[TotalitarianismFilter] Don't be asking your college librarian for a copy of that Little Red Book to do a class assignment, or your parents might get a visit from the good folks at the Department of Homeland Security. More evidence that the Bush administration cannot restrain itself when granted enhanced surveillance powers.
posted on Dec 17, 2005 - View this thread

The FBI knows you're reading MetaFilter. [WashPost link]
posted on Nov 7, 2005 - View this thread

A thorough analysis of the Patriot Act's effects on civil liberties by author Elaine Scarry. "Ashcroft dismissed the idea that the Justice Department could conceivably care about librarians or library records... [however,] a University of Illinois study... found that by February of 2002 (four months after the Patriot Act was passed) 4 percent of all U.S. libraries, and 11 percent of all libraries in communities of more than 50,000 people had already been visited by FBI agents requesting information about their patrons' reading habits." [via Harper's magazine]
posted on May 3, 2004 - View this thread