Federal agents' visit was a hoax

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

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

  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> Had the
student stuck to his original story, it might never have been proved false. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> It was a
dramatic turnaround from the day before. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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.

  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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. 
  <http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/tab.gif> 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. 

...

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