Page 4-Wednesday, December 6, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Gie MUdtr4 n iaiI
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom.
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 74 News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
The proposed guidelInes
A ticket to Bolivia - one way
Alas! The Senate Advisory
Committee on University Affairs has
cleared the way for the faculty Senate
Assembly to discuss and vote on a set
of guidelines which would restrict
activities of intelligence agencies on
this campus. Unfortunately, the long-
awaited guidelines are still too weak
and their effect - for better or worse
depending on who is analyzing the
situation - is questionable.
. The document on which the Senate
Assembly will debate and vote
resolves that members of .the
University should not:
* "Lend their names and positions to
gain public acceptance for material
they know to be misleading or untrue;
"Use their academic role as a ruse
for obtaining information for intelligen
ce agencies;
""Give the name of another member
of the University community to any
intelligence agency without the
express prior consent of that individual
unless required to do so by law or
subpoena;
" "Assist any person or
organization, including intelligence
agencies, in obtaining the involuntary
services of another member of the,
University community."
The proposed guidelines render a
fair picture of what kind of covert
activities are being conducted on this
campus. There is no question that
these kinds of shenanigans are
detrimental to the principles of
academic freedom and ought to be
prevented. But many on campus have
asked what effect these guidelines will
have on stopping these pernicious
activities.
There are several answers to that
question. First, the discussion
prompted by proposal of the guidelines
and their ultimate adoption is basically
a consciousness-raising experience for
the whole community. It has made
persons here aware of what agencies
such as the CIA are doing at the
University.
Second, adopting guidelines is a
clear and strong statement that the
University community condemns such
actions. If the United States is truly a
democratic-republic, then those
agencies involved would be hard-
pressed to blatantly ignore the wishes
of those people whose pleasure they
serve. Director of Central Intelligence
Stansfield Turner seems to have some
problems with that concept. He has
refused to abide by similar guidelines
adopted by Harvard University.
One of Director Turner's major
objections to the Michigan and
Harvard Guidelines is that other
entities, such as corporations are
exempt. On this point we have agreed
with Admiral Turner. The University
guidelines did make some concession
to that idea. But not enough and this is
where the guidelines fail.
We strongly urge the Senate
Assembly to take this into
consideration when it votes on the
proposed guidelines later this month.
The assembly has the power to alter
the guidelines in this direction and
should.
Some 500 Laotian tribespeople,
remnants of the cia's secret army
of guerrilla fighters during the
Indochina War, will soon be
heading for new homes in the
mountain forests of Bolivia if
plans worked pout by a U.S.
missionary group are successful.
The Laotians, Hmong
tribesmen and their families,
have been living in refugee
camps in Thailand since the end
of the war in1975.
The plan to move them to
Bolivia was put in motion a year
and a half ago by Food for the
Hungry, a group active in
Indochina during the war.
According to an agreement
signed by the Thai and Bolivian
governments last August, title to
a 37,000 acre site rising from 1,000
to 4,000 feet in the heavily-
forested Beni Provincehregion
will be handed over to the Hmong
when they arrive.
Already, sources involved in
the project say, housing and
roads have been built, and $30,000
worth of food stocks are on the
site. Tools and machinery are
being hauled in from La Paz,
about 200 miles to the north.
In all, the sources say, the
project will cost Food for the
Hungry roughly $500,000,
including air transportation.
Virtually all of the money comes
from church groups.
No U.S. government funds are
involved.
The Hmong (also known by a
term they consider derogatory,
"Meo," or "savage"), were
scheduled to arrive in Bolivia in
mid-December. The uncertain
tenure of an immigration
director in a new Bolivia
government, which came into
office last July, has delayed the
project until perhaps mid-
January or longer, according to
Food for the Hungry president
Dr. Larry Ward.
There are other problems as
well.
On the Bolivian end of the
project are two special advisors
who run a missionary group that
has become entangled in charges
that it is linked to the CIA.
In addition, native Bolivian
Indian groups, supported by oth
the Catholic Church and the
Bolivian Communist party, are
already upset about a
government immigration policy
which has encouraged the
immigration of white South
Africans and Rhodesians to the
resource-rich interior.
Laying out a red carpet to the
Hmong may exacerbate the
already-troubled situation.
After learning of a Bolivian
minister's invitation to the white
Africans last year, the Tupac
Catari Indian Movement warned
that "Our hackneyed socio-
economic situation would be
immeasurably worsened by
throwing into our midst these
racists, the most recalcitrant in
the world."
The Indianhmovementnhas
circulated a Johannesberg news
paper interview with whote South
Africans who visited Bolivia last
year to assess it as an escape
hatch from the worsening strife
in their own country.
examined by Ward were.
Nicaragua and Guatemala.
According to one source
connected with the project, the
Guatemala idea fell through
"after it blew up . in the
newspapers there." Nicaragua,
Ward aid, was rejected aftei an
evaluation of the country's shaky
political climate.
Bolivia, which has widely
encouraged immigration, was
soon selected. "Thailand's
population surplus can be utilized
to solve South america's
populations deficiency," Ward
wrote in his proposal.
In May of this year, two Hmong
By Jeff Stein
Cleo Shook, a retired Agency for
International Development official and
Food For 'the Hungry Consultant, says
the charges of CIA connections had
been "trumped up from the
opposition... (by) anthropological
scholars who say 'don 't disturb the
natives."
Halterman, another Food for
the Hungry advisor, are officials.
Ward and two other Food for
the Hungry officials stoutly
maintain that the two men only
offered advice and "opened
doors" for them. "Knowing these
two men (For several years),
says Ward, "I would find it hard
to believe they are connected to
the CIA."
Cleo _shook, a retired Agency
for International Development
official and Food for the Hungry
Consultant, says the charges of
CIA connections had been
"trumped up from the
opposition. . . (by) anthropol-
ogical scholars who say 'Don't
disturb the natives." There is a
professional quarrel among those
circles."
Food for the Hungry appears to
be moving into the final stages of
its Hmongresettlement program
at .a time when there is an
upsurge of interest aroundathe
world in the plight of native
Indians of South america.
According to the Anti-Slavery
Society, which investigated
Indian conditions in the area
where the Hmong are scheduled
to settle, "feudal forms of
serfdom and peonage are
common."
Upwards of 65 per cent of the
Bolivian population is non-white,
most of them Indians. Each year,
several thousand seek seasonal
work across the frontier in
neighboring Argentine, or
emigrate permanently.
Only 550 Hmong are now
scheduled to be brought to
Bolivia by Food for the Hungry,
although the original project
called for these families to
"demonstrate. . . the feasibility
of the larger movement of
several thousand refugees to
Latin America."
Ward, meanwhile, says he is
not iblivious to potential
problems to Indian resistance.
Interview by telephone from his
Miami office only a day after his
bus had been stoned in Bolivia by
anti-American rioters, Wars
said, "we're certainly ready to
move on and help the Indians."
Ward added that ."if there's a
place on the face of the earth
better than Bolivia, then we'll go
there."
0
Jeff Stein, Washington
correspondent for the Boston
Phoenix, is a frequent
contributor to Pacific News
Service.
"Like us, they practice
discrimination," said one man,
Jan Foley. "The whole country is
ruled by a small minority of
"white immigrants from Europe
who keep the Spaniards and local
Indians well and truly in their
place .. . White Africans will feel
very much at home there."
Dubbed "Proyecto Nueva
Vida," ot "New Life Project,"
the plan to take the Hmongs to
Bolivia is the brainchild of Dr.
Ward, who first visited Indochina
in 1958, and who is the founder of
Food for the Hungry, a Phoenix,
Arizona-based organization.
Following the collapse of the
Saigon regime in April 1975,
Ward turned his attention to the
refugee resettlement problem in
Thailand, where some 40,000
tribespeople from Laos had
gathered in overcrowded, dirty
camps.
"What started us on this,'
Ward said in an interview, "was
one of the nefugees. He knew our
concern, and hoped we could find
a place with peace, security and
freedom."
Two possible relocation sites
representatives were sent otBeni
Province to check out the
conditions and report back to
Thailand.
Should the project go through,
the Hmong will fit in well with
the native Indians, thinks Food
for the Hungry", special advisor,
David Farah, who is both a
Bolivian Ministry of Education
official and director of the
summer Institute of Linguistics,
a fundamentalist Christian
missionary group there. The
Institute has been linked to the
CIA by a British newspaper.
"Their facial characteristics
would fit in very well with the
American Indian of the Amazon'
basin," Farah contends
The selection of Farah and one
other Summer Institute for
Linguistics official has also
prompted questions by critics of
the project.
The Institute's operations,
through 13 outposts served by
airlifts in the Bolivian hinterland,
are carried out under the direct
auspices of the Bolivian Ministry
of Culture and Education, of
which Farah and Victor
The Soweto 11 on trial
N SOUTH AFRICA the 'court
system is simply a tool used by the
government to oppress blacks. Thgis
week, the government is also trying to
use the courts to change history in the
case of Soweto 11.
The 11 - 10 men and one woman -
are all student leaders who the
government claims incited the riots in
the blavk township of Soweto in 1976.
Prosecutor Klaus Van Lieres contends
that the 1.5 million blacks who live in
Soweto .were not actually displeased
with the government, and that the
year-long upheaval was the fault of a
few extremists. This is nonsense.
The Soweto uprising was a protest
against the institutional racism
practiced by South Africa, particularly
in the school system. Because black
schools are vastly inferior to white
schools, blacks are all but doomed to
continued ignorance and poverty. This
is essential to maintaining white
minority control, and is used to
oppress all blacks, not just a group of
radicals, but it was clearly
representative of the anti-government
feelings of the oppressed masses.
Over 700 blacks were killed furing
the Soweto demonstrations, primarily
by police gunfire. This trial, and the
government's contention that the
upheaval was not indicative of the
mood of the masses is simply a jejune
attempt to justify the brutal
retaliatory efforts of the white regime.
The government's story is that the
Soweto 11 duped the masses into a
protest they did not actually support.
Thus, the police were only protecting
the masses from themselves by
bringing a bloody end to the
demonstrations - sure. The regime
has never acted for the good on any one
black. The police murdered 700
protesters because they demanded
equality and thus represented a threat
to whote minority rule, and no'
kangeroo trial is going to change that
fact.
Letters to the Daily
t EAIwec
The Daily does good
To the Daily:
Probably one of the strongest
compliments that can be given to
Michigan students when they are
compared to the mainstream of
American public opinion is that
we care. The recent debate over
CIA recruitment on campus is an
excellent example. I
congratulate the Daily for being
very fair in printing CIA Director
Turner's recent letter in its
entirety and without comment,
especially since it represents
views differing from the Daily's.
There is always a danger of any
such debate turning into a forum
for the views of one side only, and
I believe you have taken a large
step in conbatting th)is trend.
Along this line, I would like to add
a few points to those of Director
Turner.
There is a school of thought
which believes we must end
completely CIA recruitment of
students and faculty on college
campuses. I must disagree. A
nation the size of the United
States does the world an
immeasurable disservice by
becoming isolationistic.
Therefore, we must be able to
conduct an active and well-
thought out foreign policy. To do
this, it is necessary that we have
intelligent information of
impeccible accuracy available to
our policy-makers. In the recent
debate over what the U.S. policy
towards the Iranian government
should be, mich of the case for
any side in the argument rests on
whether the current government
of Iran will be (in any sense of the
word) better than the
government that would result
from the Shah's demise. If we are
to formulate the best policy on
foreign policy errors are among
that group that is currently
trying to end CIA recruitment on
campus. I say paradoxically
because it is on University
campuses that the CIA is most
apt to find those promising
students and teachers whose
expertise can help our country
aviod a repetition of the policy
errors of the past.
I believe that a more sensible
approach would be an
examination of how the Agency
conducts its recruitment. Our
objections should not be with the
fact that the CIA recruits
students, but rather with any
abuses of that recruitment
process that unfairly influence a
student's decision on whether or
not to join the agency. There is
nothing wrong with asking a
student to join the CIA anymore
than there is something wronh
with honoring a professor with an
appointment to the National
Security Council. It is forcing the
student to join that must be
guarded against.
We must also aviod the
conclusion that there is
something basically wrong with
intelligence gathering. To deny
the U.S. its CIA qould be to deny
our leaders the same infomation
about world affairs that The
People's Republic of China, the
Soviet Union, the Republic of
South Africa and Israel all get
from their well developed
intelligence agencies. This would
serve no one. The analogy to
medical research seems
sppropriate. There is nothing
wrong with having the
information, it's what you do with
that information once you get it
that counts.
information crucial to the
process of bringing peace to the
Middle East. It is rather a trite
saying; byt knowledge is power.
It is what you do with that power
that makes the difference. And I
don't believe that we should
injure our ability to get that
information. Because to do so noy
only takes away our ability to do
something wrong. I also takes
away our ability to do something
right.
-Murray Scott Tanner
LSA Sophomore
*
Me generation
To the Daily:
Today's university students put
social life ahead of social
conscience. This is displayed by
the current trend of looking
within ourselves, and a striving
to be accepted on the social
scene.
When comparing today's
students to those of ten years ago,
there is a broad difference in
activities pursued. In place of
campus rallies and social aware
ness groups are capricious
trends which induce a smug,
apathetic attitude. An attitude of
indifference. Students are getting
carried away with catharsis.
The priorities of the University
of Michigan students should be
questioned. The current student
lifestyles blinds and desensitizes
the person to pain and suffering
going on around them. This
reveals an affluence among
students that would have been
ridiculed ten years ago. Students
now base their identity on what
they have materially and not who
they are already. Has
materialism won out over
extend concern and a helping
hand to one another. This basic
caring can instill the hope and
desire to truly touch one another
in a meaningful and remembered
way.
-Gordon Glaza, LSA
-Gilbert Placencia Jr.,
School of Social Work
No
comment
department
Editor's note: this article
appeared in the December 4, 1987
issue of Sports Illustrated.
And the last shall be first
For 25 years the Big Ten has
sought to project a "scholar-
athlete" image by choosing an
All-Academic football team.
To qualify, a player, whether
star or lowly sub, has to have
at least a B average for his
most recent year or a B
average for his entire college
career. But this season the Big
Ten had- trouble getting
nominees. Out of 1,000 players
on conference rosters, only 49
qualified.
Moreover, the conference
winners fared worse than the
losers, which gives the
unwanted impression that
oafs make the best players.
Michigan, Ohio State and
Michigan State scraped up
only seven nominees among
them, while last-place
Northwestern z)0-10-1) had 11
'fat Ill. \