Homeland Security Commission Says Back Off Patriot Act

-- Library Journal, 12/22/2003

Librarians may not have noticed yet, but the federally-chartered commission set up to advise on homeland security has told the President and Congress that library records deserve greater protection than currently allowed under the USA PATRIOT Act. The Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction, better known as the Gilmore commission (the chair is former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III) issued its fifth and final report on December 15. While the report recommends an improved homeland security strategy to strengthen security in communities facing the greatest risk, improved use of intelligence, and sharpened disaster response capabilities, Appendix E addresses the topic of "Civil Liberties in a Post-9/11 World."

The report notes that Section 215 of the Patriot Act has expanded the authority to compel libraries, bookstores, schools, Internet service providers, and others to turn over business records to the government. Library groups and several members in Congress, notably Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), support bills to amend Section 215, and this report should help that cause. Under what is termed "Possible Recommendations," the commission wrote, "[C]oncerns about the application of Section 215 might be alleviated if a higher threshold were imposed to collect information directly related to First Amendment activity, in addition to barring collection based solely on protected activity. For example, we know that some of the 9/11 hijackers used library computers prior to the attacks. If investigators pick up Internet activity that they reasonably believe is related to terrorism and can identify that it came from a computer in a library during a certain time period on a certain day, it makes sense to give them authority to find out who used the library's computers at that time. However, a significantly higher threshold, such as that required to monitor voice communications, should be required to give the government access to information on the content of that activity or what books someone checked out." For more information on the commission, see www.rand.org/nsrd/terrpanel/. For the library-related section, click here and find pages 152-3.