Previous Politech message: "Justice Department clarifies how FBI agents 'visit' libraries" http://www.politechbot.com/p-04808.html --- From: "Frederick Emrich, Editor, info-commons.org" <editor@info-commons.org> To: <declanat_private> Subject: Justice Dept. press release on libraries and FBI investigations Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 12:26:22 -0400 Declan: Here's a bit I posted at commons-blog (http://www.info-commons.org/blog/archives/000036.html): DOJ on Terror Investigations and Libraries Declan McCullagh at Politech called our attention to a Dept. of Justice press release in which the DOJ takes issue with a New York Times report that FBI "agents have contacted about 50 libraries nationwide in the course of terrorism investigations" (Eric Lichtblau, "Justice Dept. Lists Use of New Power to Fight Terror," May 21, 2003; abstract requires registration, full-text for a fee). The DOJ says the report, based on testimony by Asst. Attorney General Viet Dinh, was in error and that Dinh was referring only to criminal investigations. According to the release, information on contact with libraries in national security investigations is classified. Thanks for clearing that up, DOJ. I feel much better now. By the way, in the original Times article, Barbara Comstock, the DOJ's head of public affairs (and the person under whose name the department press release went out) was quoted saying that the numbers provided by DOJ on FBI inquiries to libraries and other civil institutions (which the Times said "appeared relatively low") showed the restraint of the government in applying PATRIOT Act provisions. A quote from the story follows: "'We've had so much erroneous hysteria out there about our counter-terrorism authority and how it's used,' said (Justice Department spokeswoman) Barbara Comstock. 'What this demonstrates is that these tools have been very carefully targeted, and when we do use them, it's because there are valid reasons that often involve life and death.'" The Times pointed out: "Librarians, concerned about the government's ability to pry into the public's reading habits, have said they believe libraries have been contacted much more frequently (than 50 times)." Seems like the DOJ's latest release suggests that the numbers they *did* make public have no necessary corollation with the actual numbers of inquiries to libraries in national security investigations. In other words, DOJ hasn't done anything to allay concerns about diminishing civil liberties. Furthermore, the DOJ release from Comstock shows that her original statement in the Times was, at best, disingenuous. And we wonder why they're called "spin doctors." The DOJ release is attached below: See also: The Shifted Librarian entry, "Let Librarians be Librarians, Not Snoops" Frederick Emrich, Editor info-commons.org (http://info-commons.org/index.shtml) commons-blog (http://info-commons.org/blog/) RSS Feed: http://www.info-commons.org/blog/index.rdf email: editor@info-commons.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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