Whitecaps

Commentary and information about public safety and security, intelligence and counterintelligence, open government and secrecy, and other issues in northern Idaho and eastern Washington.

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Location: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, United States

Raised in Palouse, WA. Graduated from Washington State University. US Army (Counterintelligence). US Secret Service (Technical Security Division) in Fantasyland-on-the-Potomac and Los Angeles and other places in the world. Now living in north Idaho.


Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Libraries and the USA PATRIOT Act

The USA PATRIOT Act's Section 215 is one of the more contentious sections. Before the USA PATRIOT Act was passed, federal authorities conducting foreign intelligence investigations could get an order authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)court for access to hotel, airline, storage locker, or car rental company records. Section 215 amended that authority to include access to any tangible item no matter who holds it. By implication, that includes access to library loan records and records of library computer use.

For a discussion of this issue, see Libraries and the USA PATRIOT Act, a report completed by The Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, and updated on July 6, 2005.

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