On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Alan Horowitz wrote:
Do you really think that the FBI foreign counter-intelligence squad has nothing better to do than keep a database of who is reading Che Guevara memoirs?
Yes.
Heck, I remember this was a big issue about 15 years ago. Try asking someone who was active in library science in the late 70's, early 80's.
I did. They said you're wrong. Shall we start a CP flame-war of unattributed allegations from librarians who will recall what *they thought* the FBI is interested in?
I think it was mid-late 80's, actually. I remember reading about it in the LA Times and Newsweek. I'm sure I could dig up a dozen references in Nexis if you want. The proposal was not to monitor all or political literature, which was more obviously protected by the First Amendment, but rather technical literature on certain subjects, such as supercomputers, nuclear physics, toxicology, and of course (relevance) cryptography. The FBI specifically wanted to know who was reading Applied Cryptography. -rich