Attorney General John Ashcroft today accused the country’s biggest library association and other critics of fueling “baseless hysteria” about the government’s ability to pry into the public’s reading habits. In an unusually pointed attack as part of his latest speech in defense of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism initiatives, Mr. Ashcroft mocked and condemned the American Library Association and other Justice Department critics for believing that the F.B.I. wants to know “how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel.” The association, which has argued for months that the government’s new antiterrorism powers risk encroaching on the privacy of library users, took some satisfaction from the broadside. “If he’s coming after us so specifically, we must be having an impact,” said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the library association’s Washington office. Full Story
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