FBI papers: Informing on informers
By ALAN LENHOFF
PERHAPS THE GREATEST
absurdities of American ele-
mentary education are its chau-
vinistic history books, which dra-
matically extol the virtues of
democracy as juxtaposed to the
"horrors", of living under Com-
munist rule - with its 1984-type
surveillance and its networks of
agents who harrass the citizens.
Of course, its a serious matter
when you're twelve years old and
you still haven't sorted out the
difference between your teacher,
your parents and the Bible. But
even a twelve year-old might
become suspicious of his text
after being asked by an FBI
agent to become an informer.
Sounds like an unbelievable
situation, perhaps? On the con-
trary, 20,000 Boy Scouts in Ro-
chester, New York can tell you
what its like to become the ex-
tended eyes and ears of the FBI.
According to an FBI Police In-
structors Bulletin, the scouts
were recruited by the Rochester
Police Department and were
asked to note "suspicious acts-
persons loitering in secluded
420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Editorials printed in The Michigan Doily express the individual
opinions of the author. This must be noted in all reprints.
Thursday, June 10, 1971 News Phone: 764-0552
NIGHT EDITOR: JONATHAN MILLER
n memory
ARNOLD KAUFMAN was a man who earned great
respect on this campus.
Kaufman was a political philosopher - and
was respected as a political man, as a philosopher,
as a colleague - and perhaps most importantly, ag
a teacher.
He was a leading organizer of the 1965 teach-in
on Vietnam held here-the first of its kind in the
nation, and one of the first major manifestations
of opposition to the war. He was a leading organizer
of the New Democratic Coalition and the movement
to deny renomination to Lyndon Johnson in 1968,
and was long involved in the civil rights movement.
On this campus, he was known as an excellent
teacher, and one who reaffirmed the centrality and
importance of teaching. As one colleague said, "he
was immensely willing to give of himself,"
After 14 years on the faculty here, he left two
years ago to accept a position at UCLA.
HIS DEATH SUNDAY in an airplane crash at the
age of 43, is a loss which will be keenly and
widely felt.
-S.K.
places, strangers loitering around
s c h o o 1 s, neighborhoods and
parks," and to investigate "un-
usual situations" including "un-
usual activity or lack of activity
in-neighbors' homes."
This and dozens of other start-
ling realizations about FBI oper-
ations are rapidly becoming pub-
lic klowledge, as a group known
as the Citizen's Commission to
Investigate the FBI continues to
distribute copies of hundreds of
documents which were stolen
from an FBI office in Media,
Pennsylvania on March 8.
The documents show that the
practice of employing young peo-
ple in para-police roles is hardly
limited to Rochester. Here in
Michigan, the Police Youth Serv-
ice Corps operates in Detroit and
Pontiac, and "is specifically de-
signed to provide for adolescent
needs during those time periods
when the juvenile is not in the
classroom environment."
The goal of the program, in es-
sence, is to select juveniles from
the street "with anti-social be-
havior problems" and to expose
them "to an orientation and re-
education program" for the pur-
pose of providing them with a fa-
vorable image of the police.
The stolen memo on this pro-
gram warns that: "A thinking
police department does not en-
ter into a police-youth service
program with completely al-
truistic motives. In other words,
there has to be some so)rt of
'payoff' to the policing agency"
-the payoff apparently being
increased rapport between "cri-
minal elements" and the police,
with the possible discovery of re-
liable informers,
BUT THE RECRUITMENT
of informers and "friends" for
the FBI of such a young age is of
minimal value when compared
to the activity at other levels-
the most obvious being directed
at universities and other "hot-
beds" of radical activity.
The Media documents reveal
that across the country there are
dozens, perhaps hundreds of FBI
informers working among the
administration and staff of vari-
ous universities.
The informants range from a
secretary at Swarthmore College
to a popular professor and de-
partment head at Ohio State Uni-
versity.
Students, however, appear t
provide the bulk of 'nfornsation
about campus radical activities.
The stolen documents show that
some students are paid as much
as $400 a month for their infor-
mation-the cost of which is la-
beled "for personal expenses."
Another document urges local
agents to "take advantage of the
paranoia endemic in (radical)
circles that there is an FBI agent
behind every mailbox," by har-
rassing radicals through re-
peated interrogations.
One widely circulated story
comes from a fugitive in Canada
named Robert Alexander Harris,
who claims he was recruited by
the FBI three years ago while he
was an engineering student at the
University of Illinois.
Harris apparently was contact-
ed by-the bureau after he turned
in a campus neo-Nazi leader to
the local police. He served the
bureau for 11 months, attending
radical political meetings and
phoning in his information from
a laundromat pay phone, or oc-
casionally meeting his "contact"
in restaurants.
The end of his career came
after he arranged housing for
100 SDS leaders attending a re-
gional meeting. Harris provided
the FBI with the address of each
radical and he identified photos
of potentially "dangerous" ones,
but balked when he was asked to
find out which SDS members
slept together.
It is doubtful if Harris was a
particularly important agent to
the bureau-his pay was only $75
a month.
Also, it is probably safe to as-
sume that Harris was not the
only FBI informant on campus at
that time., One government
source recently told a national
newsmagazine that all agents are
required to carry at least 12 in-
formants: six criminal, three na-
tional security, three racial.
THE MEDIA PAPERS also
included information about a spe-
cial task force assigned to inves-
tigate New Left groups on com-
puses. One memo about the squad
acknowledged that some agents
had actually assaulted policemen
during demonstrations - appar-
ently acting as agent provoca-
teurs.
But above all, it seems that the
best understanding of the FBI
comes not from studying their
investigative tactics, but in con-
sidering what the bulk of their
actions are focused on.
The impression gained from
the stolen "documents is that a
main portion of FBI surveillance
is performed on groups which
could hardly be classified as be-
ing "dangerous." For example,
last week, the Detroit Free Press
photographed three men who
they suspected of being FBI
agents at a public hearing on
Michigan Bell's request for a
$60 million dollar rate increase.
One of the men admitted. he was
an agent, but later denied it
when he found out that his two
companions would not talk to re-
porters. FBI spokesmen later de-
nied that they have any interest
in the rate hearings. But then
why were they there?
The same question was raised
by Sen. Edmund Muskie (D-
Maine) when he discovered that
FBI agents had observed Earth
Day rallies across the country
last year. There is also evidence
that the FBI watches every civil
rights group in the country and
even has been spotted at film
festivals.
Furthermore, the FBI has its
nets cast for any individual who
has even the most remote poten-
tial for being subversive. Exam-
ples from the Media findings in-
clude an Iowa scoutmaster who
wanted to take his explorer
scouts camping in Russia, a
Michigan carpenter who corres-
ponded regularly with a Polish
relative, a fourteen year old boy
who spent a summer at a youth
camp in East Germany and a
Quaker couple who invited a
Czechoslovakian professor to
come to the U.S. to give lectures.
LAST WEEK, U.S. Atty. Gen.
John Mitchell said that should
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover re-
tire-a situation he does not for-
see in the immediate future-
he would want as a replacement
"another J. Edgar Hoover.
"As long as Mr. Hoover is in
good health and continues to car-
ry out the functions of his office
in the commendable way he has
been carrying them out, I'm sure
he will continue to have the full
confidence of the President and
he will stay," Mitchell said.
A rather astute analysis of the
problem, one might say.
I deep greens and blues
Searching for the All-America
AMERICAN WAY DEPT.:
MY HANDS WADED through the piles
of mail on my desk. Like a well-oiled
machine, I moved smoothly, steadily,
checking out the envelopes with a cal-
culated glance as I swept them one by
one in a wide circular motion from the
desk into the wastecan.
I was just beginning to pick up speed
when a certain envelope caught my
eye. In the bottom left-hand corner,
printed proudly in blue, I saw the slo-
gan: "The 70's - Decade of the Fam-
ily."
This was worth looking into - ob-
viously a step above the usual bids by the
Kiwanis Club for publicity. Slowly, the
machine whirred to a halt. Gripping my
pencil with determination, I tore open
the envelope to see the words f 1 a s h
out at me from the top of a news re-
lease: DEADLINE NEARS FOR ALL-
AMERICAN FAMILY SEARCH. I had
to read on.
"Families who wish to compete for
the honor of becoming the All-Ameri-
can Family of their state and join the
nation's other state-selected families
who will be awarded a ten-day expense
paid trip to Florida in August for the
All-American Family Pageant, must
fill out an official entry form before
June 25."
June 25, I though instantly; t h a n k
God, I still had time. I took out my
note pad and scribbled down the date.
"The wonderful world of the Amer-
ican family comes alive during the wind-
up ceremonies of the Fourth Nation-
wide All-American Family Search, Aug-
ust 5-14, 1971, at the corhmunity of Le-
high Acres, on the West Coast of Flor-
ida.
"The purpose and program of the
Search and Pageant, conducted each
year by the All-American Family Search,
I had been thinking for week
cally about just that - the
greater America. At times I ev
had my fingers on the answ
couldn't quite grasp it. And no
impressed on my mind the p
the bottom of the page: "Fai
ity for a Better Community -
Better America."
I LET MY imagination go wi
51 forthright finalist families
triumphantly, carrying the ba
their states. I saw the met
that Number One Family, hug
other madly before a nation
audience, after winning a "$3t
high Acres Florida Vacation Vil
1972 Dodge Polara, a Grolier 1
learning library, scholarships,
Savings Bonds,"
Hot damn - the Miss Ameri
eant was a mere trifle compare
Here was Middle America -
found it, almost lost in the
mail upon my desk, wedged in
a set of news releases from th
Dept. and an offer to subscribe
emoiselle. s
I leaned back and daydreame
Bless America" ringing in my e
a sudden doubt assailed me - h
the judges, engulfed by such a
worthy Middle Americans, ever
decision? .
But I was reassured as I read
lection of families is made wit
gard to race, religion, or natit
gin and is based on criteria t
n Family
bhLrry kempert
s specifi- from research by Dr. Lynn R. Bartlett,
key to a University of Miami."
en felt I
er but I I NORMALLY LIKE to mull over the
ow . . I, big decisions that confront me e a c h
ihrase at morning when I sort the mail. I like to
mily Un- sit back and think about that sub-
- For a scription to Mademoiselle; I like to pon-
der those releases from Atty. Gen. Mit-
ild. I saw chell.
marching But that morning there was no doubt
nners of in my mind. Not everyone was as for-
mnersaof tunate as I was - not every one was
Bing each aware of this opportunity. And my im-
wide TV mediate impulse was to share my good
0,000 Le- fortune with others.
la plus a
.1-volume Naturally, I kept the entry form that
and U.S. came with the news release - I wanted
to enter my own family (although, since
ica p a g- my father keeps telling me I'm a little
d to this. bastard, we would probably be disqual-
- I had ified as tarnishing the All-American
piles of Family image).
between But don't miss your chance at that
e Justice home in Florida -- send in and ask for
to Mad- an entry blank. Or make up y o u r
own. Just give them all the usual in-
d; "Go d frmation, such as:
grs, until
ibw could Do you save regularly? Yes No
host of Do you invest in stocks, bonds? Yes No
reach a Do you own U.S. Savings Bonds? Yea No
Enter today '- perhaps a h o me in
on. "Se- Lehigh Acres, Florida is waiting for you.
thout re- Now is the time to be rewarded at last
onal ori- for your contribution towards a greater
developed America.
which seeks to further national unity
through rededication of family unity,
is explained by its founder and president,
Jay E. Kashuk."
I closed my eyes and I could almost
hear Jay E. Kashuk addressing t h e
crowd, "We believe in the institution of
the American family as the backbone of
the spirit, stability and security of our
country. We are confident 'that we are
witnessing a reawakening of the vital
role of the family in building a better'
environment' for a greater America."
Make a note of that, I said to myself.