Subject: "Little Red Book"--- : [IPTF:870] FW: DHS(!) and reading choices Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 10:39:54 -0600 Message-ID: <BDD0A3EABE40F04A8C7200805EDE5A6A0403568A@PEPSI.uwec.edu> From: "Richmond, Elizabeth B." <RICHMOEB@uwec.edu>
from Betsy Richmond
________________________________
From: owner-iptf@ala.org [mailto:owner-iptf@ala.org] On Behalf Of
Patrice McDermott
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2005 8:51 AM
To: Internet Privacy Task Force Discussion List
Cc: Emily Sheketoff; Larra Clark
Subject: [IPTF:870] FW: DHS(!) and reading choices
FYI.
Patrice
________________________________
From: BORDC Info [mailto:info@bordc.org]
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 7:00 PM
Subject: FBI and reading choices
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-17-05/a09lo650.htm
Agents' Visit Chills UMass Dartmouth Senior
By Aaron Nicodemus
The Standard-Times
Saturday 17 December 2005
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."
Although The Standard-Times knows the name of the student, he is not
coming forward because he fears repercussions should his name become
public. He has not spoken to The Standard-Times.
The professors had been asked to comment on a report that President
Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to spy on as many as
500 people at any given time since 2002 in this country.
The eavesdropping was apparently done without warrants.
The Little Red Book, is a collection of quotations and speech
excerpts from Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung.
In the 1950s and '60s, during the Cultural Revolution in China, it
was required reading. Although there are abridged versions available,
the student asked for a version translated directly from the original
book.
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.
Dr. Williams said in his research, he regularly contacts people in
Afghanistan, Chechnya and other Muslim hot spots, and suspects that some
of his calls are monitored.
"My instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think,"
he said. Dr. Williams said he had been planning to offer a course on
terrorism next semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his
students at risk. "I shudder to think of all the students I've had
monitoring al-Qaeda Web sites, what the government must think of that,"
he said. "Mao Tse-Tung is completely harmless."
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