Homeland Security Snoops on Student Book Loans
South Coast Today reports on the Department of Homeland Security investigating a student who borrowed Mae Tse-Tung's "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.
I immediately wondered: since when did Communists resort to terrorism?
Then I wondered: if someone were already planning to commit a terrorist act, would they really need a book that functions as a primer on Communist philosophy, even assuming that philosophy were motivating their actions?
It seems preposterous. Since it seems fairly easy to conclude that the book and terrorism from the enemies we currently face cannot be reasonably expected to be connected, what is the motivation? Are we just being acclimated to this sort of investigation?
A friend of mine recently said:
Bush warned us that the terrorists hate us for our freedoms. True to his word, he's been making life safer for us by making us less of a target for terrorists.
Think about that one for a moment.