Federal Agents visit U.M senior for his research paper on Fascism/Totalit.

[IChing]

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 tell my students to go to the direct source, and so he asked for the official Peking version of the book,
" Professor Pontbriand said. "Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security
is monitoring inter-library loans, because that's what triggered the visit, as I understand it.">>>>snip

This story appeared on Page A9 of The Standard-Times on December 17, 2005.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-17-05/a09lo650.htm


Is it fascism yet?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Hatfill and the dude from the nuclear reasearch facility, Los Alamos

all over again... I smell a lawsuit on the horizon.

[NashVegas]

2. You Know What Would Be Fun?

If 50,000 people suddenly ordered that book from Amazon.

[bahrbearian]

7. I'm going to Amazon right now,, any other books on the list?

[AntiFascist]

19. I've heard that this one can get you in trouble....

if you try to check it out at certain libraries. It can be ordered online from Political Research Associates, "Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party" by Russ Bellant.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Object Lesson

Now he can talk about Fascism, from first hand experience.

:sarcasm:

[Joy Anne]

8. That's funny!/nt

[Jim__]

4. That's sick! - n/t

[IChing]

5. The eavesdropping was apparently done without warrants.

Book burnings next, books on watch lists? I read mao's book for my class on fascism in the 70s and it sucked, but monitoring your book requests?


"The student told Professor Pontbriand and Dr. Williams that
the Homeland Security agents told him the book was on a "watch list."
They brought the book with them, but did not leave it with the student, the professors said. "


This is one quote from his little red book:

"To read too many books is harmful."

[Joy Anne]

6. on education

How are we supposed to have knowledgeable experts in all sorts of fields if ninnies from Big Brother are not allowing students to learn anything beyond rote?

And note that the Department of Homeland Security, as it was set up, which is what Max Cleland objected to, isn't required to follow Civil Service; they can hire whomever they want, and those DHS agents could all be political appointees.

[madmark]

9. Mao's Little Red Book has nothing to do with Al Quada;

The lack of intelligent approach to this conflict with Al Quada and the resultant waste of money and resources and lack of results is sickening. Oh, and our new domestic police state sucks as well.

[drm604]

11. That's exactly what I was thinking.

Next they'll be visiting people for ordering books on gay marriage or books by Michael Moore or greeting cards that say "happy holidays".

[hootinholler]

26. Which is evidence that our target is not Al CIAduh

The object lesson being taught by the FEDS here is be careful about what you learn or seek to learn.

Fuck your boss-man Agent Mike.

-Hoot

[savemefromdumbya]

37. Bush is frightened of the Chinese?

[eleny]

10. Wow! Recommended

Thanks

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. I had a copy of this in 1967 or thereabouts.

Everyone had one back then. They cost $1. That was back in the era of granny glasses and so forth. I got rid of it years ago.

I have a copy of "Mein Kampf" too, but I suppose that's on the approved list.

[IChing]

13. Who made up this watch list on books?

I had a little red book also, plus Mein Kampf, the communist manifesto, Letters of Jefferson, the Writings of Ben Franklin,
the articles of confederation, etc.

What the fuck does Mao's little red book have to with our constitution?

A great deal, if they had read the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

[HereSince1628]

25. After 2 weeks of searching flea markets in China I thought I had one

But then I don't read Chinese so what did I know?

For about $1.50 I really had bought an original little red book _cover_, but inserted inside was a text banned in China by Mao, written by a fellow who had attempted to overthrow Mao.

[Porcupine]

14. Those Feds are dumb as a pile of rocks. Science Fiction is your

real problem. A frequent plot device in science fiction is revolt against a technologically sophisticated government. For starters they should pull in anybody who has a copy of Cryptnomicon. This is a very accurate classic that details how to keep the gov't out of your business.
"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"-organizing revolutionary cells. "Dorsai"-philosophy of a warrior.
Untold others have fun little details on making your own things what go boom.

In short, raid and arrest every geek at a science fiction convention; they know too damn much and they have collections of esoteric weapons. Of course your life will promptly go south a week from that as the guys who missed the convention erase your life.

[smoogatz]

15. I saw this story on Raw. It's truly appalling. What the FUCK

is DHS doing investigating college students for reading Mao Tze fucking Tung, for Christ's sake? What in God's name does the communist revolution in China have to do with protecting the fucking fatherl--I mean homeland? Talk about abuse of power. I mean, seriously--whoever ordered an investigation into this kid should be fired right fucking now, and the two agents who carried it out should be reassigned to monitoring the Spec For latrine in Kazakhstan.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

16. The Little Red Book is just selected sayings... wow, what

they must think of me... I have the whole 6 vol set.

[daleo]

17. Mao and Bin Laden wouldn't have given each other the time of day

It is hard to come up with two people who have less in common.

[texpatriot2004]

18. So the Feds come because they are watching the books people

American people are reading and they don't approve of the subject matter?

Incredibly UNAmerican!

[symbolman]

20. We really should get 50,000 people on the web to order that

book, and then while the DHS is going around rousting them all we can complain about how our country is not being Protected because these turkeys are bother people about a COMMUNIST Book, and that's AFTER BUSH VISITED CHINA..

Like I tell Cops that stop me for going 5 miles an hour over the speed limit.. "Don't you have like, some Rapists, or Murderers you could be going after right now?" :)

[Earth_First]

32. Here's a link to purchase:

http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?qwork=5510479&wauth=Mao%20Tse%2DTung&ptit=Quotations%20from%20Chairman%20Mao%20Tsetung&pauth=Tse%2DTung%2C%20Mao%2C%20and%20Mao%20Tse%2DTung&pisbn=083512388X&pqty=9&pqtynew=3&pbest=9%2E90&pbestnew=18%2E85&matches=9&qsort=r&cm_re=works*listing*title

[Hekate]

21. Patriot Act not only permits this, it FORBIDS librarians to tell...

...the patron whose book list is being searched; likewise with booksellers. This was one of the issues that the Bill of Rights Defense Committee tried to publicize.

All this and a wall around our country too? :argh:

Hekate

[psychopomp]

22. kick

wtf, really...

[Cooley Hurd]

23. WTF does "terrorism" have to do with communism????

This account, along with the Patriot Act and the recent revelations on domestic spying by the NSA prove that this isn't about a "war on terror." This is about amassing and retaining absolute power by the Republican Party.:grr:

[leesa]

27. Terrorism is the new scam version of communism...only purpose

is to suppress OUR rights and to invade other countries in order to steal their stuff.

[sofa king]

30. Both are related to government subversion.

Terrorism is simply one more way to carry on government subversion. Communism was usually instituted through government subversion and violent revolt, sometimes including the use of terrorism.

Terrorism is not the sole province of Communism, but the Communists did perfect the use of cell-based organizations and intelligence "organs." Many Middle-eastern terrorist organizations originally spawned from Communist funding and training.

As I said above, the Communists didn't have the terrorism market cornered. We Americans owe our "freedom" to similar forces of subversion and revolt. Which reminds me, why can't I download Volume I of The Writings of Samuel Adams from Project Gutenberg, eh?

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2091

[CreekDog]

40. They are busy fighting the last war

Cold War, Iraq War, etc.

They aren't really fighting terrorism, per se, just keeping up appearances.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

41. Haven't you read your Claire Sterling?

(a historian who detailed how the USSR was behind the global terrorist networks in the 80s by using mainly CIA propaganda as her source. Then CIA-chief William Casey read it and believed it.)

[allisonthegreat]

24. Gee ya can't even check out a history book

Without a visit from the men in black...Let Freedom Ring...:wtf:

[Earth_First]

28. You know what you can do with Name, Address, and SSN for A BOOK!?!

Go FU*K yourself, that's what!

[Earth_First]

29. In fact, I'll google "Little Red Book" RIGHT NOW!

I'd be more than willing to offer coffee to federal agents!

[sofa king]

33. It's also known as "The Quotations of Chairman Mao."

Or similar variations.

http://art-bin.com/art/omaotoc.html
http://zhongwen.com/mao.htm
http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/classics/mao/quotes/

I'm still wondering why I can't find Sam Adams' Volume I. What, the Sons of Liberty aren't cool anymore?

[Earth_First]

34. Right. The original 1964 title is "The Quotations of Chairman Mao"

a.k.a. "The Little Red Book"

[Wordie]

31. Last I heard they said they hadn't actually used the Patriot Act's library

snooping provision. So it appears they were just saying that they were not doing library snooping, and since it's all private, we had no way to know. This is extremely bad for our civil rights. It's un-American. I even heard David Gergen going on a some length about how the spying went against our laws and American cultural values! (Whew, that was a close one on Friday with the cloture vote, wasn't it?)

And I think of some of the things that I have checked out of the library, or accessed on the internet...my god! I've noticed these things seem quite minor to some, and there were so many dismissive comments about our concerns about the Patriot Act. I surely hope that now, with the revelations about the spying on our own citizens by the administration, all that has been put to rest.

I'm just wondering if we need to keep up the letters and emails to the Senators, just to make sure that none of them change their minds on the cloture vote. I'm sure that some of them must be getting tremendous pressure right now.

Edited for clarity and to add: Recommended.

[MountainLaurel]

36. Well, what they said

And what librarians were saying in anonymous polls done by the ALA and other groups are two separate things.

The loophole used might have been that this work technically wasn't done under the Patriot Act provisions, that it was performed by DHS rather than FBI. Or something like that.

[Ruby Romaine]

35. why don't 100's of thousands of us request this on ILL at our local

library?

[Ruby Romaine]

38. Interlibrary Loan Monitoring Story Smelling Fishy

There is now another version of this story about a Dartmouth student who received a visit from Homeland Security after requesting an original version of Mao's Little Red Book. The latest version takes place at University of California/Santa Cruz and mentions History Professor Bruce Levine. I emailed Levine to see if he could verify the story, but my email was the first he'd heard about it. He was a bit amused, as his specialty is Civil War history, and curious about his name got tacked on to the story. ALA's Public Information Office is digging into the story as well. More details as they become available!

http://www.lisnews.com/

[CreekDog]

39. What about the little red tome, "Quotes from Chairman LBJ"

I think we have a copy of that lying around somewhere.

Is this a problem?!

[Rich Hunt]

42. well this is what I'm wondering...

...what are the mechanics of this.

I've never worked in ILL, but I'm wondering, knowing what I know of library systems, how they go about getting this information without soliciting it from the ILL library staff.

[The Flaming Red Head]

43. We were talking about this Saturday morning in GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5619301



http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-17-05/a09lo650.htm


Edited to sound less bitchy.