WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told librarians the U.S. government should not be allowed to view library records without a search warrant.
Obama told the American Library Association Saturday allowing the provision in the Patriot Act would cause libraries to cease to be sanctuaries of learning where people can freely think and read, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday.
"This is an issue that Washington always tries to make into an either-or proposition," the only African-American U.S. senator said. "Either we protect our people from terror or we protect our most cherished principles. But I don't believe in either-or. I believe in both, and I think we can do both. I think when we pose the choice as either-or, it is asking too little of us and it assumes too little about Americans."
Obama said he hopes the Senate will pass a similar provision to one passed in the House that would require federal agents to obtain a search warrant before viewing library records and e-mails.
