December 17, 2005

Thank God I Have My Own Copy

Although, I was considering titling this post "We're Fucked," since amongst the three of us who study war, revolution, authoritarianism, political leadership and the middle east, our book list is a lot more scary that some undergrad at UMass-Darmouth working on a term paper. That and we have traveled abroad, extensively, sometimes all with each other. Yeah yeah yeah, like Homeland Security cares that it was for ISA. After all, it was to Montreal, where they speak French!

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."

snip

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.

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.

"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."

That's right. We can't keep a hold on Zarqawi, but damn we're good at catching people who are reading books.

You know, shit like this is really dangerous:

"What really counts in the world is conscientiousness, and the Communist Party is most particular about being conscientious."

Talk at a meeting with Chinese students and trainees in Moscow (November 17, 1957).

I've always loved Mao's Little Red Book. Seriously. It's hilarious. No authoritarians ever have better rhetoric than the communist authoritarians. Capitalist roaders? The communists. Each one of us brought a shovel, a gravedigger's shovel? Communists. Struggle towards victory forever! Communists.

Look, I know that Che Guevara read Mao, and the US government is still pissed at him for running around Latin America trying to start a hemispheric uprising even though he's been dead for decades. Got it. I also will be one of the first to line up and tell you how much communist totalitarianism sucks.

However reacting to perceived threats by engaging in the very same monitoring of dissent as "the enemy" isn't much of a strategy. And doing it in the clownish and ridiculous way the Bush administration has been creates an extremely high noise to signal ratio. Not only is it stupid, it's worthless. And illegal and un-American to boot.

Seriously though, really. One of the best ways to understand what makes the United States great is understanding why other kinds of government, more efficient kinds of government even, are disasters for the humans who live under them. It's likely lost on the FBI snoopers that those who followed Mao via Che in Cuba, and their descendants, are under the exact same kinds of surveillance as U.S. citizens. We're not imprisoning librarians, though I wonder what would happen if one firmly resisted a national security letter. Jailed for contempt? Obstruction? In Cuba, people can't talk about or study things that embarrass the government. One of my "favorite" experiences there was trying to get a straight answer out of economists about GDP growth rates since the Special Period. Im-poss-i-ble. You might get a nice adulatory statment about the "triumph of the revolution," but nothing that might reflect badly on the government. Read outside textbooks about political systems? Riiight. The Ministry of the Interior, in part through its local networks which monitor things like education history, keeps an eye out for that. No one wants a "friendly" visit from the neighborhood cederista for reading the wrong book, because among other things it signals the beginning of more intensive surveillance, and could damage your future (that "damage" sounds a bit euphemistic even for me).

As Digby notes:

If that's the case, then I would assume that reading any revolutionary, historical or political tract that a terrorist has been known to read makes one a terrorist suspect. That's an extremely broad brush and the only way that anyone could ensure that he or she is not going to come into the cross hairs of the government would be to not read any of those books, not criticize the government, not study terrorism, marxism, or even the American and French revolutions since a terrorist somewhere may have read about those things too.

And, in typical Bushian blowback this will result in less understanding of terrorism:

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.

On top of everything else, our government is mind-bogglingly stupid. I know I feel safer.

Posted by binky at December 17, 2005 05:02 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Books | J. Edgar Hoover | Law and the Courts | The Academy | The Ever Shrinking Constitution


Comments

And this really bothers me usually, but I'm going to make the first comment on my own post, because this has been bugging me through dinner and a movie. Think about how dumb it is to flag inter-library loan. Who will they catch? College students, researchers maybe. If (huge gigantic gaping "if") they catch a terrorist ordering up a book, it's going to be a pretty stupid terrorist. A really stupid terrorist who can't fathom that he or she shouldn't be using inter-library loan. Right? Still with me? OK. So. If they actually flag a stupid terrorist with the interlibrary loan dealio, what should the government do. Interview him at his parents' house, while waving the book in question around? Not really useful. How about, oh, I don't know, not letting the stupid terrorist know that he has been discovered, and following him around as he makes more stupid moves that a) might lead to finding out network information or b) might actually be illegal. Unlike reading books. Even ridiculous books with funny pictures of fat balding dead Chinese guys on the cover.

Posted by: binky at December 17, 2005 11:49 PM | PERMALINK

I am a librarian. If this story is true, I am very concerned about how the Dept. of Homeland Security obtained a library patron’s records. It is a violation of principle III of the American Library Association Code of Ethics to provide a library patron's records to anyone without the patron's consent. If the story is true, I would like to see the American Library Association take disciplinary action against librarians responsible for the release of these records.

Posted by: Jeff at December 18, 2005 12:22 AM | PERMALINK

Well, the president is well known to not enjoy reading, and to have a huge opinion of himself, his powers, and to believe that others should think what he thinks and do what he does, so ...

Seriously though (or with a bit less levity), there are so many frightening and wrong things associated with this story I don't know where to start. The librarian's point is important. But what about WARRANTLESS EAVESDROPPING. Is it silly to propose that some in law enforcement (or fascist overlording enforcement) be prosecuted for this? Isn't there anything that can be done to curtail this kind of illegal behavior?

Posted by: Armand at December 18, 2005 11:04 AM | PERMALINK

UPDATE: Orcinus.

Posted by: binky at December 19, 2005 11:33 AM | PERMALINK
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