by LEN PARKER
Recently I had occasion to give a talk
on the preservation of library archives; under the heading of
“Establishing The Red Kiwi Library.”
During the latter part of my talk I
listed but a tiny fraction of a vast record of the destruction of
libraries throughout history. All nation states, without exception,
sacked and burnt the archives and records of other nation states. I
included periods in which books were simply banned for religious
reasons, such as the Catholic Index of Prohibited Books (Index Librorum
Prohibitorum,1600 - only abolished in 1966 by Pope Paul VI), or in
order to destroy the cultural identity, accumulated knowledge and
wisdom of the conquered.
More recently, I discovered another
kind of assault on libraries; not so much on the books but on the
library patrons themselves, while disabling their gate-keepers and
guardians, the librarians. It is often said: Knowledge is power,
while the lack of it by others serves to reinforce those who have
access to it.
The discovery evoked the idea as to how
a similar attack might impact on our civil liberties here in New
Zealand, with the passing of the Government Communications Security
Bureau (GCSB) Bill. This Bill aligns us with the United States NSL
and PATRIOT Act and the Five Eye surveillance network in which we are
enmeshed.
Similarly, the proposed
Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill, also
before the House, will cohere with those of the United States. It
enables, “the surveillance agencies (The New Zealand Police, the
New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and the GCSB) to request
information from network operators.”
While political debate and repartee in
the parliamentary nowadays is increasingly abrasive and venomous, it
is not exactly razor sharp or cutting edge. Labour and the Greens
missed the opportunity to parry the sarcasm of Prime Minister John
Key. In the debate on the GCSB Bill, being rushed through the House,
Key referred to an opposition Labour member as Noddy. Some savvy wit
might have responded with; “Our concern is with Big Ears” -
referring of course to Tangimoana and Five Eyes international spy
base network soon to spy on New Zealand citizens.
When Key sanctimoniously stated that
“New Zealanders are more concerned with recreational fishing than
the GCSB.” a quick riposte might have been; “Is fishing spelt
with a Ph or an f?” But while there was lots of angry buzzing in
the Beehive, the smoke from the government benches must have dulled
the opposition's edge. Instead; the then leader of the Labour
opposition, David Shearer, overcome by the two dead fish he brought
into the house, immediately resigned.
Obviously, there is no Oscar Wilde
amongst us!
To ensure the passing of this assault
on our democratic freedom, civil liberties and the right to privacy,
prime minister Key whipped his government members into line,
depriving them of their right to a conscience vote, if one existed -
which says a great deal about the opportunism of National MPs in
ceding integrity and principle for Key's favour. Key then relied on
the one vote of now independent Peter Dunne to carry the day, having
already secured the support of “libertarian” ACT Party member
John (cup-of-tea) Banks.
No courageous Marilyn Waring of the
past - who brought down the Muldoon government by threatening to
cross the floor - or even a dissenting Mike Monogue concerned with
Muldoon's increasingly autocratic rule. Just a badger, lots of
toadies, a rat or two and plenty of “Wind in the Willows”.
(Perhaps a little unfair as Labour, the Greens and Mana promised, if
they became the government, to repeal the Act.)
There is the mantra here in God's Own
and elsewhere: “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to
fear.” I don't think that is what President Frankly D. Roosevelt
meant when he said “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” He
took on the banks and corporate interests in the depression years of
the nineteen thirties and introducing the Glass-Steagall Act to save
capitalist America from itself..
MANA MP Hone Harawira was right in
stating (at the public protest meeting in the Auckland Town Hall on
the GCSB Bill) that the majority of poor beneficiaries, pensioners,
low paid working class Maori, Pacific Islanders and Pakeha, if they
were aware of the GCSB - and many were not – had neither energy
or inclination to attend the meeting and would wonder what all the
fuss was about. They were, he said, spied on all the time, by Social
Welfare; IRD; police and many other departments of the State; as well
as by their bosses; retail supermarkets; the banks and creditors and
various others who ruled their lives.
Nevertheless: the assault on our civil
rights and liberties is undeniable in this encroaching “Brave New
World” of insidious surveillance and increasingly secret government
with access to every detail of our personal lives as citizens - under
the guise of National Security.
If you think you have nothing to fear
from our willingness to prostrate ourselves before the United States,
how about this?
In their book; “Standing Up to
Madness”, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now host) and brother David
Goodman relate how - during the Bush administration and under the
United States PATRIOT Act - four librarians in Connecticut came under
coercion from FBI agents wanting access to library subscribers'
records and library computers, to determine who was reading and
researching what - simply by presenting a letter under the Act from
the NSL. No warrant required.
The FBI presented a letter from the NSL
demanding the library make available: “... any and all subscriber
information, billing information and access of any person or entity”
that had used their computers across their twenty seven libraries
between certain times on a certain date in 2005. While stunned by
this “request” the executive director refused access believing it
illegal under the Constitution.
“The letter advised that the
information was sought 'to protect against international terrorism.'”
The agent pointed to a sentence in the
letter that read that the recipients could not disclose “to any
person that the FBI has sought or obtained access to information or
records.” Effectively a perpetual gagging order. Information gained
through an NSL is kept forever. A similar non-disclosure clause
applies here in New Zealand under the the existing Security
Intelligence (SIS) legislation.
However, the intrepid and defiant
“mild-mannered” librarian did consult the three other library
executives on this intrusion, who thought differently - believing,
what people coming into the library did was their private affair and
they should be able to use the library for whatever their want. The
American Library Association (ALA) had a system protecting
confidentiality: “that automatically erased any record of a
patron's book use - provided the book was returned to the library
and the fines paid”.
Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act,
however, allows the FBI agent to enter a library or bookstore and
demand records of the books that patrons read and which internet
sites they visited.
The nervous, but stoic, librarians took
on the PATRIOT Act and engaged an American Civil Liberties Union
lawyer to represent them in their law suit and sought an injunction
against having to comply with the NSL; requesting a ruling to strike
down NSLs as unconstitutional. They also wanted the gag order lifted
so that they could inform their full board of directors about what
was happening.
Former U.S. attorney general John
Ashcroft accused the defiant librarians of creating “baseless
hysteria.” Sound familiar?
Although the four librarians were the
only ones who could testify in court that the FBI was using the NSL
and PATRIOT Act against libraries, they couldn't speak or identify
themselves to the public in any way.
In the first of the so-called
“Connecticut Library Connection” hearings, John Doe v
Gonzales, in federal court the John Doe librarians were excluded
and only able to observe the proceedings by closed-circuit television
inside a locked storage room in the Hartford courthouse.
Other librarians, having got wind of
the case, came from all around the region to fill the court without
knowing who the librarians in the case were.
When their cover was eventually blown -
after a judge's ruling - due to government bungling when they were
forced to release some documents in which they failed to redact
references to the Library Connection and the name of one of the
principals was exposed. The ACLU lawyer informed the named person
that it was so serious that they (ACLU) had decided to hire criminal
attorneys - just in case.
Nevertheless the gag order remained.
Even when John Doe Connecticut went to an appeals court in October
2005 in Manhattan, New York, the four librarians had to conceal their
reason for attending,
as well as their identity, and could
not sit together, look at, or acknowledge each other or their
attorney. Once again librarians came from regions all over the United
States in unity.
In Washington, DC, librarians protested
in support of their unnamed Connecticut colleagues by wearing gags
emblazoned with NSL.
The authors note that government's
insistence on keeping the librarians gagged became Orwellian and
worthy of Kafka. The district court in Bridgeport ruled that the gag
order violated the librarians' first amendment rights and that there
was no compelling reason why revealing the names of the four would
hinder the government's investigation. In fact it had become a
hindrance.
After statements before the congress
and much debate, the many loyal hand-on-heart patriotic
“representatives of the people”- sworn to uphold the constitution
of the United States, but apparently more concerned about the
up-coming election (while wishing to get these hornets out of their
hair) - assembled to reauthorize the Act.
The PATRIOT Act was reauthorized in
2006, and incorporated a clause that the FBI had to show ”reasonable
grounds” to demand library information - a pathetically low
threshold, according to the authors.
Following the reauthorization, part of
the John Doe Connecticut's case - the challenge to the NSL provision
of the PATRIOT Act - was ruled moot, since the law had changed. But
the gag order remained.
Six weeks after the PATRIOT Act was
reauthorized, the Justice Department had a sudden change of heart
.The librarians were no longer a threat to national security after
all. The government informed the ACLU that they would no longer
contest librarians' demand to lift the gag order.
“That is how the four of us became
the only Americans who can speak about our experience “ Peter
Chase, one of the four and director of the Plainville Public Library
in central Connecticut, said.
When asked by the Goodmans, “which
book in their libraries best captured their experience, the
librarians unhesitatingly mentioned Orwell's Nineteen Eighty
Four”.
So is there a lesson here for us?
Well apparently not. We have little to
worry about if we have no secrets and have done nothing wrong,
because the spy masters have to get a warrant from prime minister Key
who has over-sight, chairs the GSCB, and is so concerned with our
liberties that he will not issue them lightly. So we can safely go
fishing without worrying about the spooks breaking into our houses,
monitoring our emails and computers, checking with our neighbours or
visiting our local library.
No wonder beneficiaries – who know
about these things - think it is simply a storm in a tea cup – or
was that a cup of tea - and only “conniving” journalists who
eves-drop on important “other” people and violate their privacy
face prosecution? Enigmatically, although the police here found “our
own” Dotcom was a victim of an illegal invasion and violation of
his person and property by the state, no further action will be
taken.
I suggest readers get a copy of the
Goodman's' small book “Standing Up to Madness” as there is much
more to this episode. It also includes chapters on the “Pentagon
Papers” and “Science Under Siege”, on climate change denial and
the censorship and gagging of James Hansen the director of NASA
Goddard Institute for Space Studies; the renowned climate scientist
who recently visited New Zealand, to tell us about something that
isn't happening apparently. At least, according to our oilwellian
masters.
