http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc121802.html
December 17, 2002 The Progressive
McCarthyism Watch: FBI Goes on Campus
Professor M. J. Alhabeeb teaches economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is writing a book entitled "Microeconomic Theory of the Family," and one of his recent papers is entitled "Youth Employment in the United States: Trends and Implications."
But when two campus police officers, one working for the FBI, came to pay him a visit on the afternoon of October 24, they weren't interested in discussing his microeconomic theory or signing up for one of his courses.
"They came to my office and said they were acting on a tip someone called in saying I am anti-American," he recalls.
"I asked, 'What does that mean?'
"And they said, 'You are opposing the President's policy on Iraq.'
"And I said, 'Millions of Americans are opposing the war. What's the big deal?' "
The officers also asked, "When did you come here? And when did you become a citizen?" he says.
Alhabeeb fled Iraq in 1982 and is now a U.S. citizen. (The Boston Globe broke this story on November 24 in a piece by Eric Goldscheider and Jenna Russell.)
One officer told Alhabeeb that the person who gave the FBI his name knew him through Amherst Community TV. Alhabeeb is on the board of the TV station, which has been going through tough budgetary and personnel issues.
"Someone wanted an opportunity to hurt me," Alhabeeb told The Progressive. "I don't recall at any time discussing my politics in the atmosphere of the TV station."
Alhabeeb said the officers talked to him for five or ten minutes.
"This specific visit was not a horrible thing by itself," he says, but he is concerned about "the indiscriminate questioning of people based on ethnicity, religion, or color, and the threat to academic freedom and civil liberties. If we feel that we have to be cautious, that we have to hold our thoughts--this should never become the norm in American society."
Alhabeeb, who was harassed in Iraq because he was not a member of the Baath Party, says the visit from the officers "does bring back bad memories. I should live a different life, not similar to the one I lived before. And hopefully it won't get that far."
Faculty members at UMass-Amherst, as well as the ACLU, are trying to make sure that this kind of FBI snooping on campus stops.
Dan Clawson, a professor of sociology at UMass-Amherst, was outraged when he heard about the questioning of a fellow professor. He organized a meeting November 18 that drew 75 people and another on December 11 that attracted 125.
Some faculty members went to talk to the chancellor, John Lombardi, to express their concerns. Barbara Pitoniak, news director of UMass-Amherst, says, "He came out very strongly in defense of academic freedom."
Clawson went to talk with university police chief Barbara O'Connor. "She said the FBI had initiated a request for local police to assign someone to work as a liaison with the FBI terrorism task force," he recalls. "She had assigned this detective, Barry Flanders, and he worked with the FBI a couple days a week, she said. When he was working with them, she didn't exercise any supervision over him because she didn't have security clearance."
Chief O'Connor was not available for comment, nor did the public affairs officer for the department respond to a request for comment.
An FBI spokeswoman in Boston, Gail Marcinkiewics, said, "The Bureau has extended an invitation to local law enforcement, and if you want to be part of the task force, you need to have security clearance."
As to Alhabeeb, she says, "This was the least intrusive way of figuring out what was going on."
On December 12, the ACLU of Massachusetts filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI. "The enlistment of campus security officers to serve the intelligence interests of the FBI within the academic community raises concerns for First Amendment freedoms," the group said. It is seeking all records after September 11, 2001, dealing with "FBI cooperation or liaison with campus police or security officers at colleges and universities in the United States for the purposes of gathering intelligence and/or investigating students, faculty, and/or employees of the college or university."
Bill Newman is the director of the Western Massachusetts office of the ACLU. "The presence of the FBI dedicating significant resources to investigations on a university campus imposes an enormous chilling effect on academic freedom, robust debate, and political dissent," he says. "Absent legal law enforcement purposes, the presence of the FBI would constitute an anathema to freedom of inquiry for which a university must stand."
Newman and the ACLU are concerned that the FBI may be on many campuses around the country. "We have no reason to believe that UMass-Amherst was singled out," he says. "If this is happening at campuses around the country, then we all should know that." -- Matthew Rothschild
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