[Infowarrior] - Librarians Describe Life Under An FBI Gag Order

[Richard Forno]

Librarians Describe Life Under An FBI Gag Order
By Luke O'Brien EmailJune 24, 2007 | 2:22:57

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/librarians-desc.html

Poster2thumb Life in an FBI muzzle is no fun. Two Connecticut librarians on
Sunday described what it was like to be slapped with an FBI national
security letter and accompanying gag order. It sounded like a spy movie or,
gulp, something that happens under a repressive foreign government. Peter
Chase and Barbara Bailey, librarians in Plainville, Connecticut, received an
NSL to turn over computer records in their library on July 13, 2005. Unlike
a suspected thousands of other people around the country, Chase, Bailey and
two of their colleagues stood up to the Man and refused to comply, convinced
that the feds had no right to intrude on anyone's privacy without a court
order (NSLs don't require a judge's approval). That's when things turned
ugly.

The four librarians under the gag order weren't allowed to talk to each
other by phone. So they e-mailed. Later, they weren't allowed to e-mail.

After the ACLU took on the case and it went to court in Bridgeport, the
librarians were not allowed to attend their own hearing. Instead, they had
to watch it on closed circuit TV from a locked courtroom in Hartford, 60
miles away. "Our presence in the courtroom was declared a threat to national
security," Chase said.

Forced to make information public as the case moved forward, the government
resorted to one of its favorite tactics: releasing heavily redacted versions
of documents while outing anyone who didn't roll over for Uncle Sam. In this
case, they named Chase, despite the fact that he was legally compelled to
keep his own identity secret.

Then the phone started ringing. Pesky reporters wanted info. One day, the AP
called Chase's house and got his son, Sam, on the phone. When Chase got
home, he took one look at his son's face. "I could tell something was very
wrong," he said. Sam told him the AP had called saying that Chase was being
investigated by the FBI. "What's going on?" Sam asked his father. Chase
couldn't tell him. For months, he worried about what his son must have been
thinking. As the case moved forward, the librarians had to resort to regular
duplicity with co-workers and family -- mysteriously disappearing from work
without an  explanation, secretly convening in subway stations, dancing
around the truth for months. The ACLU even advised Chase to move to a
safehouse.

After the Bridgeport court ruled that the librarians constitutional rights
had been violated, the government appealed the decision to U.S. District
Court in Manhattan. Around the same time, the Congressional spin machine
kicked into overdrive. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) wrote an op-ed
in USA Today that said:

    "Zero. That's the number of substantiated USA Patriot Act civil
liberties violations. Extensive congressional oversight found no violations.
Six reports by the Justice Department's independent inspector general, who
is required to solicit and investigate any allegations of abuse, found no
violations."

Once President Bush reauthorized the Patriot Act, the FBI lifted the
librarians' gag order. "By withdrawing the gag order before the court had
made a decision, they withdrew the case from scrutiny," Chase said. This
eliminated the possibility that the NSL provisions would be struck down.

Today, the Connecticut librarians are the only ones who can talk about life
with an NSL gag, despite the likelihood that there are hundreds if not
thousands of other similar stories out there. "Everyone else who would speak
about is subject to a five year prison term," Chase said. The prison term
for violating the gag order was added to the reauthorized Patriot Act.