<div dir="ltr"><div><a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/only-we-can-demand-more-accountability/">http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/only-we-can-demand-more-accountability/</a></div><div> </div><div><strong><font size="4">Only we can demand more accountability</font></strong></div>
<div><br clear="all"><span>Posted on</span> <span><font color="#0066cc">June 6, 2013</font></span> <span><span>by</span> <span><font color="#0066cc">Lynne Bradley</font></span> </span> <div><p>As news breaks that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been renewing (every three months for seven years) a Section 215 order to obtain phone records of all Verizon customers, the American Library Association is calling on Congress to provide more accountability and transparency about how the government is obtaining and using vast amounts of information about innocent people.</p>
<p>In a public hearing on Thursday morning, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) indicated that the order is just a “regular” renewal of an order that started seven years ago. We are gravely concerned, but unfortunately not surprised, at this week’s revelations.</p>
<p>“The library community welcomes a renewed public debate on how to balance the need to fight terrorism and the need to protect personal privacy and civil liberties,” said ALA President Maureen Sullivan. “Millions of innocent customers, at least Verizon’s, have had their personal phone records released to the government without their knowledge and without allegations of specific facts supporting the relevance of their records to a federal terrorism investigation.</p>
<p>“We must demand more accountability and transparency in all of these surveillance issues,” she added. “Our nation’s libraries are a tremendous information resource for those who want to better understand the issues and a place to begin debates about these issues”</p>
<p>Barbara Jones, Director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said, “The lack of transparency is symptomatic of the growing trend in our secret laws and we must correct the flaws. Are these new revelations just the tip of the iceberg? Did other companies received such subpoenas and what other records has the government been obtaining on such a broad scale? What about library records and those of our users? The public needs to know.”</p>
<p>“Our community calls for public dialogue about how to open up FISA and other surveillance laws so that there can be true accountability and an improved balance between individual privacy and the need of government to investigate terrorism and other crimes, said Lynne Bradley, Director of ALA’s Office of Government Relations. “We need to make changes to our surveillance laws.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/only-we-can-demand-more-accountability/">http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/only-we-can-demand-more-accountability/</a></p><p>-----------------------------------</p>
<p><a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/reforming-national-surveillance-laws/">http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/reforming-national-surveillance-laws/</a></p><p> </p><h1>Reforming National Surveillance Laws</h1>
<div><span>Posted on</span> <a title="10:36 am" href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/reforming-national-surveillance-laws/" rel="bookmark"><span><font color="#0066cc">June 10, 2013</font></span></a> <span><span>by</span> <span><a title="View all posts by Lynne Bradley" href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/author/lynne-bradley/" rel="author"><font color="#0066cc">Lynne Bradley</font></a></span> </span><span><span>|</span> <a title="Comment on Reforming National Surveillance Laws" href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/reforming-national-surveillance-laws/#respond"><font color="#0066cc">Leave a comment</font></a></span> </div>
<p> </p><div><p>Last week, reports appeared regarding the U.S. government’s program <a title="link" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324299104578533802289432458.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0066cc">PRISM</font></a> that obtains the internet records from nine U.S. companies: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. This followed the earlier disturbing revelation on June 5th that the FISA Court had ordered Verizon to turn over the phone records of all customers over the last seven years.</p>
<p>It appears that emails, photos, online and social networking activities as well as the phone records have been obtained by the FBI and NSA. These two revelations about the amount of personal information received by the government, if true as reported, is very troubling.</p>
<p>We are, frankly, saddened that two major revelations about our country’s surveillance practices confirm our gravest worries: the government has obtained vast amounts of personal information about the activities, especially electronic communications of all kinds, of essentially everyone in the United States, including millions of innocent people.</p>
<p>We repeat the call for a true public dialogue on our nation’s surveillance laws and procedures and how to fix the flaws in laws such as FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and the USA PATRIOT Act. The public needs a way to become engaged to determine what degree of public accountability is needed and how to improve the balance between individual rights and the need of government to investigate terrorism and other harmful acts.</p>
<p>There needs to be effective legal review, judicial oversight permitting transparency and public accountability – not wholesale fishing expeditions – to get personal information on millions of innocent people! Our country needs to find the right balance.</p>
</div><p><a href="http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/reforming-national-surveillance-laws/">http://www.districtdispatch.org/2013/06/reforming-national-surveillance-laws/</a></p><p> </p><p><br>-- <br></p></div></div><div>
<em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt">Diedre Conkling</span></em><i><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt"><br><em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Lincoln County Library District</span></em><br>
<em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">P.O. Box 2027</span></em><br><em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Newport, OR 97365</span></em><br><em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Phone & Fax: 541-265-3066</span></em><br>
<em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Work email</span></em></span></i><em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt;font-style:normal">: </span></em><a href="mailto:diedre@lincolncolibrarydist.org" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt"><font color="#0000ff">diedre@lincolncolibrarydist.org</font></span></i></a><i><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt"><br>
<em><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">Home email: </span></em></span></i><a href="mailto:diedre08@gmail.com" target="_blank"><em><span style="color:blue;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt">diedre08@gmail.com</span></em></a></div>
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<span>“If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.”―Maya Angelou</span><span></span></h6><span style="font-family:"Comic Sans MS";font-size:10pt"></span></div>
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