posted
A librarian friend of mine send me this link.
quote:NEW BEDFORD -- A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called "The Little Red Book."
Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library's interlibrary loan program.
The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.
The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a "watch list," and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.
I guess I'm feeling good right now that none of my research is political in any way. I'm thinking this is tied to the Patriot Act, though I could be wrong.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Given that they won't name the student (and the well-known nature of Mao's book), I question the credibility of this report...
Posts: 326 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
They do name the professors, though, so that tends to make me feel that it's credible. I find stuff like this very disturbing.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
According to the article, they're not naming the student because "he fears repercussions should his name become public."
It disturbs me, too, especially when it's going after fairly innocuous research at an undergraduate level. Like I said, I'm glad my research is politically neutral.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I'm sure glad they didn't have the Patriot Act when I was in junior high school and checked Eldredge Cleaver's Soul on Ice out of the library not long after it was published in 1968. Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Well, we can all be sure that terrorists who publish papers will not be able to blow anything up.... Posts: 1209 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I smell BS. Even if they monitoring interlibrary loan requests, and even if The Little Red Book was on the watch list, I still doubt that requesting it would result in a visit by federal agents.
Either he did a lot more than the article says, or this situation is fabricated. Personally, I believe the second option.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
If the feds were interested in tracking people with "dangerous" thoughts, they wouldn't be looking at Maoism. (Or Nazism. Or Confederate secessionism!) They'd be looking at something connected with a current threat.
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Well, if it is true, it'd be communism that would be the concern, I guess. I'm guessing there are folks paranoid to think this is connected to the current threat (or another, separate threat, or something). Someone put the book on the watch list, at any rate, for some reason.
The article also mentioned flagging the guy because of his international travel. Eh.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Psst: Paragraph 181, section VII, page 2,987 of the Patriot Act, and I quote: "Resistance if Futile, but Satire is punishable by torture, death, and a really, really stern talking to."
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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