Post Sept. 11 world subject of library forum A local take on security and civil liberties By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle "The Statue of Liberty remains closed indefinitely for security reasons. Updates will be posted as they occur." The National Park Service's Web site posts this advisory in regards to the monument's accessibility in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world. One question submitted during a local public forum on civil liberties and security referred to the symbolic statue and asked about other effects national security measures have on civil liberties. Panelists representing law enforcement, the Wisconsin office of the U.S. Attorney, immigrants, the Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union and public libraries presented perspectives on the issue. Panelists at the forum at the Brown County Central Library Monday addressed the USA PATRIOT Act passed into law in October. On the level of county law enforcement, nothing has changed with the advent of the act, said Brown County Sheriff Dennis Kocken. The events of Sept. 11,2001, he said, have prompted airport searches and police searches of Lambeau Field fans with bomb-sniffing dogs. "This is all part of 9-11, not the Patriot Act," Kocken said. School shootings and the death of local Hobart-Lawrence law enforcement officers killed when a man drove his truck into their parked vehicle are the reasons for heightened security measures, he said. While threats to physical safety seem to be increasing, so are threats to civil liberties, according to Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the Wisconsin ACLU. Ahmuty said since Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has posted suggested tactics on list servers for law enforcement agencies and has contacted some of them directly with directives to look out for people reading almanacs because they might be educating themselves about the longest bridges and tunnels in the world, possible targets in a terrorist attack. Although Kocken said the local sheriff's department had not heard of any directives of that kind, he said he believed another terrorist attack will occur in the future. "It's just a matter of where and when. We don't know," he said. In investigating the possibilities of terrorist acts, Francis Schmitz, assistant attornety to the U.S. Attorney in the eastern district of Wisconsin, said law enforcement has to be afforded a level of trust in order to protect people. Ultimately, he said, the tactics of investigation will benefit everyone. Under the USA PATIOT Act, the FBI can track originations of e-mails. He cited a Wisconsin case where an elderly person who had been kidnapped was recovered because investigators could trace the origination of the kidnapper's ransom note sent by e-mail. "Our goal is to prevent future acts of terrorism before we prosecute them," Schmitz said. Some of the provisions of the act are set to expire in 2005, but the U.S. Attorney's office wants to preserve the act as it is, Schmitz said. The act enables law enforcement to keep up with the technological advances of terrorist groups, he said. "We have to be able to fight fire with fire," Schmitz said. However, Schmitz said steps taken to prevent attacks have limits. He said he does not want to see the United States placing individuals in internment camps like Japanese-Americans in World War II. While the ACLU affirms 158 sections of the act, it finds some aspects troubling. "They (law enforcement ) should have the tools that are necessary, but not everything they want," Ahmuty said. Under Section 505 of the act, the types of documents categorized as National Security Records, records that can be used without the oversight of a judge, has increased, Ahmuty said. Panelists addressed privacy issues and threats to freedom. "I know what it is to be guarded," said Amparo Baundhuin, immigration counselor for the Green Bay Diocese, who lived in Spain while under a dictatorship before becoming a U.S. citizen. She said she was prohibited from reading the Grapes of Wrath, works by William Faulkner and other authors and does not want to play the role of a spy on her own neighbors, a role that she said parts of the act would make her play. "It will make some of us accomplices," she said, such as those who must submitt books and other information about people who only might be associated with unlawful acts. On the other hand, she said the USA PATIOT Act is in a sense more compassionate than other immigration laws because it accounts for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks who were not legal, permanent residents and their families. "Those people will be provided for and will be made residents of the United States," she said. Mark Merrifield, director of the Nicolet Federated Library, said the USA PATRIOT Act challenges a state statute that treats library patrons' reading records as being confidential unless a court order has been obtained to release them. The USA PATIOT act, being a federal law, would override the state statute. Merrifield said law enforcement officials are unlikely to pursue access to library records, but opposes the measure on principle. Andrew Fiala, professor of philosophy/Humanistic Studies at UW-Green Bay, said he perceives a greater threat from the number of traffic deaths and murders in a year's time, than from the chances of being the victim of a terrorist attack. "We need to understand risks. Should we be so afraid of these possibilities that we change our way of life? I don't think so," he said. The forum was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Greater Green Bay, the American Association of University Women of Green Bay, the Ecumenical Center of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the Multi-Cultural Center of Greater Green Bay and St. Norbert College Peace and Justice Center. Mike Blecha, former editor the the Green Bay Press-Gazette acted as moderator.