The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, Part 7

We present another in the series The 14 Characteristics of Fascism and how BushCo uses them.This is updated from the original series that ran on the Coalition for a Republican-Free America -Dusty

PART VII: OBSESSION WITH NATIONAL SECURITY
Essay I: Librarian Takes on Patriot Act: And Wins
By PraetorOne and BibleBelted
Editors’ Notes by Daniel and BibleBelted

This particular post was originally written on April 12, 2005. At the time we wrote it, we had no idea that it might actually qualify as an essay in a series about the Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism. Indeed, in April 2005, there was some doubt as to whether or not the Patriot Act would be renewed. As it turns out, President Bush, despite promises that he made in 2001 that such Draconian measures would be temporary, has now decided that they should be permanent, and the Patriot Act, with only minor amendments has been tragically approved.

Why does that not surprise us? The Neocon agenda has never been all that sympathetic to civil liberties. Indeed, it seems as if only one Senator, our own Russ Feingold from right here in the State of Wisconsin, was the only Senator who even bothered to read this right wing abomination. Had the other 99 Senators bothered to have done so they would have realized that the Patriot Act was nothing more than a wish list for just abut every repressive measure that the GOP has been hoping for since the Nixon Administration.

When you think about it, the legislation was produced rather quickly–too quickly– which tells me that it had been sitting on a back shelf somewhere waiting for the right opportunity to exploit.

In many ways this reminds me of what happened on 28 February 1933–the day after the Reichstadt Fire in Nazi Germany. Never one to let a good opportunity slip by, then Chancellor Hitler went to President Hindenburg, asking that the aged president sign a decree for the “Protection of the People and the State. To quote William L. Shirer’s masterpiece, THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH: A HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY (1959-1960, Simon and Schuster), the decree stipulated that:

“… restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications; and warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

“In addition, the decree authorized the Reich government to take complete power in the federal states when necessary and imposed the death sentence on a number of crimes, including ’serious disturbances of the peace’ by armed persons.”

Now where have we seen this before? A national tragedy being used as an excuse to limit civil liberties. Oh, Jeez. I don’t know. You think maybe it might be in the Bush administration and their Orwellian named Patriot Act?

Could be.

On the other hand, not all of the news is bad news. As a result of efforts liberty-loving librarians and a concerned American public, our elected officials may well drop the library related provisions in the Patriot Act–even if they haven’t quite risen to the level of true patriotism and decided to scrub the entire act and its misbegotten spawn, Patriot Act Part II. Here, fellow readers, is an example of a plucky little lady and how she defied actions which could have easily led to an invocation intellectual repression. Here is Brandon’s Post from 12 April 2005. It is called ….

Librarian Takes on Patriot Act: And Wins

This year’s winner of the 2005 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award is Joan Airoldi, of the Whatcom County Rural Library District in Washington State! Airoldi, who serves as a librarian and library director at the family home-sized library in rural Whatcom County, Washington had the courage to stand up to an FBI officer who demanded the names of all local patrons who had borrowed the book Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America. According to the FBI, a reader had contacted the FBI after discovering the following, handwritten note in the margin of the book:

“If the things I’m doing is (sic) considered a crime then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Hostility towards America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded by God.”

As it turned out, the quote paralleled certain comments that bin Laden had made in a 1998 interview. As a librarian and library director Airoldi believed that she had a duty to protect the privacy of her patrons, opting to defend the right to read without government scrutiny. Acting on conscience, Airoldi and the library refused to turn over the information, informing the FBI agent that the information would not be turned over without a court order or subpoena. In a subsequent
action the library board voted to fight any further action in court.

You guessed it. On June 18, 2004 a grand jury issued a subpoena demanding the names and other identifying information of every patron which had borrowed the Bin Laden biography since November 15, 2001. True to its word the library board held a special meeting at which it resolved to proceed with a motion to quash the subpoena on the grounds that it interfered with the patrons’ First Amendment rights. According to Airoldi and the board, libraries not only have to disseminate information; they also have a right and a duty to do so confidentially without the fear of disclosure.

Moreover, the board and Airoldi believed that Washington State law protected the confidentiality of the patron’s records. According to Airoldi, “Libraries are a haven where people should be able to seek whatever information they want to pursue without any threat of governmental intervention.” A few weeks later, on July 14, the library received word that the FBI had withdrawn the grand jury subpoena.

Airoldi [was] honored at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on April 20 of this year. At that time also [received] PEN’s $25,000 prize in recognition of her successful effort to organize and guide the library’s effort against governmental intrusion into the personal lives of the library’s patrons. According to PEN Freedom to Write Program Director Larry Siems: “What Joan Airoldi and her staff and Board did, standing up to an unwarranted intrusion by federal agents into the privacy of ordinary Americans, was heroic in itself. At the same time their success vividly illustrates why the protections states and courts have carved out for reading are so essential.”

Ironically, if the FBI agent had arrived with a Patriot Act order the library would not have been allowed to challenge the request. Moreover, if the FBI obtained a Section 215 order from the Secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the infringement into the readers personal lives would have proceeded without restraint. Worse yet, the patrons would not have been informed as to the fact that supposedly private information was being viewed by agents of the United States government.

“For years and long before the Patriot Act passed, law enforcement agents have shown an unconstitutional interest in what people are reading,” said Siems. It was librarians who helped bring an end to the FBI’s infamous Library Awareness Program during the Cold War and who led efforts to pass library confidentiality protections in 48 of 50 states. Joan Airoldi and her staff and board acted in this great, professional tradition in a fearful time and extremely charged atmosphere. We are honored to be able to salute her and the Whatcom County Library System.”

This year’s judges included: novelist Maureen Howard; author and Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy; Marjorie Jeins, Coordinator of the Free Expression Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law and Paul McMasters, First Amendment Ombudsman at the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center.

The Penn/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award was created as a joint effort between author, A. E. Hotchner and actor, Paul Newman as a means to honor those individuals who fight courageously for First Amendment rights and who stand up during difficult times to protect freedom of speech and the right to freedom of expression in regards to the written word.

Editors’ notes by Daniel and BibleBelted

As it turned out the highly repressive Bush Administration had in fact been surveiling our emails and phone calls, collecting data bases of the people we call and who call us, and snooping through our financial records. It kind of makes you wonder–are they worried about security or are they trying to obtain a shit list with which they can blackmail potential opponents? Judging from the way they eviscerate the opposition with little regard for the truth, is it really going too far to wonder if they would collect dirt on anyone and everyone who might potentially disagree with them?

Don’t answer. That was a rhetorical question

Finis

Tags: Patriot Act, Spying on Americans, Fascism

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