Tópico: Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior

[ukrainian]

By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer

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."

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

Contact Aaron Nicodemus at anicodemus@s-t.com

[Rodion]

wow....

[Galileo]

This story is no surprise.

It was clear at the time the "PATRIOT" Act was passed that this kind of thing was going to happen, and in fact it has happened to hundreds of people in the last four years. It has become a major concern of librarians in the USA.

Now of course we hear that the President has illegally authorized officials to spy on thousands of their own citizens by monitoring their telephone calls and emails, without obtaining a search warrant.

The United States now resembles a caricature of the Soviet Union under Stalin. Ironically, the same Americans who were horrified at stories of the Soviet Union spying on its own citizens now think the same actions are justified when done by GW Bush to law-abiding Americans.

[Felius]

We know that bush is an idiot. We know that the USA are at a very bad situation. But the problem there is not the capitalism, it is the anti-democratic acts that bush is doing. But if you think the left would be better, remember that china and the Soviet Union had done much worse, as Cuba too.

[Galileo]

Cuba doesn't lock people up without a trial. Cuba does not have institutionalized torture. USA does.

The United States' posturing about bringing freedom and democracy to the world is just hypocrisy, when you consider how ready they are to deny civil and human rights to their own people.

[Felius]

I might be wrong about cuba, but about the soviet union we know that they done much spying on their citizens.