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Secret Agent Man

Zachary Bucharest/The Vanguard

Now that the sun has started to shine, it inevitably means that Zach Vishanoff will break out his easel and get to work painting Eugene in bloom. As such, the state of Oregon will be requiring a new conspiracy theorist to take his place. Enter Professor John Hall of Portland State.

In an insane story, Hall has accused one of his students — a former Israeli Defense Forces member and contracted mercenary — of being an agent provocateur and an FBI informant.

It started when Zachary Bucharest brought a deconstructed and firing pin-less AR-15 to class for a presentation in November. After months of interaction with Bucharest, Professor Hall had decided he was dangerous to the PSU community. In January, Hall called Bucharest out during a class session, and presented a letter he’d written to the local FBI office.

In the letter, Hall makes several cliche, paranoid references like “As you would [already] know…” The story seemingly tangles itself considering Hall took a campus safety officer to class with him to “pat down” Bucharest — a violation of his privacy — to look for a gun (lets not forget OUS/PSU rules that violate the 2nd Amendment either).

As a result, Hall has been suspended with pay pending investigation into the matter. There are so many directions to go with this story, so much input it’s hard to know where to start. For starters, Bucharest brought an AR-15 to campus, violating PSU’s “rules” against firearms — a sticky situation in itself.

Then comes the attack by Hall, asking a campus officer to do an illegal search of Bucharest. Combine that with the fact that a tenured professor going off about a secret FBI informant in his midst is going to seem a little batshit crazy (even if he did somehow hit the secret hotspot).

For Christ’s sake, even if Bucharest is an FBI informant, what is Hall expecting with that letter? I’ll save you the long, rambling read but the professor ends his letter with a warning to the FBI that he will, “Inform my students’ parents of this likely threat.” Was Hall expecting the FBI to come out and say, “Wow. You really got us, John. We tried to slip it past you but you were too on the ball. Great job!”

This may be serious business a little farther north, but from where I’m sitting this is just plain funny.

  1. pdxkidz says:

    If I may say so myself. John Hall is a great professor, very supportive and encouraging to students. 🙂

  2. dc says:

    That post was @ Orev

  3. dc says:

    Depending on the size of the campus, there can be up to a dozen paid informants, of all manner of stripes. It’s been a fact of life for decades now. Think cointelpro and Mossad and you’ll build a better framework for your argument.

    If this professor is correct, the story will be Orwellized in short order.

  4. Chris says:

    I don’t know the professor, but I was in a class with that student at PSU. He’s more than a little off his rocker. And a little creepy to boot.

  5. Joe says:

    Uh-mmmm. I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss the moves of either player here…

  6. Orev says:

    The D-bag liberal professor went to THE Evergreen State College, a school with no grades and no real curriculum. For his masters, he went to “The New School” in New York City, the school in which 100 protesters shut down because they didn’t agree with the administration. Isn’t that typical? Our tax dollars going to pay some liberal nut job professor to overstep his bounds.

  7. msfreeh says:

    to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
    forums.signonsandiego. com/showthread.php?t=59139

    to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
    dallasnews. com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574

  8. JMB says:

    …the professor ends his letter with a warning to the FBI that he will,

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