Boston Globe http://www.boston.com
November 24, 2002
Academic Alarm
FBI Focus on Iraqi Professor Sparks a Protest at UMass
by Eric Goldscheider and Jenna Russell
AMHERST - When professor M.J. Alhabeeb received a call from police in his office at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst last month, his first thought was that someone in his family had been in an accident.
A few minutes later, an FBI agent and a campus police officer were at his door, acting on a tip that the Iraqi-born professor held anti-American views. The joint interview by FBI and UMass officers lasted only a few minutes, and was by all accounts polite. But it has outraged many professors, who say the university's participation in the investigation violated academic freedom and could have a ''chilling effect'' on the free exchange of ideas on campus.
Their outrage - which evoked the specter of campus witch hunts - began to draw wider attention as word of UMass's participation in the FBI investigation spread after a meeting last week.
About 75 people, mostly faculty, attended the meeting last Monday to plan their response, to include a public forum and a request for a meeting with UMass Chancellor John Lombardi. The UMass police detective, Barry Flanders, has been working on the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force for about a month, since receiving security clearance, university Police Chief Barbara O'Connor said.
After learning what had happened, sociology professor Dan Clawson dashed off an e-mail to O'Connor demanding that he also be investigated, since he disagrees with the Bush administration's policies in Iraq.
''Certainly if the FBI receives a credible report about somebody's actions, I would want them to investigate,'' said Clawson, who organized the meeting. ''But if they receive a report about someone's views, it is inappropriate to investigate, and if the university cooperates in that investigation, that's totally inappropriate.''
Alhabeeb, 48, a US citizen who teaches economics and rarely discusses politics even with friends, described the questioning as uncomfortable. He said he felt compelled to prove his loyalty to the United States by explaining that his brother-in-law, a lawyer in Iraq, was executed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime. When he asked about the origin of the tip, he said he was told it came from someone associated with Amherst Community Television, a nonprofit public access cable TV station where Alhabeeb and his high school-age son Osama are active, and where there has been recent internal turmoil.
''I came to this country to get away from that kind of thing,'' said Alhabeeb, who left Iraq with his wife in 1982, during the height of the country's war with Iran, to escape the oppressive regime.
An FBI spokeswoman said the bureau's Boston office has had a Joint Terrorism Task Force with local law enforcement agencies since 1995. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she said, the government was criticized for failing to share sensitive information; in response, local law enforcement agencies were invited to place representatives on the task force. About 15 agencies are represented on the task force, she said. They are paid by their home forces, and divide their time between regular duties and antiterrorism work.
The spokeswoman, Gail Marcinkiewicz, said the UMass detective ''was interested, so his department volunteered his services.'' O'Connor, the UMass police chief who commands 54 officers, said campus safety comes first, and Flanders reports to the FBI in Springfield only when he is not needed in Amherst. She declined to detail the nature of his work for the FBI.
Professors' concerns about the government overstepping its bounds were heightened last week when another man came forward to describe an experience similar to Alhabeeb's. Yaju Dharmarajah, a Sri Lankan union organizer who lives in Hadley, said his American wife was visited at home this summer by law enforcement officials after the couple contacted the state Emergency Management Agency to find out about disaster relief training. It was unclear to Dharmarajah if UMass police were involved in his wife's questioning.
The couple wanted the training because they plan to travel overseas to work with refugees.
''I have no problem with the tracking of terror suspects - the role of the government is to protect its citizens - but you never see skinny white men with beards being stopped for questioning,'' Dharmarajah said.
Michael O'Reilly, the head of the Springfield FBI office, said his agency is obligated to follow up on any tips that might be credible, and said an ethnic-sounding name could be a factor in evaluating credibility. He said someone with his own name might attract more attention if an allegation referred to the Irish Republican Army.
UMass faculty ''are blowing this way out of proportion,'' said O'Reilly. ''We're doing the best we can in this climate.''
But professors who gathered last week said a strong reaction is essential. Retired English professor Jules Chametzky spoke of being investigated in the 1950s, during the McCarthy era, and urged those in attendance not to speak to the FBI without a third party present. Faculty pledged to find out the extent of the questioning on campus, and said they are particularly concerned about Middle Eastern students, vulnerable because of their reliance on student visas.
For Alhabeeb, an artist whose traditional Islamic calligraphy was recently displayed in a university gallery, the memory of the interview remains unsettling.
''Every Iraqi has this fear,'' he said. ''For Americans, it's hard to comprehend.''
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
The Greenfield Recorder http://www.recorder.com
FBI visit riles UMass community - AMHERST —
The FBI questioning of an Iraqi-born, University of Massachusetts professor about his political views has fueled fears within the UMass community that government actions taken in the name of U.S. security will erode civil rights on campus.
Associate Professor Musaddak J. “MJ” Alhabeeb, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was questioned by UMass police and an FBI agent on Oct. 24, after they had received a “tip” from the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ Boston office that Alhabeeb was “anti-American” and opposed to current U.S. policy regarding Iraq.
The officers later told Alhabeeb the tip apparently came from someone associated with ACTV (Amherst Community Television). Alhabeeb believes the source may be someone unhappy with his voting record on ACTV budget cuts, since Alhabeeb, who lives in Amherst, is an elected board member there.
“Somehow, I know that this (board) position has angered or enraged someone,” he said in a telephone interview late Monday. “I know it came from some kind of grudge. It was never related to my views (on American policy in Iraq). I can’t recall any time that I have declared my views on that.”
At least 50 faculty, staff members, students and area residents crowded into an empty classroom on campus Monday to discuss the FBI’s recent questioning of Alhabeeb and of how to safeguard civil liberties and free speech on campus.
Sheila Mammen, who worked with Alhabeeb for 10 years in the UMass Consumer Studies department, said she had never heard him say anything against the United States. “More than once he talked about how grateful he was to be here.”
Hill Boss of Amherst, a member of that town’s Human Rights Commission, said his board passed a resolution condemning the USA PATRIOT Act, which broadly expands law enforcement’s surveillance and investigative powers, and called for university groups to do the same. “We feel as much threatened, as townspeople, by this as the faculty does,” he said.
Sri Lankan-born Yaju Dharmarajah, a union organizer who lives in Hadley, said he and his wife were visited by Hadley police and an FBI agent from UMass in September. “They wanted to know if we were terrorists,” he said, drawing some laughs from the group. “I can laugh about it now,” he put in, “but that was the question we were asked.”
Iraqis living in US to be tracked
Oliver Burkeman in New York
Tuesday November 19, 2002
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Bush administration has begun a major programme to monitor Iraqi-Americans and Iraqi citizens in the US for signs that they might be planning terrorist attacks inside the country in the event of war. One Washington official described it as "the largest and most aggressive" scheme of its type in US history.
Details of the previously secret project, condemned by Muslim-American groups, were apparently leaked to the New York Times as a riposte to allegations made in Congress that US intelligence agencies were proving incompetent in dealing with potential threats.
Any evidence linking Iraqis to terrorism would also boost President George Bush's claim that Saddam Hussein has a history of cooperating with al-Qaida, a claim with which the CIA disagrees.
The federal government is understood to be planning to start voluntary interviews with Arab-Americans next week, asking that they report suspicious activities connected to Iraq. Thousands were similarly questioned during the 1991 Gulf war. The FBI will meet community leaders in an effort to explain why the scheme is necessary.
The programme focuses on those of Iraqi origin at American universities or who are working for private corporations, the New York Times said, and is being given legal authority by means of national security warrants. Individuals will be recruited as informants.
The scheme "goes against all accepted norms of due process and legal rights", said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Washington-based Council on Islamic-American Relations. "To monitor someone who has exhibited no probable cause for any link to illegal activity is a violation of American law, or at least it used to be."
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2002 11:05:26 -0800 (PST)
From: Marc William de Giere <digitalmarc@yahoo.com>
Subject: FBI establishes campus presence
FBI establishes campus presence
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has assigned a
campus police officer to work under the direction and
control of the FBI Anti-Terrorism Task Force "perhaps
a couple of days a week." During those days the
detective, although paid by UMass, does not report to
the UMass police chief, who does not even have the
security clearances needed to be kept informed of the
detective's activities.
The relationship came to light at a standing-room-only
meeting called when faculty learned that the FBI had
recently questioned a tenured faculty member about his
allegedly anti-American views. Participants at the
meeting were startled when a second member of the
campus community, Yaju Dharmarajah, an employee of one
of the campus unions, reported that he too had been
questioned.
Robert Paul Wolff, Professor of Afro-American Studies,
said "The questioning on campus of UMass faculty by
the FBI marks a dangerous incursion into the academic
freedom of the University. Half a century ago, the
excuse was the 'threat' of communism; forty years ago,
it was 'urban violence;' thirty years ago, it was the
Viet Nam 'war effort.' Today, it is 'terrorism.' But
always, the result is the same: the stifling of free
expression and an assault on Constitutional
liberties."
Sociology Professor Dan Clawson told the meeting he
had just met with Chief of Police Barbara O'Connor.
According to Clawson, Chief O'Connor told him she had
assigned Detective Barry Flanders as a permanent
liaison to the FBI Anti-Terrorism Task Force.
Detective Flanders had recently begun work with the
task force, and in that capacity had been one of the
agents who questioned the professor, M.J. Alhabeeb of
Consumer Studies.
Sara Lennox, Professor of German, and daughter of an
FBI agent who focused on internal security, said "I
know the FBI has disrupted many people's lives in the
past and they must be restrained now." Ingrid
Semaan, a graduate student and member of the Palestine
Action Coalition, warned of the dangers of ethnic
profiling, given that the FBI had questioned Alhabeeb,
an American citizen born in Iraq, and Dharmarajah, who
was born in Sri Lanka.
The group decided to compile information on FBI
activity in the area, prepare resources for those who
may face FBI questioning, request a meeting
with Chancellor Lombardi to ask him to end campus
support for FBI activity, and to organize a forum to
inform the public.
Clawson noted that FBI involvement on campus may well
be a national issue.
Since the FBI initiated the liaison arrangement,
similar arrangements may be forming at other state
universities where campus police have full police
powers, as they do at the University of Massachusetts
Amherst. He urged students and faculty at other
campuses to determine whether their campuses also have
a permanent FBI presence.
