In my investigation into this little matter, I found a lot of interesting sites on the net.  They all took this story as gospel truth, with no verification at all.  To bad they are willing to accept things at face value, with no skepticism at all.

In the end, it just shows that the persecution of a student who requests a book by Chairman Mao just indicates that Mao's regime has been relocated- to Washington.
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/comments.php?id=2575_0_1_0_C

Much as we praise bourgeoisie industry and commerce at this web site, the attachment of the bourgeoisie to social and political stability, and to the state as the best way to ensure that stability, is the kind of thing that gets us to goons knocking on doors asking probing questions about one's reading habits. It's what I call the "bourgeoisie imagination," and because it prizes order and tends to see the state as an organic extension of society and community, it tends to view with suspicion or horror anyone or anything that, for whatever reason, does not fit. Anything that could, even in the remotest way, threaten or jeopardize that order.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/featherstone/featherstone45.html

Just this past week there were public reports that a college student in Massachusetts had two government agents show up at his house because he had gone to the library and asked for the official Chinese version of Mao Tse-tung's Communist Manifesto. Following his professor's instructions to use original source material, this young man discovered that he, too, was on the government's watch list.
Think of the chilling effect on free speech and academic freedom when a government agent shows up at your home -- after you request a book from the library.
Incredibly, we are now in an era where reading a controversial book may be evidence of a link to terrorists.
Something is amiss here. Something doesn't make sense. We need a thorough and independent investigation of these activities.
The Congress and the American people deserve answers now.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/12/22/on_wiretapping_bush_isnt_listening_to_the_constitution/?page=2

The book being watched? No, not some Islamist tome, al-Qaeda training manual or technical work on explosives, but a well-known book the whole text of which you can find online or order from Amazon.com. It

In my investigation into this little matter, I found a lot of interesting sites on the net.  They all took this story as gospel truth, with no verification at all.  To bad they are willing to accept things at face value, with no skepticism at all.


While it's easy to find sites where there was no skeptism shown for it, there are plenty of sites that reprorted it that did. Picking out a few dozen of those is no great challenge. 

What scares me is that I was skeptical, but not able to dismiss the story out of hand.  It seemed risible to me for the FBI to chase some kid for ordering a Mao, but I couldn't put it past this government!
::)

In retrospect, the story does show some of the "red flags," if you will, indicating an urban legend.  Mostly because the was vague in unverifiable.

What scares me is that I was skeptical, but not able to dismiss the story out of hand.  It seemed risible to me for the FBI to chase some kid for ordering a Mao, but I couldn't put it past this government!
::)

In retrospect, the story does show some of the "red flags," if you will, indicating an urban legend.  Mostly because the was vague in unverifiable.


That was exactly what I was pointing out from the beginning.  I did not doubt the authenticity of it, just the accuracy.  Now it looks like I should have been questioning the authenticity as well.

Mostly, I questioned it because of the time between the event and it's being reported, and the fact that the Agency that was supposed to be doing the investigation had no businees to be doing that in the first place.  It would be like the BATF doing an investigation into counterfiting of US currency.  That is the jurisdiction of the Secret Service, not BATF.  And everybody knows how terrororial law enforcement agencies are of "their turf".

And the statement from DOH when they were asked about it was along the lines of "we are looking into this claim".  The normal "denial" is that "we can't comment on an ongoing investigation".  So it sounds like they were just as surprised at the claim as everybody else was.  But my earliest thoughts on this is that it was some sort of FBI (or local law enforcement) investigation, and the "blame" was being put on the wrong agency.

I am not sure if I should be glad, relieved, or frightened that it was all a hoax.  And of course, the student who did this is not even going to get a slap on the wrist.  I guess integrity is not very important at that facility of higher education.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510754