radical militant librarians make the world a safer place...

My mother, a librarian, was a major part of a piece by Larry Abramson on the Patriot Act controversy called "The Secret Court of Terror Investigations." NPR seemed so amused by this concept that they actually repeated it at the end of the piece, and noted actual emails are online if one needs to verify the the threat these librarian's pose to society's fabric.

Here's the relevant excerpt...

Agents are particularly frustrated that they cannot get approval to use Section 215 of the Patriot Act, called the "library provision" by Patriot Act critics because it could be used to search library or any other business records.

One FBI e-mail from 2003 complains that the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR) "should be embarrassed that the FBI has used this valuable tool to fight terrorism exactly ZERO times.
...
The inability of FBI investigators to use this seemingly effective tool has had a direct and clearly adverse impact on our terrorism cases. While radical militant librarians kick us around [emphasis added], true terrorists benefit from OIPR's failure to let us use the tools given to us.

I have never been more proud of my mother.

As I have quoted innumerable times when discussing this affront to the Constitution and Bill of Rights, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)