Librarians May Speak Out On Patriot Act

STAMFORD, Conn. - Federal prosecutors said yesterday they will no longer seek to enforce a gag order on Connecticut librarians who received an FBI demand for records about library patrons under the Patriot Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the civil suit on behalf of the librarians, said it will identify them once court proceedings are completed in the next few weeks.

U.S. District Judge Janet Hall ruled last year that the gag order should be lifted, saying it unfairly prevented the librarians from participating in a debate over how the Patriot Act should be rewritten.

Prosecutors appealed, but U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said yesterday that the appeal no longer made sense.

The librarian has already been identified in news reports and the Patriot Act has been changed to include a procedure that will allow people to appeal requirements that they not disclose their involvement in a request, officials said.

"In this case, exercising the discretion that Congress is now encouraging us to exercise, the FBI has determined that allowing the recipient to disclose its identity, and only its identity, will not harm the national security or interfere with an investigation," a spokesman at the Justice Department, Brian Roehrkasse, said.

Prosecutors have maintained that secrecy about demands for records is necessary to avoid alerting suspects and jeopardizing investigations. They contended the gag order prevented only the release of librarians' identities, not their ability to speak about the Patriot Act.

"Here is yet another example of how the Bush administration uses the guise of national security to play partisan politics," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero. "The American public should keep this in mind the next time a government official invokes national security in defense of secrecy."