Actually this is kind of old news, but it has been a hectic week or more. I'm not sure where it was first reported, but late on Tuesday August 30, I got a call from the ALA Washington Office asking if I could attend the open court hearing scheduled for the next morning where the ACLU was asking a federal judge to lift a gag order. Here is the Yahoo News story. Late in the previous week ALA had noted that the suit was filed, but most of us expected the hearing to be sealed.
Well, let me start and admit what I have told every newspaper reporter who called: The National Security Letter was not filed with me as the Bridgeport City Librarian.
Actually, it was quite interesting. The New York Times reporter was the only one who followed up on the question of had the FBI ever visited me. The answer was "Yes." And here is the story.
At this point (September 8) we are still waiting for the Judge to rule. I'll do some more on this later, also.
The USA Patriot overly infringes on the rights of Americans. Sure, you need gag orders for some things, but I am becoming increasingly suspicious if the Patriot Act will be used for more trivial things in a form of government "suppression" so to speak. With the Patriot Act, I do not believe that a court grant is even needed to access a private citizen's personal records. What ever happened to Checks and Balances? I was appauled when the House voted to renew the act in July (I think?). I do not believe that the Senate has made its decision. I hope that it will decide against renewing this flagrant breech of Civil and Personal Liberties.
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