent and advocacy of non-violent civil disobedience are appropriate response to the takeover of their government
by thugs who fail to be faithful to their oaths of office! What are our elected officials turning our formerly "free" nation into, and at what price to our ability to express ourselves and to petition our government for a redress of grievances?
Quote:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/39315670-ec...00e2511c8.html
Rove talked but did not tattle, attorney says
By LA Times, 4 Jul 2005
Published: July 4 2005 14:00 | Last updated: July 4 2005 14:00
..........Luskin said Rove had been assured by prosecutors that he was not a target of the investigation. “We were advised recently that his status has not changed,” he added.
”It is certainly my understanding that Karl has testified absolutely truthfully about all his conversations about everybody that he has been asked about during that week,” Luskin added. “Nobody has suggested to us ever that they think that there are any problems about whether they think he is being candid.”
But Newsweek magazine reported on its website Saturday that Rove was one of Cooper’s sources identified in notes that Time turned over to Fitzgerald. And separately, MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O’Donnell said in a taped TV program that he had information indicating Rove was one of Cooper’s sources. O’Donnell’s comments were made in a segment of “The McLaughlin Group” that was set to air in Los Angeles on PBS Saturday night.
Cooper’s lawyer, Richard Sauber, declined to discuss Rove’s role in Cooper’s work, saying in response to an e-mail message, “We’re not going to discuss one way or another what the [documents turned over by Time]..........
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Quote:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3129941/
Secrets and Leaks
By (Page 2 of 3)
Newsweek
Updated: 8:56 a.m. ET Oct. 6, 2003
Irked by Wilson’s public charges, administration officials promptly set about undermining Wilson’s credibility.........
..........The next day Wilson got a call from Chris Matthews, host of the MSNBC show “Hardball.” According to a source close to Wilson, Matthews said, “I just got off the phone with Karl Rove, who said your wife was fair game.” (Matthews told NEWSWEEK: “I’m not going to talk about off-the-record conversations.”)............
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Quote:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion...ian-edit_x.htm
Posted 5/17/2005 8:45 PM
Librarian's brush with FBI shapes her view of the USA Patriot Act
By Joan Airoldi
.........Since the passage of the Patriot Act in October 2001, the FBI has the power to go to a secret court to request library and bookstore records considered relevant to a national security investigation. It does not have to show that the people whose records are sought are suspected of any crime or explain why they are being investigated. In addition, librarians and booksellers are forbidden to reveal that they have received an order to surrender customer data.
Our government has always possessed the power to obtain library records, but that power has been subject to safeguards. The Patriot Act eliminated those safeguards and made it impossible for people to ask a judge to rule whether the government needs the information it is after. In the current debate over extending or amending the Patriot Act, one of the key questions is whether a library or any other institution can seek an independent review of an order. Even the attorney general conceded in a recent oversight hearing that this is a problem with the law as written.
Fortunately for our patrons, we were able to mount a successful challenge to what seems to have been a fishing expedition. If it had returned with an order from a secret court under the Patriot Act, the FBI might now know which residents in our part of Washington State had simply tried to learn more about bin Laden.
With a Patriot Act order in hand, I would have been forbidden to disclose even the fact that I had received it and would not have been able to tell this story.
Joan Airoldi, a librarian, is director of the library district in Whatcom County, Wash.
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Quote:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/20/news/patriot.php
U.S. demanded data from libraries, study finds
By Eric Lichtblau The New York Times
TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2005
.........."What this says to us," said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the library association's Washington office, "is that agents are coming to libraries and they are asking for information at a level that is significant, and the findings are completely contrary to what the Justice Department has been trying to convince the public".............
.......The survey also found what library association officials described as a "chilling effect" caused by public concerns about the government's powers. Nearly 40 percent of the libraries responding reported that users had inquired about changes in practices related to the Patriot Act, and about 5 percent said that they had altered their professional activities over the issues; for instance, by reviewing the types of books they bought........
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Quote:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a0zD3TZdq1Pc
Libraries, Challenging FBI, Shape Patriot Act Debate (Update1)
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- When the American Library Association surveyed U.S. libraries for a report on the impact of the USA Patriot Act, it went out of its way -- far out of its way -- to house the information.
The choice: a computer server in Canada, beyond the reach of U.S. authorities. ``Not that I'm paranoid or anything,'' said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the Chicago-based library association's Washington office.
The library association's report, released today, said that U.S. law enforcement authorities made more than 200 requests for information from libraries since October 2001, the month the Patriot Act was signed into law......
........... The administration draws the line at amending the law to exempt library records.
``Libraries and booksellers should not become safe havens for terrorists and spies,'' Deputy Attorney General James Comey told lawmakers on May 11.
Administrative Subpoenas
Even as the library association and its allies press to limit the Patriot Act, some in Congress hope to expand the power to seize records. The Senate Intelligence Committee voted to let investigators demand records without the approval of any judge or grand jury, using so-called ``administrative subpoenas.'' The full Senate hasn't considered the proposal.
The library privacy issue isn't new. In 1973 the FBI started recruiting librarians as Cold War-era informants through an ``appeal to their patriotism'' to report on scientific research being done by foreign nationals, according to research by Herbert Foerstel, former head of branch libraries at the University of Maryland.....
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Quote:
http://bernie.house.gov/documents/ar...0620171426.asp
........."We're concerned about protecting people's privacy," she said. "People will say to me, 'I've read about the Patriot Act, and does that mean the government can come in and ask you what I'm reading?' And my answer to them has to be, 'Yes, they can,' and quite frankly, I can't even tell anyone if that happened, because there's a gag order."...........
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How did we get to the point where I am prompted to ask another TFP member if his activities here include surveillance of the content of my posts? My research convinces me that I am not overreacting, and that the intended "chilling effect" that these thugs have orchestrated, is working!
Last edited by host; 07-04-2005 at 12:39 PM..
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