Little Red Book

Some interesting doubts are starting to surface over the authenticity of the story about two agents from the Department of Homeland Security visiting a student who had requested the Peking version of Mao's Little Red Book through an intra-library loan. BoingBoing has a good online discussion: Here is an excerpt from the original news story:

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.

From BoingBoing:

UMass Dartmouth does not use SSN's for student ID's. An interlibrary loan request by SSN would seem to violate the University's own privacy policies (Link).

And:

The reporter has not talked to the student. He has talked to the professors, who told him what the student claimed happened. The professors have no first hand knowledge of the incident.
The professors only "went public" with the story in response to a query about domestic wiretapping.

From the John McAdams writing at Marquette Warrior:

Apparently Bogus: Homeland Security Visited Student Who Ordered Mao�s �Little Red Book�

John covers the same points that the BoingBoing entries do and then continues:

Which brings us to the final problem. According to Jamie Zuieback, a spokesperson for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the largest investigative agency in the Office of Homeland Security) there is no such thing as a �watch list.� She insists that the agency is concerned with �violations of the law� and not with peoples� �reading habits.�

She does not contest that, if somebody has come to the attention of Federal agents, their reading habits (and much else besides) will be investigated. It�s just not the case that routine book requests are checked against some list.

Further, Zuieback says that, when the story broke, the agency�s office in Boston went through their records to see if some actual investigation was the source of the story, and could find nothing. One important proviso, Zuieback insists, is that without the name of the student (which is being withheld by the reporter who wrote the original story and by the University of Massachusetts), no definitive check is possible.

Of course, Zuieback could be playing a game of damage control and CYA but it still will be interesting to watch as this plays out...