LISNews: Librarian News

Daniel points to Senator
Murkowki's press release of the co-sponored SAFE
bill to ammend the Patriot Act. Some of the SAFE Act (Security and
Freedom Enhancement Act of 2005) provisions she suggests including to revise
the Patriot Act are:

The Safe Act would restore a standard of individualized suspicion
before a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order for library
or other  personal records can be obtained and would create procedural
protections to prevent abuses. As is required for grand jury subpoenas,
the SAFE act  would give the recipient of a FISA order the right to
challenge the order, require a government showing that a gag order is necessary,
place a limit on the  gag order and give the recipient the right to
challenge the gag order.

The SAFE Act would also require increased public reporting on the
use of FISA orders.

Similar to the rights and procedures for FISA orders, the SAFE Act
would set guidelines for the use of National Security Letter to obtain
personal  records. The government would have to show reason that the
records sought relate to a suspected terrorist or spy.

Search Google:
[SAFE Act] -[News]
[Security
and Freedom Enhancement Act] -[News]

The CSMonitor
reported that according to FBI director Robert Mueller the reason law
enforcement officials haven't had to use the Patriot Act in accessing
library records is that ""we have had the cooperation of the libraries
to date,"" prompting the ALA's Washington office deputy director Patrice
McDermott to later respond, ""it's a core principle of our profession that
user records are confidential. If you're not free to read and research
and think, you don't have freedom of speech.""

Google: [Patriot
Act Library]-[News]
~ [Patriot
Act Section 215]-[News]
Hermit :-x -- Read More

Anonymous Patron writes "The Associated Press Reports The Bush administration's two top law enforcement officials on Tuesday urged Congress to renew every provision of the anti-terror Patriot Act; a portion of which is due to expire in December. FBI Director Robert Mueller also asked lawmakers to expand the Bureau's ability to obtain records without first asking a judge.

On the same day Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was speaking to the Senate committee, Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., planned to reintroduce legislation designed to curb major parts of the Patriot Act that they say went too far."

The Reader's Shop writes "mailtribune.com reports Librarians and Robert Jordan, FBI special agent, met at Southern Oregon University for a forum called "Libraries, Censorship and the Internet in the Era of the Patriot Act. Participants discussed the extent of the laws provisions and the likelihood that "investigative incursions into private records are likely to get much more aggressive if there’s another big terrorist attack". Gag rules included in the bill were also discussed as well as other topics including exactly what kind of authority FBI agents need to access library records."