San Antonio library dean cancels NYTimes subscription in protest

Wacko Texas news this morning.

Yes Virginia there is censorship is still alive and kicking in Texas. Even at the University level. What an idiot. Oh and then he goes on vacation so he wouldn't have to stand up to the heat. Maybe the University should let that be a permanent vacation.

Sonia

Yes, it's a private Catholic college, but it is by NO means Bob Jones University!

This is really a stain on the academic reputation of that institution.

This asshole should be fired IMMEDIATELY, before he completely flushes their image down the toilet.

"Since no one elected the New York Times to determine national security policy, blah, blah, blah"

Well who elected him to determine censorship policy for the University? I bet he was hired, so the same could go right back at him.

Sonia

What has happened to our America? The calculating politics of division, elevated to an art form by the despicable Rove & his adoring apostles, smearing their opponents, labeling brave men cowards, branding the strong weaklings, distorting the history of the honorable and blatantly lying about the past of their own. They have created a culture of corruption where only those with financial clout have a voice in the process and they are rewarded at the expense of the average American.

The have used the terror of 9/11 as their cover to dismantle the traditional American freedoms and replace them with an authoritarian Government which intrudes into every facet of Citizen's lives and shrugs off any attempt to rein it in. Bin laden's plan has worked far better than he could have ever dared hope! America has capitulated to fear, a mighty lion quivering in terror before a mouse, it is a shameful display of our most craven characteristics.

Here we have an University of all places, rushing to censor a newspaper, so much for "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."

Who doesn't see where this is going? Can you believe the media calling for censorship? Not that I consider Fox News media, mind you but WTF?

Sonia

Mendell D. Morgan, Jr., Dean of Library Services at University of the Incarnate Word at (210) 829-3837. I left his staff a message to call me back. I told him I wanted to know why he canceled the NY Times when there is plenty of evidence to show that all what the Times reveal was NO secret.

See http://elemming2.blogspot.com/2006/06/partisan-and-ignorant-library.html

"Falsehood: Times article tipped off terrorists to U.S. bank-tracking efforts

Bush and other administration officials have long acknowledged that terrorists were increasingly using other methods of transferring money to evade detection because of the tracking and monitoring programs they themselves revealed. Bush spoke of a "foreign terrorist asset tracking center at the Department of the Treasury to identify and investigate the financial infrastructure of the international terrorist networks" shortly after 9/11. On November 7, 2001, then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill announced that the United States, along with an "international coalition," had begun "to block assets, to seize books, records and evidence, and to follow audit trails to track terrorist cells poised to do violence to our common interests." In a September 10, 2004, statement, the Treasury Department disclosed "some of the many weapons used against terrorist networks," which included "following money trails to previously unknown terrorist cells." An April 2006 Treasury Department report similarly noted that the department "follows the terrorists' money trails aggressively, exploits them for intelligence, and severs links where we can."

There have been numerous reports on how successful this program has been. A Dec. 2002 report to the United Nations Security Council -- which is available online -- describes the administration's efforts to monitor SWIFT transactions. "There have been public references to SWIFT before," said Roger Cressey, a senior White House counterterrorism official until 2003. Richard Clarke, the former anti-terrorism czar in this administration concurred in a joint op-ed: "They want the public to believe that it had not already occurred to every terrorist on the planet that his telephone was probably monitored and his international bank transfers subject to scrutiny. How gullible does the administration take the American citizenry to be?"

As I previously wrote, the international agency responsible for international wire transfers is not at all secret, difficult to be secret with their trade show and magazine, and posts prominently on its website its cooperation with international law enforcement authorities. The attacks on The New York Times try to create an impression this is some top secret agency instead of a prominent financial institution that every wire transfer document references. This was not a secret given how much the administration has bragged about it and no details were revealed by the Times that would put anyone's lives at risk. Instead this is an example of how a political party makes up a story by getting a number of people to make wild over-inflated attacks and escalating the demagoguery. They've got nothing but fear keeping them in office and they needed to turn it up a couple of notches.

The New York Times did not violate any espionage act and did not commit treason. Far from it, the free press is our first line of defense against secretive governments determined to take away liberties. The administration knew about the story which had over a dozen administration and government sources cited, most anonymously, and held long talks about what should be revealed. Ultimately the administration was not able to make a good case for not publishing the story. So they decided to make a rhetorical case in their right wing media machine and rile up the conservative base."

I'm so glad I went to St. Mary's....

Here is an update:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA070106.01A.UIW.16614e4.html

The University of the Incarnate Word announced Friday that it will reinstate the library's print subscription to the New York Times after canceling it earlier this week to protest the publication of articles exposing the government's secret anti-terror program to monitor international banking transactions.

Dean of Library Services Mendell D. Morgan Jr., who gave the order to remove the newspaper, said in a hastily called news conference that he did not believe his decision to use the university library as a forum for personal protest was inappropriate, but did regret failing to consult library staffers.

"In retrospect, I made a personal decision perhaps in too great haste and did not seek other input," Morgan said, speaking in front of the university's library. "I wanted to send a message in protest."

Morgan e-mailed library staffers Wednesday announcing his decision to remove the newspaper and cancel the library's subscription. Library staffers protested, calling the decision censorship, and the subsequent publicity garnered national attention.

Lots more at the link...

Despite this, I sent him the following email and I plan to write a LTTE of our crappy little newspaper so that more people understand how important this is.

Mr. Morgan,

Before you send your next message "in protest", please educate yourself in the matter first.

A small amount of research on your part would have found that this issue you are so upset about has been in the public domain for several years now, well known to many people.

The financial organization involved in watching financial transactions (SWIFT) even has its own website and publishes a magazine about their activities. Their activities were hardly a "secret". Additionally, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times reported the same information as the New York Times, even on the same day. I can presume then that you will be canceling those subscriptions as well?

Mr. Morgan, your personal politics should **never** get in the way of what is best for the students and their education. Your job is not to censor, nor is it to push your own agenda based on what you were led to believe through the media eager to carry favor with the Bush administration.

Its nice of you to regret not consulting your staff, but I think the students should have been allowed to voice their opinion as well considering that they pay your salary as well as the salaries of your staff.

Here is some information on the not-as-secret-as-you-were-led-to-believe program:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200606290003

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/06/28/BL2006062801268.html

I'm hoping that your reversal to keep the New York Times was brought about through learning the truth of the issue rather than what's being stated publicly. Your name and the name of UIW are all over the right wing blogosphere. That's not something to be proud of considering the current state of affairs in this nation and abroad.

Considering how this administration is seeking to censor, intimidate and control the press, I would think as an educator, that you would be interested in preserving every avenue of government accountability left to us.

Respectfully

XXXXXXXX

that try our souls. After the momentary shock from hearing something chilling like a university library director embracing political censorship, we restiffen our backs, restrengthen our resolve, and keep on keepin' on. We have no choice.

The Supreme Court's decision issued yesterday in Hamdan v. Rumsfield is momentous. The different opinions all together total 185 pages and I haven't finished reading them. But even from my incomplete review it is clear that the decision is a huge rebuke of Bush and Gonzales over (a) presidential power, and (b) the authority of the Geneva Convention.