[OPLINLIST] FW: [ala-ifc] ALA urges Congress to reform laws governing the FBI's use of National Security Letters

[Kent Oliver]

FYI, Kent

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Wood [mailto:dwood at ala.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 12:10 PM
To: ala-ifc at ala.org
Subject: [ala-ifc] ALA urges Congress to reform laws governing the FBI's
use of National Security Letters


American Library Association urges Congress to reform laws governing the
FBI's use of National Security Letters
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2007/july2007/nsl07.htm

Contact: Macey Morales
Media Relations, ALA
312-280-4303
For Immediate Release
July 11, 2007

American Library Association urges Congress to reform laws governing the
FBI's use of National Security Letters

CHICAGO - The American Library Association's governing body has
unanimously passed   a resolution condemning the use of National
Security Letters (NSLs) to obtain library records and urging Congress to
pursue immediate reforms of NSL procedures. 

The resolution, adopted at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington,
D.C., arose out of the ALA's concerns over the misuse and abuse of
National Security Letters detailed in the March, 2007 report submitted
to Congress by the  Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General.
The report describes how the FBI engaged in widespread and serious
abuses of its authority to use NSLs, including significantly
understating the number of NSLs used by the FBI in the classified
reports given to Congress; using NSLs to collect consumer information, a
practice prohibited by statute; and circumventing the requirements of
the NSL statute to obtain information in the absence of any duly
authorized investigation. 

The resolution also supports George Christian's appeal to Congress to
reconsider the NSL authorities that allow the FBI to subject innocent
people to fishing expeditions of their personal information with no
judicial review.  Christian, executive director of the Library
Connection in Windsor, Connecticut, testified before Congress on behalf
of himself and his colleagues,  librarians Janet Nocek, Barbara Bailey,
and Peter Chase, about their experience in being served with an NSL to
obtain library users' records and being gagged from discussing it.  In
his testimony, Christian asked the Senators "to take special note of the
uses and abuses of NSLs in libraries and bookstores and other places
where higher First Amendment standards should be considered."   The four
- known as the  "Connecticut John Does"- were presented with the ALA
Paul Howard Award for Courage at the conference.

Among the legislative reforms ALA urges are:

Judicial oversight of National Security Letters (NSLs) requiring a
showing of individualized suspicion and demonstrating a factual
connection between the individual whose records are sought by the FBI
and an actual investigation;

Elimination of the automatic and permanent imposition of a nondisclosure
or "gag" order whenever an NSL is served on an individual or
institution;

Allowing recipients of NSLs to receive meaningful judicial review of a
challenge to their NSL without deferring to the government's claims;

Increased oversight by Congress and the Office of the Inspector General
of the U.S. Department of Justice over NSLs and FBI activities that
implicate the First Amendment; and

Providing for the management, handling, dissemination and destruction of
personally identifiable information obtained through NSLs 
ALA has sent letters communicating the resolution to the Offices of the
President and Vice President as well as to every member of Congress.
ALA further asked its members, state chapters, and all library advocates
to ask Congress to restore civil liberties and correct the abuse and
misuse of National Security Letters.

"Resolution on the Use and Abuse of National Security Letters" can be
found online at
http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/ifresolutions/nationalsecurity
letters.htm

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library
association in the world, with more than 65,000 members.