aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Stand-up Librarian!

This is true to the librarians I know - and I know a good many. Not so the IT people I know:

An e-mail threat that prompted the evacuation of more than a dozen Brandeis University buildings on January 18 led to an unusual standoff in a public library in Newton, Mass., a few miles from the Brandeis campus.

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents tried to seize 30 of the library’s computers without a warrant, saying someone had used the library’s Internet connection to send the threat to Brandeis. But the library director, Kathy Glick-Weil, told the agents they could not take the machines unless they got a warrant first. Newton’s mayor, David Cohen, backed Ms. Glick-Weil up.

After a brief standoff, FBI officials relented and sought a warrant from a judge. Meanwhile, Ms. Glick-Weil allowed an FBI computer-forensics examiner to work with information-technology specialists at the library to narrow down which computers might have been used to send the threatening message. They determined that three computers were implicated in the alleged crime.

Late that evening, the FBI received a warrant to cart away the three computers. According to Mayor Cohen, the warrant allows the FBI to view only the threatening e-mail message and the messages sent immediately before and after that message.

Two other points: the US Attorney said the FBI acted within its authority, and “talk-show hosts and newspaper columnists in Boston” called the warrant demand irresponsible.

Darned liberal media! I bet a Philly columnist would see it differently. But then evidently so did the public. The mayor said he “received many positive comments from people all over the country supporting his actions.”