The usual cries of fascism are already underway.

Agents’ visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior: 12/ 17/ 2005
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.

So we’re hearing about this from a third party? BS’o'meter +2

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.

And the person who this supposedly happened to is staying anonymous? Oh because he fears being shot in the head in a darkened alley by Mao’s agents I’m sure. BS’o'meter +4

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.

WHAT? We’re paying Department of Homeland Security agents to deliver books to college students? Somehow I figure if this was reality, normal college librarian types would have made the delivery, and maybe the agents would have shown up separately. But for the agents themselves to bring the book with them? BS’o'meter +5

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.

Yeah, because in back of his class, he’ll have armed agents standing by, to put a bullet in someone’s head if they ask the wrong question. I think this is starting to smell like propaganda from the professors. BS’o'meter +3

“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.”

Except to the tens of millions of people that were killed by his policies. Typical.

BS’o'meter Score: 14. That puts this story in the pretty damn unbelievable category. And of course, the reporter did not contact Homeland Security for a quote on what happened.

Linked to: The Uncooperative Blogger, Stop the ACLU, Wizbang!, Rightwing Nation, and Point Five.

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