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At 01:11 PM 12/24/2005, Bruce E., you wrote:
This Morning December 24th, the Boston Globe reported that the story about
the young man who reported that Homeland Security visited him over a book
he received from interlibrary loan was not true.
Yet another example of the end justifies the means. Report something (of
course the student is not identified), acquire a lot of great publicity,
(Ted Kennedy even used this story in his rambling attack on George Bush
and the renewal of the patriot act)
rile up the political "diatribists", then report the truth when it will
not receive any attention.....
Bruce Esser
Thanks to Bruce for relaying Prof. Williams & Pontbriand's effort
on Thursday, Dec. 22nd., to set the record straight on this facet of
the government's security policy, which apparently involves
sidetracking of the secret FISA courts' oversight.
They very properly did not identify the student in question.
(Why on EARTH would Bruce think this significant??)
FISA has apparently granted around 16000 requests to monitor
US citizens' traffic. Over how long is not clear however.
The '80's possibly?
(I elsewhere read the comment that as the FISA courts will grant
just about every government tap request, even up to three days after
the event, one wonders why Bush signed an executive order in 2002
to end run the secret courts' oversight.)
I assume that people who value personal liberty still view this
as a threat worth publicizing?
Here is an exculpatory excerpt from the Standard-Times on line,
which I also initially quoted:
<http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/a01lo719.htm>
******************************************************
Federal agents' visit was a hoax
Student admits he lied about Mao book
By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer
NEW BEDFORD -- The UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have
been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for
"The Little Red Book" by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the
entire story.
The 22-year-old student tearfully admitted he made the story up
to his history professor, Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, and his parents,
after being confronted with the inconsistencies in his account.
Had the student stuck to his original story, it might never have
been proved false.
But on Thursday, when the student told his tale in the office
of UMass Dartmouth professor Dr. Robert Pontbriand to
Dr. Williams, Dr. Pontbriand, university spokesman John Hoey
and The Standard-Times, the student added new details.
The agents had returned, the student said, just last night.
The two agents, the student, his parents and the student's uncle
all signed confidentiality agreements, he claimed, to put an
end to the matter.
But when Dr. Williams went to the student's home yesterday
and relayed that part of the story to his parents, it was the first
time they had heard it. The story began to unravel, and the student,
faced with the truth, broke down and cried. /and so on/
****************************************************
Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!