AND YET, YOU WERE READY TO GO.
I was.
BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY, YOUR PAROLE OFFICER, IN THE ELEVENTH HOUR, DECIDED THAT YOU COULDN'T GO.
Exactly, although he was just a messenger. It was the US Parole Commission that made the decision, and that was after the police, after the UMass event having been cancelled once and then having it back on because 10 different departments invited me, the police, in all their arrogance, just thought they were going to shut the thing down. And when we got that close to the event, within 48 hours and it was back on, and all the muscle they had flexed seemed like it had come to naught, then they realized, hey, this guy is on federal parole. He can't travel without documents, without papers. And so they went to the US Parole Commission. They had a press conference the next day and said they did. They lobbied the US Parole Commission heavily to deny me travel papers.
SO IN ESSENCE, EVEN THOUGH YOU POSED NO CRIMINAL THREAT, THEY WERE ABLE TO USE PAROLE TO PREVENT YOU FROM EXPRESSING POLITICAL IDEAS.
That's right. So what's the threat? I don't pose a criminal threat. The police had several press conferences around the UMass thing. I remember, in the third one they were pulling out all stops. They were saying that I would be brainwashing these young, impressionable students into complicity, which just served to attract more students to the event. They had a hall initially set up that was designed for 125 people, but after the police press conferences they had to get a hall for, like, three or four hundred. And then (the police) still attacked it, even though I wasn't there. You don't tell students that they're going to get brainwashed by a former political prisoner and think the students are just going to follow that. They said I was going to use the event as a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations, that I would advocate terrorism. That's the sort of thing they were resorting to. So what is the threat, really? Since I'm not doing any of those things, what's the fear?
THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU EXPRESSING YOUR POLITICAL IDEAS.
They didn't want me expressing any ideas. They don't want to hear me say that there are political prisoners in America. They don't want that even discussed.
THEY PROBABLY THINK THAT EVEN JUST DISCUSSING IT IS A KIND OF INDICTMENT.
They don't want to have a discussion at all.
BUT SINCE THAT TIME YOU HAVE BEEN RELEASED FROM PAROLE.
Yes.
WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?
I got the paperwork in the first week of March.
WHAT WAS THAT MOMENT LIKE?
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