ISSN 0028-9485 July 2006 Vol. LV No. 4 www.ala.org/nif Four Connecticut librarians who had been barred from revealing that they had received a request for patrons’ records from the federal government spoke out May 30 expressing frustration about the sweeping powers given to law enforcement authorities by the USA PATRIOT Act. The librarians took turns at the microphone at their lawyers’ office and publicly identi‑ fied themselves as the collective John Doe who had sued the United States attorney gen‑ eral after their organization received a confidential demand for patron records in a secret counterterrorism case. They had been ordered, under the threat of prosecution, not to talk about the request with anyone. The librarians, who all have leadership roles at a small Connecticut consortium called Library Connection in Windsor, Connecticut, said they opposed allow‑ ing the government unchecked power to demand library records and were particularly librarians drop incensed at having been subject to the open‑ended nondisclosure order. “I’m John Doe, and if I had told you before today that the FBI was requesting library John Doe gag records, I could have gone to jail,” said one of the four, Peter Chase, a librarian from Plainville who is on the executive committee of Library Connection’s board. The organization won part of its court fight when a three‑judge panel of the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan dismissed the government’s appeal and allowed a lower court judge’s revocation of the nondisclosure order to stand. But the four librarians say they remain concerned that other provisions of the PATRIOT Act could deter people from using libraries. “I am relieved that a federal court has at long last lifted a PATRIOT Act gag order and allowed me to acknowledge that I am the recipient of a National Security Letter (NSL) on behalf of my organization, Library Connection,” asserted Executive Director George Christian at the May 30 press conference at the New York City headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union. The statement ended months of speculation that the Library Connection—a nonprofit consortium of twenty‑seven public and academic (continued on page 217) Published by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, Kenton L. Oliver, Chair The Botany of Desire .....................................................211 in this issue Boy’s Life ........................................................................182 The Chocolate War ........................................................184 Connecticut librarians ungagged ...................................173 The Clan of the Cave Bear ............................................182 The Color Purple ...........................................................187 Bush PATRIOT Act signing criticized ...........................175 Fallen Angels .................................................................211 Freakonomics .................................................................190 FBI seeks journalist’s archive ........................................175 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone ..........................207 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents .....................211 FBI says journalists’ records can be searched ...............175 The Joy of Gay Sex ........................................................183 Kaffir Boy .......................................................................209 Gonzales says journalist prosecutions possible .............176 The King Must Die .........................................................182 Manga ............................................................................181 Al-Arian reaches deal ....................................................176 The Perks of Being a Wallflower ...................................211 The Power of One ..........................................................182 AAUP supports campus speakers ..................................177 Rainbow Boys ................................................................182 Rats Saw God .................................................................182 scientists charge government gagging ...........................177 Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love ....................182 Slaughterhouse-Five ......................................................211 NSA rejected legal phone surveillance system ..............178 The Things They Carried ...............................................211 Vamos a Cuba ................................................................207 report on Internet filters .................................................178 periodicals 2006 Muzzle Awards .....................................................179 AAPG Bulletin ................................................................216 Free Inquiry ...................................................................216 2006 Hefner Awards ......................................................180 Gay People’s Chronicle .................................................208 The Insurgent [U. of Oregon] ........................................212 censorship dateline: libraries, schools, student press, Northern Light [N. Central U.] .....................................187 colleges and universities, periodicals, foreign ......181 Outlook Weekly ..............................................................208 Penthouse .......................................................................216 from the bench: U.S. Supreme Court, National Playboy ..........................................................................216 Security Letters, schools, colleges and Providence Phoenix .......................................................209 universities, harassment .........................................191 film Brokeback Mountain [Bahamas] ...................................216 is it legal?: libraries, schools, colleges and universities, Internet, telecommunications, broadcasting, access to information ......................197 Views of contrubutors to the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom success stories: libraries, schools, colleges are not necessarily those of the editors, the Intellectual Freedom and universities, etc. ..............................................207 Committee, or the American Library Association. (ISSN 0028-9485) targets of the censor Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom is published bimonthly (Jan., Mar., books May, July, Sept., Nov.) by the American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. The newsletter is also available online Abduction! ......................................................................208 at www.ala.org/nif. Subscriptions: $70 per year (print), which includes Absolutely, Positively Not ..............................................212 annual index; $50 per year (electronic); and $85 per year (both print Are You in the House Alone? .........................................182 and electronic). For multiple subscriptions to the same address, and for back issues, please contact the Office for Intellectual Freedom at 800- The Awakening ...............................................................211 545-2433, ext. 4223 or [email protected]. Editorial mail should be addressed Baseball Saved Us .........................................................183 to the Office of Intellectual Freedom, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, Illinois 60611. Periodical postage paid at Chicago, IL at additional mailing The Bean Trees ...............................................................182 offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Newsletter on Beloved ...........................................................................187 Intellectual Freedom, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. 174 Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom NIF_55n4_2p.indd 174 7/12/2006 9:23:54 AM “It’s been determined that among the papers there are groups criticize Bush’s PATRIOT a number of classified U.S. government documents,” said Act signing statement FBI spokesman Bill Carter. “Under the law, no private per- son may possess classified documents that were illegally A coalition of librarians, booksellers, publishers, provided to them. These documents remain the property of and writers has accused President Bush of undermining the government.” new provisions in the reauthorized PATRIOT Act that Duane E. Webster, executive director of the Association require him to inform Congress how the FBI is using of Research Libraries, said that the FBI’s actions were its expanded police powers, including those authorizing “deeply disturbing and deeply in conflict with the acade- access to library and bookstore records. my’s interests in freedom of inquiry, research, and scholar- In a March 30 press release, the Campaign for Reader ship.” Tracy B. Mitrano, an adjunct assistant professor of Privacy—a joint initiative of the American Booksellers information science at Cornell University, said, “Once you Association, American Library Association, Association begin taking records out of library archives that researchers of American Publishers, and PEN American Center— rely on for free inquiry and research purposes, it would be condemned Bush’s March 9 PATRIOT Act signing state- very difficult not to see it as a slippery slope toward gov- ment, an official document in which a president spells ernment controlling research in higher education and our out his understanding of a bill he is signing into law, as collective understanding of American history.” undercutting congressional oversight. Anderson, who died last December, was a muckraking