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US: Order to Destroy Pamphlets Canceled
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1091/a07.html
Newshawk: Forfeiture Endangers American Rights http://www.fear.org/
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sat, 31 Jul 2004
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2004 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: letter@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff and Jack Encarnacao, Globe Correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Forfeiture
ORDER TO DESTROY PAMPHLETS CANCELED
US Alters Demand to Its Libraries
The Government Printing Office has rescinded a week-old order that libraries
nationwide destroy five US Department of Justice pamphlets.
The office announced the decision in a letter sent yesterday to about 1,300
libraries across the country.
Last week, the printing office invoked its authority to order the removal of
the pamphlets, which provide instructions about prosecuting asset forfeiture
cases. A Justice Department spokesman said in an interview that the
material was meant for internal use and not for public distribution.
Judith C. Russell, superintendent of documents at the Government Printing
Office, signed last week's and yesterday's letters. Reached at her
Washington office late yesterday afternoon, she declined to comment.
Veronica Meter, director of public relations for the office, said the office
received word late yesterday afternoon from the Justice Department asking
that the earlier request be rescinded.
Asked whether the Justice Department made a fuller explanation for its
earlier request, Meter said she could only quote from yesterday's letter
that the Justice Department had made a determination, after review, that the
pamphlets were "not sufficiently sensitive to require removal."
The pamphlets had been sent to the 1,300 libraries designated by Congress to
make available copies of virtually all federal government documents. The
pamphlets were written by the Justice Department's Office of Asset
Forfeiture and Money Laundering.
Casey Stavropoulos, a Justice Department spokeswoman, did not return calls
seeking comment.
The Justice Department's decision to order the pamphlets destroyed drew
criticism from Patrice McDermott, deputy director of governmental affairs
for the American Library Association, and Bernard A. Margolis, president of
the Boston Public Library, one of the libraries ordered to destroy the
pamphlets.
"I'm thrilled," he said. "I think our concerns have been heard that when
material is placed in the depository system for access by citizens that it
should stay there."
Last week, the American Library Association wrote to members of the US
Senate and US House Judiciary Committees, saying, "We are gratified that
[the government] has realized that information that is legally available to
the public should remain so."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
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Mark
"The welfare of the people in particular
has always been the alibi of tyrants,
and it provides the further advantage
of giving the servants of tyranny a
good conscience."
Albert Camus
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