Way to go, David!
On today's Democracy Now! Program:
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005
The Intelligence-University Complex: CIA Secretly Supports Scholarships
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College students are also being integrated into the U.S. foreign
policy agenda. Last year the Senate created a scholarship to train
intelligence operatives and analysts in American universities for
careers in the CIA and other agencies. We speak with the
anthropologist who designed the scholarship and another anthropologist
who has spoken out opposing the program. [includes rush transcript]
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We continue to look at the issue of the militarization of civil
institutions – this time in academia. The Intelligence Authorization
Act is an annual bill that allocates funds for intelligence agencies.
When congress passed the 2004 legislation and President Bush signed it
into law, the bill drew fire from many corners because it expanded the
Patriot Act and was passed with little debate.
But there was another provision in the legislation that received
almost no attention. Section 318 of the bill appropriated 4 million
dollars to fund a pilot program called the Pat Roberts Intelligence
Scholars Program, known as PRISP. The program is named after Kansas
Republican Pat Roberts, who is chairman of the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence. The scholarship was created in order to train
intelligence operatives and analysts in American universities for
careers in the CIA and other agencies. The students receive up to
$50,000 dollars over a two-year period and are required to complete at
least one summer internship at the CIA or other approved agencies. The
program is veiled in secrecy - there are no public lists of the
participants and there is no requirement that they disclose their
affiliation to their professors. David Price in his article in
CounterPunch titled, "The CIA's Campus Spies," writes that he tried to
obtain more details about the program but the CIA spokesperson was
reluctant to discuss them. Price states that the agency did confirm
that "PRISP now funds about 100 students who are studying at an
undisclosed number of universities…. but they refused to identify
which campuses are hosting these covert scholars."
David Price, professor of anthropology who teaches at St. Martin's
university. He is also author of the book, Threatening Anthropology:
McCarthyism and the FBI's Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists.
Felix Moos, professor of anthropology who teaches at Kansas
University. PRISP is largely the brain-child of professor Moos who
brought the idea for the program to Senator Roberts.
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RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: We are joined now by David Price from Washington state.
He is in Olympia, Professor of Anthropology who teaches at St. Martins
University, also author of the book, Threatening Anthropology:
McCarthyism and the F.B.I.'s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists.
And we're joined by the man who was involved in the creation of these
scholarships, Felix Moos, joins us from Kansas, Professor of
Anthropology, who teaches at Kansas University. PRISP is largely his
brainchild. He brought the idea forward for the program to his
senator, Roberts. Lets first go to Professor Moos. Your idea for this
and, specifically, for anthropologists.
FELIX MOOS: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain why you feel this is so important, and
also if you could talk about the secrecy of the program, professors
perhaps not knowing that their students are receiving money from the
C.I.A.?
FELIX MOOS: Well, the initial idea was that we desperately need people
who are competent in foreign languages and areas, which we don't have.
As you probably are aware, we have far too few interpreters in any
government agency. We have far too few American intellectuals who
speak foreign languages. And therefore, I thought that to have more
analysts that are competent in foreign languages and areas was a good
idea. It had nothing to do with secrecy. I have never argued that we
should introduce spying into American academia. I have been a
university professor for more than 44 years. And certainly, I am not
for secrecy or any classified activities that cannot be openly
discussed. But what I wanted to do is to open a dialogue among
anthropologists of the changed world in which we find ourselves.
AMY GOODMAN: David Price, you, too, are a professor of anthropology.
Your response?
DAVID PRICE: Good morning, Amy. My response is that secrecy is
definitely becoming a part of this program and the other programs that
are coming along with it. What we're seeing now is a very dramatic
shift in funding for graduates and undergraduates in the social
sciences and other fields that want to do international study. In the
past, we had programs like Fulbright or Title 6 that gave students
money to study foreign languages on their own, you know, a number of
which have always gone to work for the State Department, intelligence
agencies and so on.
In the 1990s, we saw a shift with the development of programs, like
the National Security Education Program, which was very controversial
and had sort of soft payback requirements, where students would later
go and be asked to at least look for employment in national security
agencies. Now with the development of the Pat Roberts program and
another program called the Intelligence Community Scholars Program
that's just coming online, we have sort of indentured scholarship,
where from the front in, there's pre-loyalty, where people who are
going to work for intelligence agencies are brought aboard with the
understanding that, you know, people won't know who they are, and then
later throughout -- they'll go through the education process, and then
later, they'll go and be doing intelligence work. My -- one of my many
concerns is that this will inevitably limit and dumb down the type of
intelligence that's gathered and the analysis that happens, because
you will only have a select group of people, who going into the
process are already thinking in very limited ways.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Felix Moos.
FELIX MOOS: Yeah. I think the concerns by David, with whom I have
spoken at many occasions, both publicly and privately, are completely
misplaced, because I seriously doubt that a program that funds 100 or
so individuals in a university system that includes at least 2,000
institutions of higher learning are going to subvert American
academia. The thought that this would dumb down intelligence
operations is completely misplaced, because we need more people who
speak languages and now foreign areas to experience, rather than only
academics teaching in universities. And therefore, I would argue that
rather than accuse one side or the other by being -- bending the
truth, we should have a dialogue of how to educate a new generation of
anthropology students within the United States that know a lot more
about the world than they do.
AMY GOODMAN: David Price, the issue of secrecy, and we only have a few
seconds to go, but the fact that the professors don't even know if
their students are on the C.I.A. payroll?
FELIX MOOS: That's not true. That's not true. The Pat Roberts
scholarship program does not force individuals to any secrecy. If the
critics of the Pat Roberts program would contact Senator Roberts'
office for information --
DAVID PRICE: The interesting thing is, of course, there's secrecy. Not
a single participant in this program has come forward.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I'm going to leave it there, because we have to
wrap up the show, but I do want to ask people to email us at
mail@democracynow.org with their concerns and questions, and we'll put
them to you for a discussion later. I want to thank you both for being
with us.
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