From: Eric Cordian <emc@wire.insync.net>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 05:05:04 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Student Writer Harrassed by SS
Message-ID: <199711262045.OAA10392@wire.insync.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Secret Service agents searched the apartment
of a University of California student newspaper columnist who wrote a
satirical attack on Chelsea Clinton, the writer says.
 
Guy Branum, a columnist for the Daily Californian, said agents
searched his off-campus apartment Monday, the same day Chelsea
Clinton's mother, Hillary Rodham Clinton, visited the university for a
meeting on foster care. Chelsea Clinton is a freshman at rival
Stanford University.
 
The Secret Service office in San Jose refused to comment or confirm
Branum's account. A White House spokeswoman also would not comment.
 
The agents checked for weapons, Branum said Tuesday. They also had him
sign a release giving them access to his medical records, he said.
 
``They wanted to make sure there wasn't anything that would
demonstrate mental instability on my part,'' he said. ``No pictures of
Chelsea with X's through them or something like that.''
 
He said he gave two agents permission for the search after they
threatened to detain him while getting a search warrant if he didn't.
 
Branum said his column, which appeared Thursday, was meant to be
satirical. It was intended to rally spirit before the UC-Stanford
football game.
 
In the column, Branum revealed which dormitory Chelsea lives in and
wrote: ``Show your spirit on Chelsea's bloodied carcass, because as
the Stanford Daily (newspaper) lets us know, she is JUST ANOTHER
STUDENT.''
 
``She embodies the Stanford ethos of establishment worship that must
be subverted and destroyed,'' the column continued. ``Is hate a strong
word? Yes. Is it applicable? Certainly.''
 
The newspaper apologized Friday for undermining a ``student's physical
safety'' and its own reputation.
 
Stanford went on to beat UC, 21-20, in Saturday's game.
 
Branum said the agents who searched his apartment lectured him about
the column and about a previous column in which he referred to the
president as ``Sexual Predator in Chief.''

--  
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"