Mao ILL Patron Clams Up

Kelly says:

Which Library Did the Feds Visit?
This story states that the original story was wrong about the social security number being needed to do an ILL. That may be true, and if it were, so what? Does it mean the whole incident never happened? I don’t think so. But a new detail emerges in this followup story, that the ILL was processed by another school, UMass Amherst. Unfortunately, no further details are forthcoming about this, since UMass Amherst says “it is university policy not to discuss or divulge any information on library borrowing. When asked whether federal agents requested information on a student’s inter-library loan request, Mr. Blaguszewski said that under the Patriot Act, the university “is not allowed to discuss whether federal agents have visited or requested information.” This response is very interesting, as it implies and at the very least, leaves open, the possibility that the feds did indeed visit the school and/or student in question. But what is strange about this is why the schoool ths student presumeably approached to get the book, his school at Dartmouth, wherein the book was missing off the shelf, denies being visited by the Feds, while the library at Amhurst, who is supplying the book invokes Patriot Act laws as a way to avoid talking about this. If Dartmouth states the feds did not visit and Amhurst is not saying, who do you think they visited? If Amhurst was not visited, why would they be compelled to invoke Patriot Act laws to avoid telling us? Also: did the student perhaps actually physically go himself to Amhurst to get the book (because he was, say, in a hurry and could not wait for the ILL process to be completed), hence he was asked for an SS number, since it was not his school? Should be easy to determine, to get a handle on this – without breaking Patriot Act laws -if Amhurst requires SS numbers to loan out books to people who are not their own students. Another facet of the followup story is the DHS flunky’s response to the question of the Fed’s monitoring ILLs and maintaing a book watchlist, “Mr. Whitworth could not comment on the record whether the agency monitors inter-library loans, or whether there is a watch list of books that the agency maintains.” Oh really, is that so? If they are not doing it, why do they refuse to tell us straight out? As I mentioned in a reply to the posting of the original story, there was posted here in LisNews in July of 2004 an article from a columnist who indeed asserted there is a watchlist – of over 800 books. Hence with regard to this incident at the Dartmouth libary, this is NOT the first time the idea has appeared of the Feds maintaining a book watchlist. One extremely strongly wishes that ALA and various giant media, such as the NYT, would investigate the probable existence of such a watchlist, that is, prove or disprove it once and for all. In light of these observation and questions, John’s claim this may be like the Kerri Dunn case strikes me as utterly implausible.

Kelly says:

Re:What happened to journalistic standards
“While many people seem to want so much for this to be true, it is most certainly a fabrication.” I agree the story is based on 2nd hand sources, hence it is not a very well sourced story, but I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss it as a fabrication. For instance, if a student made it up, wouldn’t he use something else besides Mao’s The Little Red Book, which has been around a long time and has long since lost it’s shock value (a book he is unlikely to know once even had a shock value in the 1960’s). He could have picked out something much more recent and obvious if he was out to pull a stunt. Also, the fact his parents are admanant about sheilding his identity could be interpreted as resulting from getting the bejesus scared out of them from the Feds visit. If it didn’t happen, why be so secretive? Besides this, the other issues mentioned in my reply above, particulary the DHS’s refusal to confirm if a watch list exists, strengthens the impression something strange is going on here that isn’t good for our continued freedoms.

Kelly says:

Re:If I were betting…..
More accurate to say there is currently nothing being offered to back up the claim. Pending further investigation, there could be something that could be offered but is not, which, given the student’s wish to stay quiet, is what I put my money on.

Kelly says:

Re:People Want to Believe
In a more “normal” world (pre-911, such as it was), your objections might have a large degree of validity. But your reply is coming from a place of ignorance and naivete. This case is merely a relatively little manifestation of very powerful forces with connections to much bigger things, such as, for example, multiple secret prisons, kidnappings of foreign nationals in their own country, fraudulent arguments for involving the US in a disasterous, immoral war in Iraq and Afghanistan (bleeding 1 billion dollars a week from our Treasury), radically high and increasing oil and gas prices, and much else that is so negative and harmful to humanity at large. Such reports as this from the Umass college cannot be looked at in isolation from most of the other negative developments in the world since 9-11 and the election of Bush. There is a sense that such things are part of a much bigger picture of everything accelerating out of control – or into much deeper control by tyrannical and fascist forces. If you cannot feel this on even a purely visceral level, as do I and so many people I know, then you’re way too deaf and blind for any mere words that could be offered for convincing you otherwise. But if this big picture is what I think it is and the forces behind it aren’t slowed down or stopped, which they probably won’t be, then get ready to see such incidents to increase by magnitudes, and where, unlike in the present moment with this incident, there will be no doubt, with plenty of “evidence,” that something truly evil is happening. But by then it will be too late to do anything about it. Just ask the folks who lived in Germany, Poland and other countries around 1939 what it felt like before the deluge fully hit. From talking to such folks myself, it seems like it felt a lot like it feels now. And the more you connect the dots, the more you will feel it.