Agents' visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior

I acknowledge that there may be some truth in the government monitoring our reading, and that some paranoia may be justified. (librarians across the country are fighting these incursions into our privacy )

However, for the contributers requesting:

"Try to find a copy of Dave Forman's Ecodefense, a manual for sabotaging logging operations, road-building equipment, etc. You will NEVER find one, or if you do stay the fuck away from it because Spook Central will have hidden cameras all around it. "
and
"here's a book that i've long thought of buying; however, i can't find it in the united states of fascism:

uri davis: apartheid israel. "

They are available in over 100 university, public and private libraries throughout the country.

Let me know what state you are in, and I'll let you know where to find the books. I'm done with my tantrum.

FROM: a librarian who believes strongly in free speech

Hey feds, it's great you're taking all this time to investigate library records, but here's a clue: no one died. On a more relevant note, how is your investigation on the murder of American citizen Rachel Corrie going?

For the amazonian-phobic:
All Libraries that Own Item: "Ecodefense : / a field guide...
(the FBI Library has a copy as well- are we not surprised?)


AZ FLAGSTAFF CITY, COCONINO CNTY LIBR
AZ NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIV
AZ PRESCOTT COL LIBR
AZ SCOTTSDALE PUB LIBR
AZ UNIV OF ARIZONA
AZ YAVAPAI COL LIBR
CA CALIFORNIA STATE LIBR
CA CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIV, POMONA
CA CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV EAST BAY
CA CALIFORNIA STATE UNIV, FULLERTON
CA HUMBOLDT STATE UNIV
CA LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIV
CA NAPA CITY CNTY LIBR
CA NAVAL FAC ENG SERV CTR
CA NORTH BAY COOP LIBR SYST
CA OAKLAND PUB LIBR
CA SAN DIEGO PUB LIBR
CA SAN DIEGO STATE UNIV LIBR
CA SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIV LIBR
CA SAN JOSE PUB LIBR
CA SOLANO CNTY LIBR
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS, SHIELDS LIBR
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA
CA UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ
CO COLORADO COL
CO FORT LEWIS COL
CO REGIS UNIV
CO SOUTHEAST METROP BRD OF COOP
CT UNIV OF BRIDGEPORT
CT WESLEYAN UNIV
DC LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
FL FLORIDA A&M UNIV
FL FLORIDA STATE UNIV
FL LEROY COLLINS LEON CNTY PUB LIBR
FL ORANGE CNTY LIBR SYST
FL ROLLINS COL
IL JOHN G SHEDD AQUARIUM
IL KISHWAUKEE COL
IL URBANA FREE LIBR, THE MRO
IN INDIANA UNIV
KS KANSAS STATE UNIV
KS UNIV OF KANSAS
KY LOUISVILLE FREE PUB LIBR
LA LOYOLA UNIV
LA STATE LIBR OF LOUISIANA
MA BOSTON PUB LIBR
MA BOSTON UNIV
MA HARVARD UNIV, HARVARD COL LIBR
MA NORTHEASTERN UNIV
MA NORTHFIELD MOUNT HERMON SCH ME BATES COL
ME UNIV OF MAINE AT ORONO
ME UNIV OF SOUTHERN MAINE
MI GRAND RAPIDS PUB LIBR
MI MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
MI SCHOOLCRAFT COL, BRADNER LIBR
MI UNIV OF MICHIGAN LIBR
MI WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIV
MN CARLETON COL
MN MINNESOTA DEPT OF NATURAL RES LIBR
MN MINNESOTA POLLUTION CONTROL AG LIBR
MO CENTRAL MISSOURI STATE UNIV
MO KANSAS CITY PUB LIBR
MO TRUMAN STATE UNIV
MS FIRST REG LIBR
MT UNIV OF MONTANA, MANSFIELD LIBR
NC NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV
NC UNIV OF N CAROLINA, ASHEVILLE NH FRANKLIN PIERCE COL
NJ MORRIS CNTY LIBR
NJ NEW JERSEY STATE LIBR
NJ RUTGERS UNIV
NM NEW MEXICO STATE LIBR
NM SANTA FE PUB LIBR
NM UNIV OF NEW MEXICO
NM WESTERN NEW MEXICO UNIV
NV LAS VEGAS-CLARK CNTY LIBR DIST NY COLUMBIA UNIV
NY MID-YORK LIBR SYST
NY NEW YORK UNIV
NY PAUL SMITHS COL LIBR
NY SAINT LAWRENCE UNIV
OH HIRAM COL LIBR
OH OHIO STATE UNIV, COL OF LAW OH OHIO UNIV
OH WITTENBERG UNIV
OR MULTNOMAH CNTY LIBR
OR UNIV OF OREGON LIBR
PA DICKINSON SCH OF LAW, SHEELY-LEE LIB
PA MESSIAH COL, MURRAY LIBR
PA PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV
PA SAINT VINCENT COL
PA SWARTHMORE COL
PA THADDEUS STEVENS COL OF TECH
PA UNIV OF PITTSBURGH
PA URSINUS COL
SC UNIV OF S CAROLINA
SC WINTHROP UNIV
TX UNIV OF HOUSTON, DOWNTOWN
TX UNIV OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
UT UNIV OF UTAH
VA FEDERAL BUR OF INVESTIGATION, ACAD LIBR
VT JOHNSON STATE COL LIBR
VT VERMONT LAW SCH
WA EVERGREEN STATE COL LIBR
WA LOWER COLUMBIA COL, LRC
WA TACOMA PUB LIBR
WA WASHINGTON STATE UNIV
WI BELOIT COL LIBR
WI UNIV OF WISCONSIN, JIM DAN HILL LIBR
WI UNIV OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, GEN LIBR SYS

Most magnanimous of you.

I wish this Dartmouth undergrad had come forward, screamed like hell, done the radical talk circuit, etc. He missed a golden opportunity to rake the Gestapo over the coals and WAKE PEOPLE UP. This government just keeps getting more insane, while Americans just keep snoring. It's exactly like 1930s Germany. Say bye-bye to your Golden Age, America. You know: the one you squandered by regressing into a narcissism worthy of Marie Antoinette? I never want to hear your pompous talk of freedom EVER AGAIN. People like you can't possibly have any real insight into that word.

At FBI, Frustration Over Limits on an Antiterror Law
By Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times

Sunday 11 December 2005

"While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from Office of Intelligence Policy and Review's failure to let us use the tools given to us"

Washington - Some agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been frustrated by what they see as the Justice Department's reluctance to let them demand records and to use other far-ranging investigative measures in terrorism cases, newly disclosed e-mail messages and internal documents show.

Publicly, the debate over the law known as the USA Patriot Act has focused on concerns from civil rights advocates that the F.B.I. has gained too much power to use expanded investigative tools to go on what could amount to fishing expeditions.

But the newly disclosed e-mail messages offer a competing view, showing that, privately, some F.B.I. agents have felt hamstrung by their inability to get approval for using new powers under the Patriot Act, which was passed weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

One internal F.B.I. message, sent in October 2003, criticized the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review at the Justice Department, which reviews and approves terrorist warrants, as regularly blocking requests from the F.B.I. to use a section of the antiterrorism law that gave the bureau broader authority to demand records from institutions like banks, Internet providers and libraries.

"While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR's failure to let us use the tools given to us," read the e-mail message, which was sent by an unidentified F.B.I. official. "This should be an OIPR priority!!!"

The bureau turned the e-mail messages over to the Electronic Privacy Information Center as part of a lawsuit brought by the group under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking material on the F.B.I.'s use of anti-terrorism powers. The group provided the material to The New York Times.

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.
The story's release came at a perfect storm in the news cycle. Only a day before, The New York Times had reported that President Bush had allowed the National Security Agency to conduct wiretaps on international phone calls from the United States without a warrant. The Patriot Act, created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to allow the government greater authority to monitor for possible terrorism activities, was up for re-authorization in Congress.
There was an increased sense among some Americans that the U.S. government was overstepping its bounds and trampling on civil liberties in order to thwart future attacks of terrorism. The story of a college student being questioned for requesting a 40-year old book on Communism fed right into that atmosphere.
In Thursday's retelling of the story, the student added several new twists, ones that the professors and journalist had not heard before. The biggest new piece of information was an alleged second visit of Homeland Security agents the previous night, where two agents waited in his living room for two hours with his parents and brother while he drove back from a retreat in western Massachusetts. He said he, the agents, his parents and his uncle all signed confidentiality agreements that the story would never be told.
He revealed the agents' names: one was Nicolai Brushaev or Broshaev, and the other was simply Agent Roberts. He said they were dressed in black suits with thin black ties, "just like the guys in Men in Black."
He had dates and times and places, things he had signed and sent back in order to receive the book. The tale involved his twin brother, who allegedly requested the book for him at UMass Amherst; his uncle, a former FBI attorney who took care of all the paperwork; and his parents, who signed those confidentiality agreements.
But by now, the story had too many holes. Every time there was a fact to be had that would verify the story -- providing a copy of the confidentiality agreements the student and agent signed, for example -- there would be a convenient excuse. The uncle took all the documents home to Puerto Rico, he said.
What was the address of the Homeland Security building in Boston where he and his uncle visited the agency and actually received a copy of the book? It was a brick building, he said, but he couldn't remember where it was, or what was around it.
He said he met a former professor at the mysterious Homeland Security building who had requested a book on bomb-making, along with two Ph.D. students and a one pursuing a master's degree who had also been stopped from accessing books. The student couldn't remember their names, but the former professor had appeared on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News recently, he said.
The former professor's appearance on The O'Reilly Factor did not check out.
Other proof was sought.
Were there any copies of the inter-library loan request? No.
Did the agents leave their cards, or any paperwork at your home? No.
His brother, a student at Amherst, told Dr. Williams that he had never made the inter-library loan request on behalf of his brother.
While The Standard-Times had tape recorded the entire tale on Thursday, the reporter could not reach the student for comment after he admitted making up the story. Phone calls and a note on the door were not returned.
At the request of the two professors and the university, The Standard-Times has agreed to withhold his name.
During the whole episode, the professors said that while they wanted to protect the student from the media that were flooding their voice mails and e-mail boxes seeking comment and information, they also wanted to know: Was the story true?
"I grew skeptical of this story, as did Bob, considering the ramifications," Dr. Williams said yesterday. "I spent the last five days avoiding work, and the international media, and rest, trying to get names and dates and facts. My investigation eventually took me to his house, where I began to investigate family matters. I eventually found out the whole thing had been invented, and I'm happy to report that it's safe to borrow books."
Dr. Williams said he does not regret bringing the story to light, but that now the issue can be put to rest.
"I wasn't involved in some partisan struggle to embarrass the Bush administration, I just wanted the truth," he said.
Dr. Pontbriand said the entire episode has been "an incredible experience and exposure for something a student had said." He said all along, his only desire had been to "get to the bottom of it and get the truth of the matter."
"When it blew up into an international story, our only desire was to interview this student and get to the truth. We did not want from the outset to declare the student a liar, but we wanted to check out his story," he said. "It was a disastrous thing for him to do. He needs attention, he needs care. I feel for the kid. We have great concern for this student's health and welfare."
Mr. Hoey, the university spokesman, said the university had been unable to substantiate any of the facts of the story since it first was reported in The Standard-Times on Dec. 17.
As to any possible repercussions against the student, Mr. Hoey said, "We consider this to be an issue to be handled faculty member to student. We wouldn't discuss publicly any other action. Student discipline is a private matter."
Dr. Williams said the whole affair has had one bright point: The question of whether it is safe for students to do research has been answered.
"I can now tell my students that it is safe to do research without being monitored," he said. "With that hanging in the air like before, I couldn't say that to them."
The student's motivation remains a mystery, but in the interview on Thursday, he provided a glimpse.
"When I came back, like wow, there's this circus coming on. I saw my cell phone, and I see like, wow, I have something like 75 messages and like something like 87 missed calls," he said. "Wow, I was popular. I usually get one or probably two a week and that's about it, and I usually pick them up."