Aw that's such a shame it was a great story.  Still in the spirit of your
great American government and the continual 'stretching of the truth' I
shall still use it in my history class as an example of the problems with
the Patriot Act.

Melissa 


On 12/24/05 3:16 PM, "Jeff Kell" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Adam Trowbridge wrote:
>> 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."
> 
> All is finally revealed:
> 
> 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.
> 
> It was a dramatic turnaround from the day before.
> 
> For more than an hour on Thursday, he spoke of two visits from Homeland
> Security over his inter-library loan request for the 1965, Peking Press
> version of "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung," which is the book's
> official title.
> 
> His basic tale remained the same: The book was on a government watch
> list, and his loan request had triggered a visit from an agent who was
> seeking to "tame" reading of particular books. He said he saw a long
> list of such books.
> 
> In the days after its initial reporting on Dec. 17 in The
> Standard-Times, the story had become an international phenomenon on the
> Internet. Media outlets from around the world were requesting interviews
> with the students, and a number of reporters had been asking UMass
> Dartmouth students and professors for information.
> ...
> 
> Jeff
> 
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