This post was last updated on March 12, 2026
Added March 11, 2026: The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 began the the modern surveillance state. It only got weirder from here. Maybe we should try Rolling Back the Post-9/11 Surveillance State?
From the Associated Press, John Ashcroft is quoted as saying people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries have been “surrounded by the FBI,” with agents “dressed in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses. Raincoats? Maybe in Seattle. Anyway…
He goes on to say that, “Now, you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, something had to be wrong,” Ashcroft said. “Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No.”
And then Mark Corallo, speaking for the DOJ, states, “The American Librarian Association “has been somewhat duped by those who are ideologically opposed to the Patriot Act.” So now librarians and hysterical and easily duped. Man, I just love the Bush administration.
ALA has issued a reasonable response and cites sources: (Don’t mess with librarians!)
American Library Association responds to Attorney General remarks on librarians and USA PATRIOT Act: A statement by ALA President Carla Hayden
And by the way this post was made using Zempt, which is a very nice peice of software.