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."
Mary Ludwick, Librarian K-5 Elementary
Owen Elementary, The Colony, Texas (near Dallas)
ludwickm@lisd.net (school address)
ludwick@swbell.net (home address)
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