South Dakota writes “Last week The Department of Justice claimed that it had not invoked Article 215 of the Patriot Act. (‘The number of times section 215 has been used to date is zero.‘) Yet in a year old USA Today news story it appears that hundreds of librarians told a University of Illinois survey that they had received FBI visits." The survey was also covered by Wired.
"Is someone lying or is there a loophole in the reporting system? What gives?" The ALA is also curious. I suspect things like arresting patrons and search warrants for library computers don’t qualify. Given the administration’s previously sanctioned use of false news information, the question "If these powers have been used, why are you lying to us now?" comes to mind.
Speaking of… The Ol’ Flip Flop
The Rarin’ Librarian pointed to Lis where she noticed 2 intresting stories.
New York Times:
Mr. Ashcroft says the Justice Department has used its powers sparingly. But until now he has refused requests from members of Congress and others to provide details about the department’s use of the section of the law dealing with library records and other documents, saying the information is classified.
Associated Press:
In his memo to Mueller, Ashcroft noted that all members of Congress have had access to the formerly secret information about use of the Section 215 authority in the Patriot Act.
She has More Interesting Points
Naive pause
Oh, it MUST be a loophole–the Attorney General wouldn’t lie to us!
More refutations
This time by Sara Paretsky of the Chicago Tribune, 21 Sep, and
reprinted at Truthout.org. A couple of incidents mentioned in her article, and one of which I have chronicled at my site:
you can also add
suspicious secret fed warrants on leaders of muslim student groups for (maybe) searching for weapons. Apparently someone had taken foreign nationals shooting, and the feds don’t like this…. But then again, with all the secrecy, it’s hard to tell what has happened or not.
— Ender, Duke_of_URL