Posted on 12/18/2005 3:16:12 PM PST by tsipple
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."
[Article continues at the newspaper's Web site.]
(Excerpt) Read more at southcoasttoday.com ...
If the story is true as written this is terrible waste of government resources and taxpayer money.
I don't buy it.
Not that book.
I got my copy in 1967 and explained a lot about the insanity going on then called "The Great Proliteriat Cultural Revolution".
Methinks this guy was visited by the feds for some other reason...
"Mao Tse-Tung is completely harmless."
Now he is, although while alive he managed to kill 50M+ people. His followers have killed more, and are still killing people in Nepal, Peru and elsewhere.
I agree completely. On the other hand, it sounds so strange that I suspect a hoax of some kind.
Don't be contacting islamic terrorists in Chechnya, Georgia, and other terror states.
This is a crock. That book has been around forever. I was asked about it one time by my division officer. I told him its good to know what the enemy is thinking.
He agreed, I lent him the book, and it got passed around the squadron.
I think this kid is lying.
Damn. I got my copy in 1967 too. Somebody stole it out of my dorm room . My roommate turned out to be a card carrying Commie.( gave me the bok) He worshipped Che Gueverra. My into to liberal education .
"I don't buy it.
Not that book."
It does sound odd. I went to a conservative religious high school and we read The Communist Manifesto to better understand and contrast with capitalism and democracy.
When I was at Georgia Tech, I was also teaching high school and I had the students read the Communist manifesto for the same reason.
I had a friend who was from south Korea and he saw the book (red of course) sticking out of my book bag as we had lunch at the student center. A campus cop was walking toward us.
My Korean friend suddenly leaped up and threw himself across my lap trying to block the policeman's view of the book. now campus cops couldn't care less what you read but they notice when one guy leaps into another guy's lap.
My friend explained later that possession of that book was enough to get you questioned by the government in South Korea. I refuse to accept, without more evidence, that our own country has stooped to such levels.
I refuse to accept, without more evidence, that our own country has stooped to such levels.
I own the book. Its history, not a working philosophy.
This is someone looking for publicity.
I didn't follow the link, but does the article bother to name the student? If not, I think it is total BS.
Mao is dead, and no one cares anymore what he thought when he was alive, even in China.
"I own the book. Its history, not a working philosophy.
This is someone looking for publicity."
It is also possible that it wasn't the book that triggered the investigation but that in the process of the investigatioon the agents checked his library history...
Yeah, there must be more to it.
The author of this article left out some important information on one of the "professors":
Brian Glyn Williams
Dr. Brian Glyn Williams is assistant professor of Islamic History at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
Sumpin ain't raht heah!
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