Homeland Security Agents Pull Ohio Libraries' Haz-Mat Documents

Homeland Security Agents Pull
Ohio Libraries' Haz-Mat Documents

www.ala.org... Security_Agents_Pull_Ohio_Libraries_Haz-Mat_Documents.htm

It all began March 26, when a woman came to the reference desk and asked Martha Lee of the Bluffton (Ohio) Public Library for the Allen County Hazardous Materials Emergency Plan. Lee told American Libraries that after receiving the appropriate binder, the woman declared, �You can't have it back.� The patron removed the materials and substituted a letter stating that the haz-mat manual would be �available for public inspection� at Allen County's Homeland Security Office, although �proper ID may be required� to access it. According to Lee, the woman also said, �Well, I have a whole list of libraries I have to visit.�
Apparently, one of them was Lima Public Library, where Homeland Security agents flashed their badges and announced that they had come to �update� the emergency-plan binder. The reference staff later found that the same letter had been substituted for the manual. �It's information that probably doesn't belong on our library shelf,� Lima Public Library's Head of Public Relations Karen Sommer told American Libraries, noting that Allen County contains both an oil refinery and the only military-tank-manufacturing plant still operating in the U.S. She added, �What we really had a problem with was the way it was handled��namely the apparent presumption that librarians might not cooperate otherwise.

Paul Rider of the environmental group Ohio Citizen Action was far less sympathetic. Denouncing the documents' relocation �as a pretext to push through an agenda that has nothing to do with terrorism,� he told American Libraries that the action furthered the chemical industry's goal of �shutting down the right to know so their pesky neighbors won't pester them about the soot that's landing in their yards.�

So this lady got to the documents before the government could change them. Do you know where she is going to put the documents for the public to see.

Well it would seem that yet another useless government agency is given the power and authority to do as it sees fit trickling down to the local level. This from an already bloated government deficit and ailing economy.
"Bush has earmarked a total of $41 billion for Homeland security funding across all governmental departments, a 10 percent increase over current levels."
govtsecurity.securitysolutions.com...
I should point out that the state National Guard(militias) were charged with this very thing in the constitution. What are the National Guard doing as the catastrophies are supposedly happening? Playing cards? Can you say 'overboard'? 'overkill'? To keep the borders safe there is the Border Patrol(DOJ), and our shores protected, the Coast Guard(DOT) and (DON in times of war). It's like we have 10 Rotweillers to protect an outhouse. I am all for security, but do we need to make another department to funnel more money away from needed projects and programs? Yeah, that's what I thought too.
Troy