ACADEMIC FREEDOM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100710079-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 27, 2011
• Sequence Number: 79
• Publication Date: January 22, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100710079-9
TUCSON ARIZONA DAILY STAR(AZ)
22 January 1986
'Academic freedom
CIA links to U.S. campuses will be carefully watched
After years of exile from American campuses,
the CIA has been found lurking in the shadows of
academia again. Its presence - this time not so
covert - is being rightly suspected as a threat to
the freedoms of the nation's scholars.
The move is a regression for those freedoms -
one scholars, students, the Reagan administration
and Congress need to be ready to combat.
It is the responsibility of the intelligence agency
to be mindful of how much it asks of researchers. It
must be especially heedful not to lapse into its '60s
mode, when it was shunned from U.S. campuses be-
cause of improprieties during anti-government pro-
tests over Vietnam.
Yet already the CIA is giving cause for con-
cern. At Harvard University, the CIA is being ac-
cused of controlling the work of Nadav Safran, a
professor who has resigned as head of the Center of
Middle Eastern Studies. In a university report re-
leased this month, Safran is said to have violated
Harvard's rule of disclosing the source of contribu-
tions. According to a New York Times story, the CIA
financed an Islamic fundamentalism conference,
run by Safran, at Harvard last year. The CIA also
gave Safran a $107,000 grant for his latest book. His
contract with the CIA gave the agency the right to
review the manuscript and stop it from being pub-
lished.
That is just one example. The Times story also
said the CIA has been the host of 75 conferences ai
year since 1982.
A fourth of the agency's intelligence estimates
are being reviewed in draft form by professors or
other outside experts. It is important for the U.S.
government to ask the country's "best minds" for
analytical advice in its dealings with foreign gov-
ernments. Academia has much to offer the CIA;
warnings from scholars that the Shah of Iran was
in trouble were ignored by the agency.
Perhaps the CIA is learning from past mistakes.
But keeping up on scholarly information is a differ-
ent thing from secretly financing research and con-
trolling the dissemination of information. Scholars
need to share their research with their peers in an
open environment.
Conscious of the dangers the CIA poses with its
contracts with professors, Rep. Don Edwards, D-
Calif., says the agency should disclose all of its
contracts. Perhaps that is the only way to ensure
that the agency is not suppressing work or pres-
suring professors for changes.
Threatening the independence of scholars will
only push those universities to banish the CIA once
again. The restoration of ties to academia must be
only to gain knowledge and points of view.
If not, the CIA should know that everyone is
watching, so it should watch its step.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/04/27: CIA-RDP91-00587R000100710079-9