Please Note:  The student has since admitted to making his story up.  See the comments for an appropriate link.  Grrrrrr.  It’s bad enough we have so much to bitch and moan about the whole evesdropping bullshit and watch lists and black lists and folks being arrested without evidence or imprisoned without charges or due process without someone making shit up to add fuel to the fire.  Sheesh. I am leaving the original post up for completeness as my reaction was real enough, but do note that it was evidently a straw dog. Double sheesh. Can you say "irresponsible rumor monger"? I thought you could. As if we don’t have enough to worry about.

Can you say "facist control of ideas well beyond acceptable scope of influence?" university student placed on Homelad Security watch list after interlibrary loan request of Mao’s Little Red Book for research report . . . are academics free to inquire and understand or do they have to look over their shoulders wondering if their research interests will land them on some sort of secret black list or . . . worse.

Little steps . . . that’s how the Germans lost their freedoms and embraced a facist state under the happy go lucky Nazis . . . little steps here and there and then once enough little ground was gained giant steps and the acacemics, jews, gays, gypsies, and eventually the rest of society paid a terrible price. The Nazis has scapegoats and watchlists too . . .

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."

I read the Little Red Book when I was in junior high school oh so many years ago. I wouldn’t say it’s "harmless" per se but it certainly nothing more than a symbol today. It is highly doubtful that any serious potential enemies of the US people or state are going to be recruited via that route. It’s more of a historical document than an ideological one today. In the world we live in . . . right now . . . there should be much more serious concerns for federal agents than some kid checking out books from the library. Last time I checked, we are supposed to be free to read . . . and, yes, even write . . . pretty much anything we like. The kid should not be placed on ANY sort of watch list simply because of his reading habits, regardless of the reason for requesting the material. Heck, even if he were a communist, he is still well within his rights to have those beliefs. It is only if one advocates violence that they should even be considered being placed on a federal watch list for anything, let alone having a couple agents show up at your house scaring the fuck out of the kid and his family. Some researchers are likely now to stop inquiring into certain areas out of fear of being placed on a similar list and having other aspects of their lives violated . . . even if the kid were cleared, the stigma stands and so very many times such list visits are not cleaned up as they are supposed to and the record of the visit, but not the circumstances or clearance, find their way on permanent records that besmirch a person’s reputation years later . . . read the idiocy of the McCarthy witch hunts for plenty of precedence.

The technical term for this sort of thing is . . . bullshit . . . and that’s a bona fide high fallutin’ scholarly term you can rest assured fits this situation perfectly.