On Monday, September 1, 2003, at 12:03 PM, Meyer Wolfsheim wrote:

The risk is not one "terrorists" have to fear. The biggest problem with the librarian narc program is the same as most of these anti-terrorism measures: completely innocent people are harassed, arrested, or placed under suspicion.

You won't catch a terrorist learning to be evil at a library, but you might wrongfully snare an innocent citizen who happens to have an interest in "bad" books.

How long until this program is extended to include anyone checking out any book that some part of the US law enforcement body deems bad? If you read Pikhal, do you end up on a watch list?

The chilling effect is that libraries will get the message and remove "seditious" and "questionable" books. I'm not spending much time in public libraries, favoring the UCSC Science Library, but I'll bet that after 9/11 a lot of the old stand-by books on rocketry, explosives, hydroponic gardening, etc. were removed by helpful librarians. (A "lot" meaning at least 5% of the libraries doing at least some removal of books. In some states, if not in large cities.) Librarians are our first defense against terrorism! Ignorance is strength. --Thought Criminal "We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania." "We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia." "We are at war with Iraq. We have always been at war with Iraq. "We are at war with France. We have always been at war with France."