Attorney General John Ashcroft took verbal aim last week at a primary enemy in America's War on Terror.
He spewed angry, sarcastic ridicule at a group of literate and unrelenting opponents of justice. These people, he said, seek to impede his agencies' powers to combat terrorists within our shores.
These people, of course, are librarians-or should I say, \al Qaedabrarians.""
Levelheaded readers across the nation marveled last Tuesday at The New York Times headline ""Ashcroft Mocks Librarians and Others Who Oppose Parts of Counterterrorism Law.""
On his 2003 ""What're You Lookin' at, Four-Eyes?"" tour, Ashcroft has accused librarians of fueling a ""baseless hysteria"" about the Bush Administration, using the USA Patriot Act to snoop into the reading, writing and computer-using habits of library-goers.
He detailed the bookworm sedition in a speech before the American Restaurant Association. Displaying his Ashcroft family-renowned sense of humor, he derided the American Library Association for spreading the lie that the FBI wants to know ""how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel.""
This obfuscatory quip encapsulates Ashcroft's ""facts-overboard"" style of debate. Keep it stupid, stupid.
In fact, the part of the Patriot Act that librarians, along with many sensible Americans, have voiced concern over is Section 215. This section allows FBI agents to ask institutions such as libraries or hospitals for a record of materials an individual has read or written. They need no federal court approval, only the approval of a ""Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."" And they don't need probable cause.
Needless to say, Section 215 hasn't sat well with constitution freaks like Russ Feingold and the ACLU. In response to pressure from that group, Ashcroft agreed last week to declassify information about how many times the FBI has used Section 215. He offered the reassuring, if unverifiable, pronouncement that Section 215 powers had not, as yet, been used once.
As The New York Times editorial pointed out Monday, Ashcroft's declaration on Section 215 is transparent nonsense, intended to bolster support for the even more expansive Patriot Act II.
""If the administration truly had nothing to hide about its use of this power, it would not be arguing for the authority to put a librarian in prison for speaking publicly about receiving a subpoena,"" the Times noted.
Never one to leave well enough alone, Ashcroft again displayed his sharp sense of humor in a speech in Memphis to law enforcement officials. He revealed simultaneously his disdain for constitution-hugging librarians and his love for Jeff Foxworthy.
""If you are spending a lot of time surveilling nuclear power plants with your al Qaeda pals, you might be a target of the Patriot Act,"" Ashcroft said.
Not satisfied with only one terrorist-librarian-zinger, Ashcroft said.
""If your idea of a vacation is two weeks in a terrorist training camp, you might be a target of the Patriot Act,"" he continued.
Let me try one.
If you belittle librarians for voicing concern over the unconstitutional powers you use the deaths of 3,000 innocent people to justify, you might be John Ashcroft.
How is that for funny?
