FBI CHECKING LIBRARY RECORDS

By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (June 25) - Across the nation, FBI investigators are quietly visiting
libraries and checking the reading records of people they suspect of being in league with
terrorists, library officials say.

The FBI effort, authorized by the anti-terrorism law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, is
the first broad government check of library records since the 1970s, when prosecutors
reined in the practice for fear of abuses.

A Justice Department official in the civil rights division and FBI officials declined to
comment Monday, except to note that such searches are now legal under the Patriot Act
that President Bush signed last October.

Libraries across the nation were reluctant to discuss their dealings with the FBI. The same
law that makes the searches legal also makes it a criminal offense for librarians to reveal
the details or extent of the contact.

But the University of Illinois conducted a survey of 1,020 public libraries in January and
February and found that 85 libraries had been asked by federal or local law enforcement
officers for information about patrons related to Sept. 11, said Ed Lakner, assistant
director of research at the school's Library Research Center.

The libraries that reported FBI contacts were nearly all in large urban areas.

Judith Krug, the American Library Association's director for intellectual freedom, tells
worried librarians who call that they should keep only the records they need and should
discard records that would reveal which patron checked out a book and for how long.

She is frustrated by the hate mail she says she receives when she speaks out against the
Patriot Act.

``People are scared and they think that by giving up their rights, especially their right to
privacy, they will be safe,'' Krug said. ``But it wasn't the right to privacy that let terrorists
into our nation. It had nothing to do with libraries or library records.''

Kari Hanson, director of the Bridgeview Public Library in suburban Chicago, said an FBI
agent came seeking information about a person, but her library had no record of the
person. Federal prosecutors allege Global Relief Foundation, an Islamic charity based in
the Chicago suburb, has ties to Osama bin Laden's terror network

``Patron information is sacrosanct here,'' Hanson said. ``It's nobody's business what you
read.''

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In Florida, Broward County library director Sam Morrison said the FBI had recently
contacted his office. He declined to elaborate on the request or how many branch libraries
were involved.

``We've heard from them and that's all I can tell you,'' Morrison said. He said the FBI
specifically instructed him not to reveal any information about the request.

The library system has been contacted before. A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI
subpoenaed Morrison to provide information on the possible use of computer terminals
by some of the suspected hijackers in the Hollywood, Fla., area.

In October, investigators revisited the county's main library in Fort Lauderdale and
checked a regional library in Coral Springs.

At least 15 of the 19 hijackers had Florida connections.

The process by which the FBI gains access to library records is quick and mostly secret
under the Patriot Act.

First, the FBI must obtain a search warrant from a court that meets in secret to hear the
agency's case. The FBI must show it has reason to suspect that a person is involved with a
terrorist or a terrorist plot - far less difficult than meeting the tougher legal standards of
probable cause, required for traditional search warrants.

With the warrant, FBI investigators can visit a library and gain immediate access to the
records.

Bookstores also can have their records searched by the FBI. Two major booksellers
organizations knew of no cases in which stores had been contacted by the FBI.
Booksellers Amazon, Barnes & Noble and B. Dalton declined to comment.

``What's so frustrating is that we're supposed to be watchdogs over the government's use
of power,'' said Chris Finan, director of the American Booksellers for Free Expression.
``But there is so much secrecy that we can't even tell what the government is doing or
how much its doing it.''

Some libraries said they will still resist government efforts to obtain records.

Pat McCandless, assistant director for public services for Ohio State University's
libraries, said, ``State law and professional ethics say we do not convey patron
information and that is still our stance.

``To the best of our ability, we would try to support patron confidentiality,'' she said.

06/25/02 01:40 EDT

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