Andy Thibault

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Cool Justice
Thought Police Boost Terrorists
By ANDY THIBAULT, Columnist
Law Tribune Newspapers
September 12, 2005

Big Daddy, Big Brother, The FBI In Technicolor: Man, I have never felt so safe in my life.

Just when I needed that special reassurance, the government gave it to me. Government agents are reading my books, my neighbor's books, all of our books. Maybe this will help us catch up with the Asians and the Europeans. No child or adult will be left behind.

Bravo and everlasting thanks to the heroic librarians of Connecticut, who just might awaken a nation of confused and sleepy sheep. It was the librarians who stood tall in U.S. District Court last month in Bridgeport. They said no to unchecked prying by the government into our reading habits. It is now up to Judge Janet Hall to put the government in its place.

The Connecticut and American Library Associations objected to the FBI having the power - without approval by a judge - to unilaterally walk in the door and demand the records of library patrons. They also objected to the prior restraint component of the phony Patriot Act, which prevents them from talking about this unwarranted intrusion. These violations against libraries and citizens have occurred more than 200 times since 2001.

Now that the government has invaded our libraries, perhaps agents and prosecutors will actually read a few books. Perhaps they will gain some insights. I am hoping they will discover that the so-called war on terror is really a war on ourselves and our freedom and gain a healthy dose of skepticism about government power. To that end, I have a special recommended reading list for government agents:

* Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob, by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. This is about the corrupting of the FBI in Boston by the Winter Hill Gang, most notably the fugitive Whitey Bulger and Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi. As FBI informants, Bulger and Flemmi were given virtual licenses to kill. There might be a spare copy in the Hartford federal courthouse, because Asst. U.S. Atty. John Durham was the lead prosecutor in the corruption probe.

* Origins of the Bill of Rights, by Leonard W. Levy. This suggestion comes from Bob Farwell of the Otis Library in Norwich. Thanks, Bob. Glad to know you're out there.

* Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, by Alexander Berkman. This is an all-time favorite of mine in which we see how law enforcement can be a tool of the rich against the masses. There is also a romance angle involving Berkman and Emma Goldman.

* Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, by Ward Churchill and James Vaderwall. Calling the FBI America's political police, this book examines the agency's harassment, surveillance, and disruption of black and Native American groups in the 1960s and 1970s, and shows how it sought to maintain the sociopolitical status quo within the country.

* Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI, by Kathryn Olmsted. Shows how the press is usually a lap dog for the government.

* The Federal Bureau of Investigation, by Max Lowenthal. Exposes the origins of the national police force, created while Congress was in recess. Hard to get: A historian told me the FBI bought most of the copies upon publication in 1950.

Librarians are too busy to have their time wasted by the government. Whatever happened to a government with limited powers for limited ends? Actual terrorists created fear in us. We let Congress give up our liberty. Now, we must live with that or gain the courage of librarians to change it.

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