FBI trawls libraries for terrorist readers
Jamie Wilson in Washington
Tuesday June 21, 2005
The Guardian
The bookish calm of a public library might not seem like the most obvious place to hunt for terrorists, but according to a report, the FBI and other US law enforcement agencies involved in counter-terrorism have made more than 200 requests for information about borrowers from libraries since September 11.
A list of people who had borrowed a book about Osama bin Laden was among the information to have been demanded since the introduction of the patriot act, the legislation that has enhanced the government’s powers to investigate alleged terrorist activity after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0%2C12271%2C1510892%2C00.html