FBI Seizes Library Computers; Anthrax-Case Link Suspected
The FBI removed two public-access computers from the Frederick County Public Libraries’ C. Burr Artz Library in downtown Frederick, Maryland, at the end of July, anticipating their return within a week. The seizure is thought to be connected to the case of Army scientist Bruce E. Ivins, a suspect in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks.
Two FBI agents took the computers July 30 without presenting a court order, although the library’s normal procedure for such requests requires one, Director Darrell Batson said in the August 3 Frederick News-Post that he was persuaded to give the agents access after the case and situation was described to him. “They had an awful lot of information,” he said, explaining that “It was a decision I made on my experience and the information given to me.” Batson added that, while this was the third time the FBI has sought library records in his 10 years with FCPL, it was the first time agents didn’t bring a court order.
Ivins, a biodefense researcher at Fort Detrick, Maryland, killed himself July 29 as federal prosecutors planned to charge him with sending the anthrax-laden letters that killed five people and sickened 17 in the fall of 2001. Batson told the News-Post the agents made no mention of Ivins, anthrax, or Fort Detrick. He went on to say, “Obviously it coincided with the events everyone is talking about.”
Although the library refused interview requests from American Libraries and other news outlets, FCPL officials issued a written statement about the FBI raid stressing that “no mention of any person or suspect was ever stated by either party, and FCPL continues to be unaware of the details of the FBI’s investigation. Public-access computers are not connected to FCPL’s library patron records. No library patron records were provided to the FBI. Library patrons’ records are not made available to law enforcement authorities without a court order.”
Articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post linked the removal of the library computers to the case against Ivins. ABC-TV affiliate WJLA reported August 4 that the FBI had been trailing Ivins and had seized his personal computers.
Posted on August 6, 2008; modified August 8, 2008. Discuss.