Why is the fourth amendment important to law abiding citizens
Why Is the USA PATRIOT Act Unconstitutional and Controversial? Salman Rushdie (2004)
good morning and thank you all very much
for coming to this very important event
to discuss to section 215 of the USA
PATRIOT Act and I along with my
colleagues Barbra Lee of California and
Ralph Grijalva of Arizona are extremely
pleased to be joined today by Salman
Rushdie the president of the Penn
American Center former US Congress woman
Patricia Schroeder who is now the
president of the Association of American
publishers Orin Teicher who is with the
American Booksellers Association and
kala Hayden who is the past president of
the American Library Association we're
very pleased that these groups are with
us today these four organizations have
been leaders in drawing attention to
section 215 of the Patriot Act and it's
dangerous implications for civil
liberties in our country and I want to
thank each and every one of them for all
of the very hard work that they have
done on this issue now let me be very
clear and I think I speak for everybody
up here and everybody in this room
international terrorism is serious
business and in my view the US
government and governments throughout
the world must do everything that we can
to protect our people from terrorist
attacks and to effectively fight
terrorism but we can and must fight
terrorism without undermining the basic
principles and constitutional rights
which make us a free country we do not
need legislation such as section 215 of
the Patriot Act which allows government
agents access the files of American
libraries and booksellers without
probable cause we do not need
legislation which makes Americans
nervous as to whether the US government
will be looking over their shoulders in
terms of the books that they are reading
or internet site
they are visiting in a library we do not
need legislation which makes librarians
and books or owners complicit with the
government in spying on their neighbors
in the United States of America with our
history with our Constitution with our
Bill of Rights
with our respect for freedom we can and
must do better than that one of the
exhilarating aspects of this whole
struggle against section 215 of the
Patriot Act has been the massive amounts
of grassroots activity that is taking
place from California to Vermont and
everyplace else in between and I should
add here that this opposition is not
just coming from progressives like
Barbara and myself or Al it is coming
from conservatives as well and people in
the political middle hundreds of
thousands of Americans have written
their representatives in Congress to
express opposition to the Patriot Act
and section 215 and encourage them to
co-sponsor HR 1157 the freedom to read
Protection Act which now has a hundred
and fifty two bipartisan co-sponsors
some of you may recall that when we
offered an amendment on this issue on
July 8th as part of the Commerce justice
and state appropriations bill we had 218
votes after the normal 17 minutes
unfortunately that number went down to
210 and we lost on a 210 tie after the
speaker kept the rolls open and
additional 20 minutes in order to twist
arms to get Republicans to vote against
us but the support for this legislation
is very strong and very wide today I'm
very pleased to announce that over a
hundred and eighty thousand Americans
have signed a campaign for read a
privacy petition expressing strong
opposition to section 215 and support
for restoring privacy protections to the
American people the petitions have been
collected by thousands of libraries and
books laws throughout our country today
is the culmination of months and
months of work by numerous organizations
to draw attention to the civil liberties
violations inherent in section 215 of
the Patriot Act not only do we have
180,000 Americans on record stating
their opposition to section 215 but we
have four state legislators including
four months Barbara we're waiting for
California they're going on that 352
municipalities all across the country
conservative and progressive going on
record in passing resolutions expressing
their concerns regarding the Patriot Act
as many people know on Capitol Hill just
this very week both the House and Senate
are mocking up 9/11 commission
legislation that has been introduced in
each chamber my strong hope is that in
the process Congress does not repeat the
mistakes of the Patriot Act and I would
like to emphasize the great need to pass
only carefully worded legislation with
respect to civil liberties so let me
again thank all of our guests who are
here today and let me introduce Barbara
Lee congresswoman from California who
has been a stalwart fighter for civil
liberties in in our country Barbara
thanks for being with us thank you very
much I'll be very brief and I just want
to thank you for your leadership
congressman Sanders thank all of our
organizations and individuals who are
here for really protecting democracy
that's what it's about congressman
Sanders came out to my district last
year and we talked about this in in
librarians again bipartisan as he said
earlier are furious and understand the
chilling effect of what section 215 does
I many of you may remember I remember
COINTELPRO you know some may remember
the McCarthy era we know what this means
we know what it means and so let me just
say that this Patriot Act you know was
passed in a blind rush it's like so many
bills here on the in the house and
during this last few years section 215
does nothing to
would protect us from terrorism nothing
at all like congressman Sanders I
support a strong response to
international terrorism where it marking
up actually today some of these bills
that have been presented but when it
comes to protecting civil liberties when
it comes to justice when it comes to
protecting democracy I want to say today
that this country these individuals
these hundreds of thousands of
individuals understand what that means
they understand that democracy right now
is at a turning point and this is a
defining moment and we're going to move
forward and continue to work to to
protect democracy to make sure that we
repealed section 215 and really to make
sure that in the age of Ashcroft we do
everything we can do to protect our
constitutional freedoms many
jurisdictions are just saying no to this
many cities and local governments many
libraries libraries across the country
are just saying we're not going to
comply with section 215 and they run
risks of again the John Ashcroft
approach to clamping down on individuals
and to to violating the civil liveries
but they're very brave and they're very
courageous and I just want to salute
them today and tell them that we're
going to move forward here in Congress
to make sure that we support their
efforts to protect individual freedoms
on the freedom to read the freedom to
research the freedom to go on the
internet the freedom to to to think
thoughts to come up with analyses and
positions and views is is central to our
democracy and when you denied access to
materials and books and documents and
papers that that create a diversity of
thinking what do you what have we come
to in this country
I really worry about where we are so I
just want to thank all of you today for
staying strong and being courageous and
and taking this on in the face of
adversity and in the face of all of the
the unamerican activities that are going
on in our country against the
individuals of the United States of
America thank you Thank You Barbra Lee
oh let me now introduce Orin tiger who
is here representing the American
Booksellers Association or just done a
fantastic job in terms of bringing us so
many names on these petitions Horne
thank you thank you very much
congressman my name is Oren Teicher I am
the chief operating officer of the
American Booksellers Association the
national trade association representing
independent bookstores operating in all
50 states across the country I'm here
this morning standing in for our
president Mitchell Kaplan who is
literally enroute from Miami as we speak
he may arrive it's a moment but he had a
our business he had a signing in his
store last night and couldn't get here
till this morning
this past February 500 bookstores across
the United States started to circulate
petitions to be presented to congressman
Sanders and his colleagues urging that
the protections and the privacy of
bookstore and library of Records that
were eliminated by the USA PATRIOT Act
be repealed with our partners in the
campaign for reader privacy we have
collected today congressman close to two
hundred thousand signatures we've
brought over today the ones that were
collected from the state of Vermont
close to 10,000 the rest are over in
congressman Sanders office and we are
pleased to present them to congressman
Sanders and the other congressional
leaders of this fight for reader privacy
we chose this particular day September
29th because it falls during banned
books week the National celebration of
the freedom to read bookstores have long
been committed to the cause of free
expression we are primarily though
businesspeople and cautious usually
about weighing into political debates
and I can tell you from the experience
and hundreds of stores there was
trepidation amongst book stores when we
first started to ask them to collect
signatures on these petitions but
because bookstores feel so strongly
about the importance of protecting
reader privacy we put the petitions out
for our customers to sign the freedom to
read privately was under attack even
before the USA PATRIOT Act Carla Hayden
will speak in a moment about the
challenges to library privacy that date
back to the 1970s for us in the
bookstore community the fight began in
1998 when Ken Starr subpoenaed the
records of Monica Lewinsky from to
Washington DC bookstores since then
subpoenas our search warrant seeking the
titles of books purchased by individuals
have an under in who have been under
investigation have an issue to the
Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver
Colorado
Olsen's books in music here in
Washington Arundel books in Los Angeles
amazon.com Barnes & Noble and borders
all of these bookstores have fought the
effort to invade their records and to
protect their customers privacy in some
cases the police have dropped their
demands and others the courts have
quashed the subpoenas and search
warrants are narrowed them to prevent
the chilling effect on First Amendment
rights our president Mitchell Kaplan can
personally testify to the importance of
this issue three years ago his store
books and books in Miami Florida
received an FBI subpoena seeking the
book purchase records of then-senator
Robert Torricelli of New Jersey who was
investigated who was being investigated
for alleged violations of campaign
finance laws the subpoena demanded all
records related to the purchases of
books by Senator Torricelli and seven
other individuals going back to 1995 mr.
Kaplan was in touch with us at ABA and
in the American Booksellers foundation
for free expression for help something
he could not do under the provisions of
the Patriot Act
we told the FBI that we would go to
court to
watch the subpoena it decided then not
to pursue it the Patriot Act blocks any
appeal however two courts by booksellers
and librarians to be clear we do not
claim any absolute right to privacy
we recognize that there may be unusual
circumstances when appropriate law
enforcement authorities may be able to
convince a court of law in an open
hearing to issue a search warrant to a
bookstore and/or library but section 215
mandates that a bookstore or librarian
turn over the information about specific
titles that an individual may have
bought from a store or borrowed from a
library without the benefit of any due
process whatsoever concerned about these
limitations and mindful about the
various attempts to seek bookstore
records book stores overcame their
reluctance and put out the reader
privacy petitions that you see here
today we were astonished frankly by the
response of our customers people rushed
to sign the petition and thanked us for
giving them the opportunity to express
themselves booksellers displayed the
petitions in their front windows and
found that people were coming in simply
to sign their names 500 stores in all 50
states as we have said have now
collected close to 200 thousand
signatures urging at section 215 of the
Patriot Act be repealed we promised our
customers when we collected those
signatures that we would present them to
Congress and we are proud to be able to
fulfill that promise today it is not
just the bookstores and the libraries
and publishers and writers who are
urging Congress to restore the
protections for reader privacy the
readers of America are demanding the
right to read freely thank you very much
Thank You Warren let me now introduce
Carla Hayden who is the immediate past
president of the American Library
Association and like the booksellers
they've done a fantastic job in arousing
grassroots opposition to section 215
color libraries are one of the building
blocks of a free and open society and
when members of the public in Turin I
breath to pursue their own intellectual
interests to look up something that they
just have a curiosity about or just find
out about subjects that they've heard
about no one should be examined or
scrutinized by anyone especially by the
government and the American Library
Association supports the protection of
confidentiality and the freedom that
accompanies it and we find that parts of
the US a patriot act threatens all of
these freedoms in fact we remember Orin
the 1970s and the FBI library awareness
program and as librarians we are
interested in and we're committed to
ensuring the safety of our fellow
Americans but it's time for the
government to stop wasting its time on
supposed security risk posed by any
American that goes into a public library
for research for learning or just for
fun the new and expanded authorities
under the Patriot Act allow the federal
government to investigate and to engage
in surveillance of citizens and others
without having to demonstrate any
specific reason to believe that they're
engaged in illegal activities and to
threaten the civil liberties guaranteed
on the United States Constitution and
the Bill of Rights the Patriot Act
allows the government easy very easy
access to activities of library users
throughout the country including their
use of computers just to browse the web
or even to check their own email we
think that the worst part though of the
Patriot Act comes from the veil of
secrecy that hides its purpose and the
car
secuence is from the public a secret
FISA Court approves the orders that FBI
agents now need to compel libraries to
turn over their records librarians are
bound by a gag order that prevents them
from telling anyone even their own
governmental structures their own boards
when patrons in their communities are
being investigated the USA PATRIOT Act
seriously undermines not only our civil
rights and liberties but all of the
things that we've worked so hard for for
so many years now over the past three
years the American Library Association
has worked hard to limit the impact of
this act on the Civil Liberties of our
library users and our efforts have
coincided with an increased partnership
with all people who are involved in this
effort but still the Justice
Department's secrecy over the use of the
powers granted under the Patriot Act has
blocked our investigations into this
time and time again last September
shortly after he called librarians
concerns over section 215 of the Patriot
Act baseless hysteria I received a phone
call from United States Attorney General
John Ashcroft and during our
conversation mr. Ashcroft assured me
that the Justice Department had not used
the powers granted under the Patriot Act
to investigate people in libraries but
months after my conversation with mr.
Ashcroft we learned that the Justice
Department had used his power to snoop
on library users just weeks after that
wonderful conversation that we had the
Justice Department has continually
refused to tell the public how many
library patrons it's investigated since
the Act was passed and when librarians
filed the Freedom of Information Act
request seeking information on the use
of section 215 powers our requests were
ignored and they continue to be ignored
besides a Selective releases of
information about the use of the Patriot
Act in cases related to terrorism
investigations for which Congress
intended it the Justice Department has
been successful in its efforts to keep
the American people in the dark about
its use of the Patriot
librarians have joined with concerned
citizens across the country it's
speaking aloud our conviction that the
USA PATRIOT Act has gone just a little
bit too far for us states have passed
resolutions to crime the most onerous
really provisions of the Patriot Act 356
localities across the country have
passed similar resolutions and
librarians across the country have
applauded these efforts the amendments
to the u.s. Patriot Act proposed in the
SAFE Act will give government all the
authority it needs to investigate
specific individuals when it has a
reason to believe that they're a
terrorist threat we want to join with
others and we have to spread the word
that it is patriotic to challenge the
USA PATRIOT Act Thank You caller and now
let me introduce a woman who really
doesn't need much introduction here in
the halls of Congress Pat Schroeder
represented a district in Colorado for
many many years and she is now the
president of the Association of American
publishers Pat Schroeder thank you very
much Bernie and I must say I'm very
proud today to be standing here
representing America's book publishers
and standing alongside of
representatives of the entire American
book community the American authors the
American Booksellers and the american
librarians this book community is saying
our forefathers and foremothers got it
right they really understood when they
drafted these wonderful documents how
tempting it was for people in power to
abuse their power very often against
their own citizens yes they should use
that power to protect their citizens but
now we shouldn't be using that power to
protect those in power against their
citizens so it's a very fine line here
and we feel that section 215 is once
again one of those things where they
have stepped over the line and it's
incumbent upon America's citizens to
push back and say no that is not in the
American tradition the book
the community here is not new to this
issue you've heard some of the
statements already I have this gray hair
so I remember in the 70s and 80s when
the FBI went on it's library awareness
thing where they were out looking at the
records of Sylvia black citizens and
questionable American citizens I must
say as an emissive American
congresswoman I was surprised when under
the Freedom of Information Act I got my
file from the FBI and found out that I
was a questionable citizen at one time
in their viewpoint because they didn't
like my positions on Central America
interesting so we have to constantly
monitor and constantly push during that
a library awareness area over 37 states
passed bills saying no that just tells
you how angry people get when you do
this kind of thing and then we remember
as book publishers the fits that the the
FBI was having when hunt for red october
was coming out it just never stops
there's always something going on
and I could go on and on you've heard
all of that basically I want to thank
this wonderful congressman from Vermont
Bernie Sanders he said something that I
can't emphasize enough and I'm gonna say
it again our hearts were broken this
summer when his amendment went to the
floor and it passed and we were so
excited we were screaming so loud in our
office I'm sure they could hear it over
here and then what they did is kept the
voting machines open for another 20
minutes which is longer than the normal
voting time until they could twist
enough arms to make sure he didn't win
and then just as we were starting to get
discouraged we suddenly said this should
be very encouraging but because it
really said that both sides of the aisle
have gotten the message from the
American public that they are tired of
this they'd understand this goes way too
far the book community is stood together
and helped booksellers when they've come
in after that or entire but mentioned
very about the
from times that bookstores have been
subpoenaed the tattered cover in my
district of Denver the book community is
stood with those booksellers and we have
been able in every case to get the court
either to narrow the subpoena squash the
petit subpoena our back off under this
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
that they've set up no we can't do that
so you just have to totally accept their
valuation that somebody is suspicious
they want to subpoena their records and
they want to find out what's going on so
we think section 215 crosses the line
and we think that it is time that all
Americans stood up and said of course
we're not embracing terrorism but if we
don't have the freedom to express ideas
in this free marketplace of ideas we're
so proud of in this country how can we
tell the rest of the world that they
should be having a free market place and
from the publishers perspective we are
terribly concerned about how booksellers
and librarians are treated because if
suddenly their patrons decide oh my
goodness you know I shouldn't be
checking those books out or I shouldn't
be buying those books then what would be
the point of publishing those books you
chill the entire marketplace you freeze
the marketplace and you really skew oh
what kind of ideas are going to be
exposed that is not the American Way
we're gonna tell the world were a free
marketplace of ideas that's what we're
supposed to be Jefferson would be proud
that we're here and I'm sure he's
cheering us from down the street
thank you Thank You Pat it gives me a
great great honor to introduce our next
speaker who was arguably one of the
best-known literary figures in the
entire world Salman Rushdie is here
today as the president of the Penn
American Center but in his own life and
in in in his work he demonstrates his
existence demonstrates the importance of
civil liberties the importance
freedom of dissent the importance of
people being able to communicate ideas
without having to worry about the
consequences of those ideas so Salomon
thank you so much for for joining us
today
salman rushdie you know just occurs to
me that one of the little examined
consequences of section 215 is that
presumably there must exist not only a
group of suspicious Americans but
actually also a group of suspicious
books because otherwise how could you
judge what people were borrowing unless
you had a hold of books or the kind of
band lists you know so what are those
books I mean do we have I can't quite
get my head around the idea of you know
al Qaeda members sculpting skulking
round Barnes and Noble borrowing how-to
manuals about how to you know assemble
bombs or hijack planes is that what we
worried about or is it you know is it
bad to read I don't know
slaughterhouse-five is it what are the
books that are that would jut that would
flag you know that the subversive nature
of the reading activities so you know it
gets very murky when you get into this
and I'm here most precisely on behalf of
the 2700 writers who are the members of
the pen American Center but also of
thousands more writers professional
semi-professional vocational
recreational writers who share our
concerns about the way in which
government institutions are now nosing
into what should be personal creative
space and and shrinking public access to
information about that about how the
government is using these new post 9/11
Powers pen I think has a has great you
know authority to speak in this matter
because for over 80 years we've been
working on behalf of writers and other
people who have been imprisoned or
persecuted for what they've said and
written and what they've read um I have
some knowledge of this both at this end
as the presidency of pen and also at the
sharp end as was mentioned in 1989 the
Ayatollah Khomeini issued what the Nobel
laureate VS Naipaul called a very bad
review
and and you know fortunately that that
threat has receded but it should be
noted that in several countries the
publishers of this novel and people
selling the books were subjected to very
real threats and menaces and in many
cases violent retribution I mean there
were attacks on newspapers in in in I
think in New York State and then on
Cody's book store was firebombed in
California and and there were other
attacks around the world and there are
still countries which forbid the reading
and even the possession of my books
fortunately that is not being the case
in this country the United States has
led the world in promoting the kind of
hope the kind the attitude to open
exploration of ideas which I have
certainly tried to pursue in my work and
the same free exchange of information
which Penn seeks to extend
internationally and we at Penn have seen
over and over again how societies around
the world are weakened when the freedom
of individuals to seek information and
to debate ideas and is limited we know
from our own experience as writers lucky
enough to live in open societies and how
those freedoms when they are protected
fuel creativity and and correct or
prevent countless government mistakes or
errors but now we've been doing this you
know around the world
for protecting freedom of expression but
we are quite clear about defending a
grappling with the impact of terrorism
again I know this institutionally as the
president and also you know personally I
did some grappling of my own in this
regard and we of course I mean I have
good ground to deploy terrorism and to
think that there's very good reason to
do things to get rid of it but we also
grapple with the impact of anti-terror
and national security measures not just
here but around the world we've seen it
in let's just name a couple of countries
I had hot turkey South Korea countries
which have claimed to be struggling with
terrorist threats and which have passed
anti-terror laws which greatly exceed
their stated purpose and come to be used
to consolidate power cover up government
misconduct and stifle dissent
interesting to the United States
government has frequently been an ally
of pens in challenging these abuses in
other countries and in the cases I've
mentioned was in fact an ally in
opposing that the use of using the cover
of anti-terrorist legislation to in fact
bring in authoritarian legislation which
served quite different purposes so it's
kind of ironic that an ally in those
days is now the subject of this
conversation today several measures
enacted since since 9/11 including the
Patriot Act in our view contain elements
that compromise core American values and
put our country on shaky ground
internationally some provisions have
given federal authorities new power to
monitor the daily activities of
law-abiding US citizens and residents
and collect as we've been hearing
information on personal associations of
reading habits and so on others have
weakened the power of the people to
monitor what the government is doing in
that regard and some in our view violate
basic basic human rights standards and
principles which the u.s. itself has
helped to formulate and which it has
been promoting internationally now we
have a moment where the Patriot Act is
scheduled to expire and Congress has the
opportunity to review and improve
anti-terror legislation and it's very
encouraging to see in the 9/11
Commission guidelines which one hopes
very strongly will be followed in the
report of the Commission they say
clearly that the burden of proof for
retaining a particular government power
should be on the executive to explain a
that the power actually does materially
enhance security and be that there is
adequate supervision of the executives
use of the powers to ensure protection
of civil liberties in the case of
section 215 there are five questions
which we believe go against these these
these guidelines and need to be answered
why does the government need the power
to search records of people who are not
suspected of being terrorists or agents
of foreign government why is it
necessary that section 215 orders be
issued by a secret court the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court
Surveillance Court and not by courts
where booksellers and librarians
the ability to challenge overly broad
borders why is it necessary to impose a
gag order that prevents law-abiding
citizens from learning that their
records have come under scrutiny
why excuse me with the growing use of
the Patriot Act authorized national
security matters that allow federal
investigators to seek records without
even securing FIS a court orders what
guarantees exists that this that these
searches receive any independent review
at all and finally why can't the number
of bookstore and library searches be
made public there seems absolutely no
security reason for these things to be
happening and let's just remember that
the freedom to write begins with the
freedom to read I mean I agree with Pat
it's great to be here with with every
part of the book industry but there's a
fifth part that's in these boxes you
know which is 200 thousand readers and
the freedom to write begins with the
freedom to read most of us owe our
careers to local public libraries and
bookstores and to the individual
librarians teachers and booksellers who
encouraged us to ask questions and
offered us both the materials and the
space to pursue our answers in many
countries of the world gifts like these
are almost inconceivable luxuries but
here they are guaranteed by the First
Amendment and library confer and library
confidentiality laws and Court decisions
that have historically held in check the
urge to seek investigative clues in the
records of what people read section 215
undermines all these protections and as
these petitions make clear readers are
very worried indeed and on behalf of
these readers and of writers I'd like to
just add my thanks to representative
Sanders and to Barbara Lee who was here
earlier and to everybody else on this
panel I mean it's a great job getting
these signatures together and but thank
you especially for your leadership in
addressing these concerns thanks very
much okay thank you very much are there
any questions yes
and he said that libraries they had
actually used section 215 that they
wanted to prevent libraries from
becoming havens for terrorists and
that's how they'd actually track toward
our library and I think it has already
been addressed there will be under some
circumstances historically they have
been ways in which the government can
get information from libraries but what
everyone here is saying is that under
Section 215 right now government agents
can get access to your reading records
without having to demonstrate any
particular reason that you are involved
in terrorist activities no probable
cause there is a secret judge situation
in which in fact the judge has no option
I think sometimes the Justice Department
say well it has to go through a judge
but they forget to tell you is that all
that the FBI has to say is they're doing
an investigation on international
terrorism and the judge has no option
but to give them that warrant so the
answer is if the government can make a
case samel just made the point we are
all concerned about terrorism but you
just cannot go in without having
probable cause without explaining to an
independent judiciary that you have
reason to believe that somebody is
involved in terrorist activity yes sir
whereas your legislation stand and it
seems to me that with these housies
reform bill in the house back
looking to expand possibly government
surveillance so could you address that
sure but the good news here is that not
only do we have such wide bipartisan
sponsorship for the freedom to read act
but as was demonstrated when an
amendment which crystallized that bill
came to the floor of the house we had a
majority of members of the house as you
know section 215 has been sunsetted and
that was a very wise provisioner
obviously I would have hoped that I
voted against the patriarchy that
actually section should not have been in
the first place but what it does mean is
that when we look at the Patriot Act
again it's not simply a question of
renewing section 215 it is a question of
having to bring it up again
if proponents of that concept want to do
it they're gonna have to start from
Ground Zero and I am absolutely
confident that we have the votes to
defeat any effort to bring up a
provision similar to section 215 I don't
expect much to be happening in the next
two weeks on that particular section
obviously the issue right now is what is
going to be going into the 9/11
legislation yes ma'am
what did you think about our reason it
is them of Kesavan of past events what
do I think about it I quite enjoyed it I
do think that you know if we're in
danger from Cat Stevens and we're
screwed so I you know I I can't really
believe that you know the cat you know
is that is the real danger that we're
facing but you know he did he and I had
a little run-in once before and even
though he now tries to pretend that he
was misquoted and his views were taken
out of context let me assure you they
were not and he didn't he wasn't
misquoted he said it on television and
if you want to go and look up the
records you could find the film on which
the videotape you know he wasn't I mean
he's just wriggling now you know I think
record sales went down and so no I mean
I just saw I've had a little smile you
know but I think truthfully it's silly
you know that it's if Cat Stevens can't
come into America we must be in really
bad trouble okay let me I think all of
the speakers and maybe mr. Rushdie more
than anybody else told us the real
struggle and the significance of what we
are talking about today do not
underestimate the importance of this
issue this has to do with whether real
ideas will be generated with a serious
discussion will take place whether
people can be free to raise points of
view without worrying that the
government is looking over their
shoulder what we are talking about today
is what the essence of what America is
supposed to be and that is a free
country and I just want to conclude by
thanking everybody up here mr. Rushdie
the the librarians the booksellers Pat
for doing just a tremendous
in fighting for freedom we hear a whole
lot of talk about freedom today
these guys are leading that fight I want
to thank them all very very much thank
you all for coming
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