Maryland PL Gives Up Computers

Though the director of the Frederick County Public Libraries (FCPL), MD, in August acceded to the request by the FBI for two library computers without getting a warrant, the FBI later asked for and got permission to search those computers, which it alleged were used by Bruce Ivins, the anthrax scientist and suspect who committed suicide a week earlier.

While the library's typical response is to request a court order, library director Darrell Batson, after hearing the agent describe the investigation, was persuaded to give them access. “It was a decision I made on my experience and the information given to me,” he told the Frederick News-Post.

FCPL, in a statement, later said, “Public-access computers are not connected to FCPL's library patron records” but acknowledged that its policies—unlike those at a good number of libraries—do not address confidentiality of computer use. (See Editorial, p. 8.)

Batson heads the Maryland Library Association (MLA), which backed his action. Asked to comment, Mary Somers, MLA's intellectual freedom officer, said the organization “has full confidence in Mr. Batson and feels sure that he made the best decision possible given the information provided to him.”

The library, in its statement, noted, “FCPL provides public-access computers as a service to the community, and access is provided to anybody, regardless of whether they possess a library card.... While several media reports have linked the interaction [between the FBI and the library] with the reported suicide of Bruce E. Ivins, FCPL has no information or indication of such a linkage.”

Later, according to the affidavits supporting the petition for warrants, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Ivins connection was made clear. FBI Special Agent Marlo Arredondo said that on July 24, FBI agents tracking Ivins watched him for 90 minutes while he used two computers at the C. Burr Artz Public Library. He was seen to examine email accounts and look at a web site “dedicated to the Anthrax Investigation.”

The affidavits say that the FBI seeks “electronic communications, electronic documents, Internet activity, and stored writings identifying a plan to kill witnesses or names of intended victims, suicide letters, or any other relevant electronic data.”

The News-Post reported that a “Department of Justice [DoJ] spokesman declined to comment on why the FBI waited a week after observing Ivins using the computers to seize them, and why it waited another week before obtaining the search warrants.” Ivins's attorney continued to criticize the DoJ for “heaps of innuendo and a staggering lack of real evidence.”