UNIVERSITY CAMPUS STILL SCENE OF CIA'S ACTIVITIES
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Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140116-5
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RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
2
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
July 30, 2010
Sequence Number:
116
Case Number:
Publication Date:
February 13, 1981
Content Type:
OPEN SOURCE
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CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140116-5.pdf | 155.74 KB |
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STAT
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MINNESOTA DAILY
13 February 1981
n iversity
1G 1 p u s:
scene
D f CIA's
activities
y Carla Wheeler
,opyright 1981
Ainnesola Daily
J)espite the decline of 19705 radical-
cm, the Central Intelligence Agency
CIA, remains active on college cam-
iuses. The University of Minnesota is
io exception.
CIA involvement on campus has in-
luded possible attempts to recruit
tudents to spy on each other, CIA-
Gmded research experiments, and
k-briefing of f acuity returning from
resits overseas.
CIA questioning of University profes-
ors who have visited the Soviet
_!nnun or other socialist nations is a
?ommon occurrence; according to a
lniversity professor who asked not toy
se named.
)ebriefing is one means the CIA uses
o get information about a country,
,e professor said, and it is perfectly
egal.
Jonathan Rosner, a physics teat.her,
was questioned by a CIA agent in
1')711. Rosner remembers the agents'
I he man came into the office and
:los.'d the door, Rosrsersaid. He was
'hush hush" about the visit, he
added
The CIA agent then handed Rosner a
list of technical questions to answer.
The questions concerned Soviet labo-
ratories Rosner had visited on his trip.
"I didn't notice a lot of things they
asked about;" Rosner said. Rosner re
fused to.specify what the CiA wanted.
to know; That would be "a breach of.
confidence," he said. ? y
(As received)
Five minutes after the agent's arrival,`
Rosner said he became worried about
talking with the CIA because he had
told some of his colleagues in the de
partment about the agent's upcoming
visit, and somehow the word leaked
out to the students. 'The agent had
told Rosner that telling friends about
the CIA's visit "is not to your advan-
tage."
"I got a little anxious at that point,"
Rosner said. t?.
Rosner said he told the agent he was
annoyed by the secrecy surrounding
the visit, but was told the Soviets
question their scholars too. The agent
accused the Soviets of many unethi-
cal practices, Rosner said. "He said
things like 'they, (Soviets) rape our
women,'" Rosner added. -
.Rosner said the CIA has-not con- -
tacted him since that day in 1970,
"but I haven't been to Russia since `
"Legitimate data gathering by the CIA
is understandable, but not all.this se-
crecy nonsense," Rosner said. This
type of activity is "not good for free
conferences," he said.
Talking with the CIA about an over-
seas trip hurts a scholar's contacts
with colleagues in other nations and
affects other academics, said Burton
Paulu, retired professor and director
of Media Resources at the University.
CIA contact "lowers the credibility of
reporters, researchers, and teachers,"
said Paulu, who has been questioned
by the CIA several times after trips
abroad. Academics and reporters
"have to be above suspicion," he
said. Providing the CIA with informa-
tion "affects the objectivity of schol-
ars of the media," he said.
Paulu agreed to talk to the CIA in
1958 after a visit to the Soviet Union.
The CIA agents asked about "my gen-
eral impressions of the trip," Paulu
said.
In 1965 agents phoned Paulu after an-
other visit to Eastern Europe. "I
would not talk to them," he said.
Paulu said he told the agent to read a
book he was about to publish.
Paulu returne rom a ree-mon
teaching engagement in the Soviet
Union last D~ccmber, and a CiA
a~t'nt called him again. "1 refused to
talk to them," Paulu said.'
CIA agents usually contact depart-
ment chairpersons and ask who has
been abroad recently and if the chair-
person thinks the professor will talk
to the CIA, said Erwin Marquit, asso-
ciate professor of physics, who ac-
companied Rosner to the Soviet
Union in 1970.
"They're (chairpersons) acting as
fingermen" for the CIA, Marquit
said. The chairpersons "don't want to
be in a position of not cooperating
with government agencies," he said.
A record of non-cooperation could
hurt their careers, Marquit added.
Marquit and several other University
professors wrote an opinion article in
the Minnesota Daily in early 1971
calling for an "end to University in-
volvement in intelligence activity."
"The administration and regents must
make it clear to the federal govern-
ment that the use of University by in-
telligence agencies is harmful to the
national interest and can only inter-
fere with the University fulfilling its
proper role," the opinion piece said.
"Graduate students and faculty are
scared of having their views known,"
Marquit said. "This is a very evil situ-
ation."
"I don't think University should offi-
cially cooperate with the intelligence
community," said University Presi- . t.l
dent C. Peter Magrath in an interview
with the Daily on Wednesday.
"I believe that much of that informa-
tion that probably comes from dis-
cussions of -that kind (debriefings) are
really pretty innocuous kinds of basic
information," Magrath said. "I think
that it is very damaging, potentially,
to University researchers if they are
believed to be involved in some way,
not so much with spying, but with
things related to the intelligence com-
munity."
But people can't be prevented from
talking to somebody about their re-
search, Magrath said. "I sincerely be-
lieve it's. a tough area to regulate," he
.I
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However; the University does have
an official policy regulating secrecy
in research that was passed by the
Board of Regents in 1971. The Uni-
versity will not accept contracts that
prevent the disclosure of the contract
and the identity of the sponsor, ac-
cording to the policy.
The CIA purchased computer pro-
gramming that the University Bi-
omedical Library developed in 1976,
said Glenn Brudvig, director of the
Biomedical Library. The CIA wan. in-
terested in the programming for their
library in Virginia and paid $5,000 for
time and effort, Brudyig said.
Some of his colleagues in the Bio-
medical Library are still serving as
consultants to the CIA on the pro
gramming, Brudvig said. - '?
Anton Potami, director of the Univer-
sity Research Administration, said the
CIA does not have a contract with the
University at this time.
Some University departments and re-
searchers did have secret contracts
with the CIA in the 1950s. The con-
tracts are documented in CIA papers
released under the freedom of Infor-
mation Act.
One CIA-funded experiment in-
volved a University graudate student
in psychology who put subjects into
hypnotic trances, according to the
documents. The CIA and researcher
wanted to find out if 'people would
have better memory. recall whiled ,.
under hypnosis. The experiments,
code named MKULTRA, were con-
ducted in 1953 and 1954,
Currently, however, no CIA-associ-
ated research is being done in the
psychology department, said Auke
Tellegen, a psychology professor spe-
cializing in hypnosis.
Another CIA-funded project., called
ARTICHOKE, also was conducted at
the University sometime during the
1950
The documents describe CIA efforts
to engage a University anesthesiolog-
ist in research that involved the use of
narco-analysis or "truth serum" on
criminal subjects. The documents
named C.B. Hanscom, a former di-
rector of the University Police De-
partment, as being involved in the
research.
Hanscorp denied that he did any
work for the CIA when the Daily first
reported the ARTICHOKE experi-
ment in 1978.
But patrolman Jim McKay of the Uni-
versity Police Department said Wed-
nesday that he recalls seeing a
document in the department "that in-
dicated that a truth serum had been
given to a suspect."
The man had been charged with
child molesting and murder, McKay
said. The experiment with the truth
serum was conducted at the Univer-
sity Hospitals with Hanscom, a
doctor, and an attorney present, he
said. -
McKay said he saw the document
among several that were shredded
and destroyed "two or three years
ago. r' The department was just clean-
The CIA's involvement on campus
may extend beyond debriefing pro-
fessors and research contracts.
In a copyrighted story in the Daily in
1978, a University student who was
an army veteran said CIA agents had
wanted him to spy on Iranian stu
dents at the University. The student
refused.
And political science professorlytulu
ford Q. Sibley said he heard
"rumors" that government cooper-
,atives were sent into classes during
the anti-war years.
Sibley added that he wouldn't be sur,
prised to see the CIA's budget in-
crease because of the situation that
occurred with the hostages in Iran
and the election of President Ronald
Reagan.
CIA and intelligence activity "has
something to do with the temper of
the times," Sibley said.
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