[iwar] [fc:Breaking.Law.or.Principles.to.Give.Information.to.U.S.]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-11-26 06:31:02
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/23/national/23LIBR.html?todaysheadlines">http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/23/national/23LIBR.html?todaysheadlines>======
==========================================
THE NEW YORK TIMES

November 23, 2001

CONFIDENTIALITY

Breaking Law or Principles to Give Information to U.S.

By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM

       WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 - When the names and photographs were first
released, Kathleen Hensman, a public
       librarian in Delray Beach, Fla., recognized some of the suspected
hijackers in the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon as men who had used the computers in her small
library.

She immediately called the police.

That broke a Florida law that guarantees confidentiality to library patrons.
It also violated a cardinal principle of librarians never to tell the
police, in absence of a court order, about who uses their rooms and what
books they check out.

But almost no one thinks Ms. Hensman did the wrong thing. Of course, she
will not be prosecuted.

Professionals in many other fields are also re-evaluating long-held precepts
in light of the terrorist attacks and the war that
followed.

Reporters and photographers in Afghanistan, trained to keep at arm's length
from the authorities, have come across
documents left behind by fleeing Al Qaeda operatives. Now they are faced
with the question of whether they turn over
their documents and photos to the military for potential use in trials.

The Federation of American Scientists, whose project on government secrecy
was created 10 years ago to force more
government data into the open, decided after Sept. 11 to remove from its Web
site information about United States
intelligence and nuclear weapons sites.

A pharmacist in Florida, also sworn to maintain confidentiality, reported to
the police that over the summer he had
recommended treatment to one of the suspected hijackers who had badly
chapped hands.

Many lawyers are rethinking their concept of civil liberties in view of the
administration's decision to use military tribunals
to try foreigners accused of terrorism and to monitor communications between
people in federal custody and their lawyers.

Robert M. Steele, an expert in journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute, a
research center in St. Petersburg, Fla.,
expressed the view of people in many professions that the terrorism was so
horrific that ordinary scruples might not apply.

"Principles are always in tension with other principles," Mr. Steele said.
"Seldom is there absolutism."

Steven Aftergood, who founded the scientists' project on government secrecy,
said, "I have had to come to terms with the
fact that government secrecy is not the worst thing in the world. There are
worse things."

Ms. Hensman, the librarian, said she was well aware of the Florida law and
of her professional responsibility, but she has
no qualms about calling the police.

"People were murdered," she said, "and people have a right to know that
terrorists were here in our library using our public
facilities."

After Ms. Hensman called, the police in Delray Beach, between Fort
Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, notified the
F.B.I. Agents obtained a court order and seized two computers the suspects
were thought to have used. Officials said they
hoped to retrieve e-mail messages the hijackers sent and received.

Librarians' assertion of the principle of confidentiality may seem trivial
to some people compared with similar stands by,
say, doctors or priests. But librarians take it very seriously - so
seriously that in most libraries nowadays, once a book is
returned, the record of who checked it out is expunged. Forty-eight states
have laws that protect the privacy of library
patrons.

As a consequence, Ms. Hensman's decision to call the police has been the
topic of considerable debate in professional
library circles, especially in Florida. The assistant library director in
Broward County, Fla., Betty Dejean, circulated a
memorandum reminding librarians that they could not give any information to
authorities who did not have a court order.

In an interview, Ms. Dejean said that she was "not standing in judgment" of
Ms. Hensman but that librarians were
obligated to maintain their principles and follow the law in all
circumstances.

Asked about this, Ms. Hensman said she could not have waited for the police
to get a court order because the police did
not know what she knew and therefore did not know to apply for an order.

Depending on its interpretation, the antiterrorism legislation enacted last
month could make library records more accessible
to federal agents. Thomas M. Susman, a Washington lawyer who often
represents the interests of librarians, said he had
been studying the hastily drawn statute to discern its implications.

"I don't mind relinquishing some rights to catch these people," Mr. Susman
said. "Five thousand deaths in one blow does
that to you."

Mary Wegner, Iowa's chief librarian, said that the notion of a librarian
calling the police gave her pause but that the more
she thought about it, the more she thought Ms. Hensman acted properly.

"I suppose our duty to our fellow humans trumps everything else," Ms. Wegner
said.

Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association's office of
intellectual freedom, said, "I would have felt better if
she had followed the Florida law."

But Ms. Krug added, "I suspect most people faced with the same situation
would have done what she did."

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