CIA SAID TO WANT STUDENTS TO MONITOR IRANIANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140117-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 117
• Publication Date: November 21, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
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to monitor Iranians
CIA said to want students
MINNESOTA DAILY
21 November 1978
By ERIC RINGHAM
Copyright 1978
Minnesota Daily
Men identifying themselves as
representatives of the Central Intel-
.ligence Agency (CIA) allegedly at-
tempted this fall to recruit students
to spy on Iranians attending the
University.
The Daily received information
about the alleged recruitment effort
after locating a University student
and army veteran who claims he
was approached by the agency. The
student agreed to discuss the sub-
ject last week if his name remained
confidential.
The source said two white,
middle-aged men claiming to be
CIA agents came to, his home in
September. Although they pre-
sented no identification verifying
their association with the intelli-
gence agency, they knew details of
the student's career as an army offi-
cer.
Those details included his work
as a psychological operations offi-
cer and his security clearance for
top-secret information.
Asking if the student had heard
of SAVAK, the Iranian security
police force, the agents allegedly
said the CIA was helping SAVAK
agents in the United States identify
and observe Iranians opposed to
the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi.
The agents further said they
wanted to get "something con-
crete" on Iranian students to facili-
tate their deportation back to Iran,
according to the source.
"They said they wanted to find
out who was stirring up trouble,
who the 'terrorists' were." the stu-
dcnt said. "They referred to these
guys as'terrorists.'
The agents, the student said. ex-
plained that Iranians on U.S. cam-
puses are harming the shah's image
abroad. "Their goal was to discred-
it these Iranian) guys. That was
the main thing." the source said.
In a series of interviews the stu-
dent- said the men offered him
money and appealed to.his patriot-
ism as a U.S. citizen in their at-
tempts to get him to agree to their
proposal.
"This one guy gave me this pitch
that my responsibilities didn't stop
when I got out of the army. They
offered to pay my tuition, but I'm
already getting that (through the
G.I. Bill), so I didn't give a shit,"
the source said. "Besides, I
wouldn't prostitute myself like
that."
The student said he refused to
observe Iranians and report on their,
activities. He said he agreed, how-
ever, to ask other veterans at the
University if they were interested in
,working for the CIA.
Another veteran who did not
want to be identified confirmed to
the Daily that she had been in-
formed by the source of the oppor-
tunity to work for the CIA. "He
came to me and asked if I wanted to
make some more money, if I
wanted my school paid for," she
said.
The veteran, a CIA sophomore,
said- she wondered at the time,
"Who would get messed up in
something like that? Who'd need
the money that much?"
She said the cautious way in
which the student approached the
topic lent credibility to his story.
"If he was BSing, I don't think he
would have done that.
"I believe him. I know him pretty
well," she said.
It is not known whether any stu-
dents accepted the offer.
' The source said he believes his
service record-detailing his army
career in Southeast Asia, Germany
and several bases in the United
States-suggested to the agents that
he might be willing to agree to thci.
proposal.
"I think M11 psychological opera-
tions ba?.. round was what
prompted ',nn to contact me," tie
31-year-old veteran said. "It's the
same sort of thing I was doing in i
Vietnam and several other places in
Southeast- Asia and Eruope," he
said. -
But another explanation the stu-
dent offered for why the CIA con-
tacted him is that he had once
volunteered information to the:
agency.
After serving in Vietnam as an in-
fantry platoon leader, the veteran
was trained in psychological opera. !
Lions and returned to Southeast
Asia. He later was stationed in'
West Germany, again working in
psychological operations but also
serving as a drug and alcohol con-
trol officer at a U.S. base near
Stuttgart. Military records confirm
his assignments.
Ordered to stop the flow of ills
W drugs to U.S. military personnel
'eat any cost," the officer reported-
ly developed contacts with the West
German underground. Members of
the underground, including fugitive
radicals, finance their operations
partly through drug sales. accord-
ing to the former officer.
During this period, the officer re-
portedly met "seven or eight" per-
sons who said they were associated
with the Baader-Meinhof gang,
otherwise known as the Red'Army-`
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Faction. Andreas Baader, founder
of the faction, committed suicide in
prison in October 1977. Ulrike
`teinhof, a former West German
journalist and member of the
group, hanged herself in prison in
May of the previous year.
The officer's contacts in the fac-
tion, he said, suggested in 1976 that
they were considering hijacking an
airliner. They were vague as to the
time and place of the'.at:Jk ac=
cord; n p to the source.
-rh-x rollowing? spring, ,sr*r the
off,-*t'r had left the army and re-
-iurazd p his home in St. Paul, he
decrJedfttat he should contact the
aut !unties and tell them about the
German terrorists. Looking in the
St. Paul telephone directory under
"U.S. Government offices." he lo-
cated a number for the CIA. He
dialed the number and requested a
meeting.
According to the student, a single
agent visited his house. listened to
his story and left. promising to get
back in touch.
The veteran did not hest' from
the agent again. For everal?
months. he said. he suspected he
was being followed, but he was not
contacted by representatives of the
intelligence agency..That fall. four
terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa jet
to Mogadishu. Somalia. .
Nearly a year went by before the
supposed agents allegedly contacted
him about spying on Iranian stu-
dents. Although the source and the
Daily have been unable to deter-
mine whether the men-were in fact
from the CIA, they seemed to have
had access to government files, ac-
cording to the student.
"These guys studied my file,"
the student said.
The student said his conversation
with the men ranged to other
groups allegedly being watched by
the CIA, including students from
Hong Kong and Taiwan and mem-
bers of the Young Socialist Alliance
and Vietnam Veterans Against the
War.
The men, the student said. resem-
bled "anyone from 3M-etecutive
types." They said they were con-
cerned about "peace and order on
campus." and about possible com-
munist "insurgence" in Iran. ac-
cording to the student. And. the
student said, they seemed already
well informed about Iranians at the
University.
"As far as the masks go, you can
tell them (the Iranians) that they
don't need to wear them," the stu-
dent said. "They know every Irani-
an student on campus." Iranian
demonstrators often wear masks to
conceal their identities.
The source said he agreed to dis-
cuss the story with the Daily be-
cause "they (the CIA) spend
millions ofdollars on intelligence.
activities and they don't know what
they're doing." He said he is neith-
er for nor against the cause of the
Iranian dissidents.
"I'd just like to see them (the
CIA) get their shit together," he
said.
That U.S. authorities sometimes
cooperate with the Iranian SAVAK
has been reported frequently in the
American press. Columnists Jack
Anderson and Les Whitten, for ex-
ample, have documented a relation-
ship between Mansur Rafizadeh,
the head SAVAK agent in the
United States, and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The
New York FBI office trades infor-
manoo tilr? SA CM( jgam f; rou-
ttprly, and "there b' notht covert
about it." according to une FBI of-
ficial.
And the Presence of SAVAK
agents in the United States also is
well known. A House subcommit-
tee chaired by Rep. Don Fraser (D-
Mn.) has heard testimony from
state- department officials that
"there certainly are representatives
(o(SAVAK) in the United States."
Alfred Atherton. Jr., assistant
secretary for Near Eastern and
South Asian affairs, told Fraser's
subcommittee last year that "Irani-
an authorities are interested in
knowing about potential terrorists
who may be among students who
would return to Iran."
"There's not much question that
SAVAIC has been making efforts to
keep track of Iranian students."
Fraser said during a telephone in-
terview last week. "But I'm slow to
accept that the CIA might be in-
volved in recruitment efforts," al-
though "I've made a lot of
assumptions in the past that turned
out to be wrong.
"Even if the CIA were doing it,
they certainly wouldn't confirm
it," Fraser said.
But to Iranian dissidents con-
tacted about the story. CIA cooper-
ation with SAVAK was a familiar
topic.
Preferring to remain anonymous,
the Iranians identified themselves
as members of the Iranian Student
Association. One said he was the re-
gional director of defense for the
student group, which is organized
on local, regional ' and national
levels. The regional official said
that while his organization had not
heard of CIA actions against Irani-
ans at the University, "in otl:tr
cities it's an old story."
It is a common strategy, he sa;,
to portray Iranian students as "mom
rorists" and then deport th1M.
SAVAK. he said, works either
alone or with local authorities tut
provoking rigli1 1 aitti-shah dem-
onstrations. Protesters then are ar-
rested. he said.
"Whether these things are done
by SAVAK or the local police, they
are controlled by the CIA," the dis-
sident said. The local Iranian Stu-
dent Association has escaped such
harassment so far, he said, "be-
cause it's a young chapter..I don't
mean to say SAVAK is careless."
. Contacted by telephone Monday,
the CIA refused to comment on the
particulars of its relationship with
SAVAK. Dale Peterson, a public
relations officer, said he was unable
to gather facts that might relate to
the story without the name of the
Daily's source.
Asked whether the CIA works
with SAVAK in conducting surveil.
lance against Iranians in the United
States, Peterson - said no
"agreement" between the agencies
gives SAVAK the authority to oper-
ate in this country.
Asked if it were possible that the
CIA might have tried to recruit:
American students, Peterson re-
Plied, "I can't answer that. You're
asking me to get into detail about
activities we may or may-not be
conducting against foreigners in the
United States."
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