Page 4-Friday, May 12, 1978-The Michigan Daily ~michigen DAILY Eighty-eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI. 48109 Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 7-S News Phone: 764-0552 Friday, May 12, 1978 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan $5 tickets won't ease A 2parking problems J OHN ROBBINS, director of Streets Traffic and Parking, has recommended raising the cost of the expired meter parking ticket from $2 to $5, in order to encourage drivers to put money into the meters. Robbins explains that since it now costs $2.25 to feed the meters for an eight hour period many people simply risk a ticket, knowing that even that will cost less than pumping coins in- to the meter. CIA ties with academics: Dangerous implications Robbins' argument makes sense, but it fails to account for the fact that many people don't pay their ticket now. Mayor Louis . Belcher noted that there are some "professional ticket people in town with $10,000 to $12,000 in outstanding tickets." In addition, there is a high proportion of out-of- state drivers many of whom never pay parking tickets because, "They'll never extradite me for parking tickets." It won't make much dif- ference if fines are hiked to $5 or even $10 if no one pays them. a K F r 45,00 By Rene Becker The final report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities renders many startling revelations about the operations of U.S. intelligence agencies. In one brief passage, the committee reports: the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is now using several hundred American academics, who in addition to providing teads and sometimes making introductions for inteltigence purposes, occasionally write books and other materiat to be used for propaganda purposes abroad. These academics are located in over /00 American coleges, universities, and other related institutes. At the tnajority of institutions, no one other than the individual acaderic concerned is aware of te CIA link. The above paragraphs appear in a subsection en- titled "Covert Use of the U.S. Academic Com- munity." The section, heavily censored by the CIA, takes up only one of several thousand pages in the final report of the Select Committee. DOCUMENTS RECENTLY released by the CIA indicate that this University is among many where the CIA is using academics. Some of the professors, administrators or graduate students who have CIA ties are fully aware of the extent of their in- volvement. Others believe they are cooperating with the Agency out of patriotism or civic duty and are unaware of the implications of their connection with the CIA. Whatever the nature of these relationships with the CIA, either paid or unpaid, witting or unwitting, they have far-reaching effects on everyone within the academic world. For example, the recently released CIA documen- ts concerning the University show that some professors were filling "Agency request" for em- ployees or helped the Agency in "spotting can- didates" for recruitment. WHEN THE CIA asks a professor to "spot" a candidate, the Agency is actually asking the professor to set up a student for an intensive secret investigation. Gary Weissman was a student at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1950s. He served as president of the Wisconsin Student Association in 1959 and, af- ter graduation, was mildly active in the anti-war movement. Weissman learned recently that he was the sub- ject of a five-year CIA investigation to determine his eligibility for the Agency's clandestine service. The CIA considered using Weissman as a covert CIA agent at the Seventh World Youth Festival in Vienna in 1959. THE MOST NOTEWORTHY aspect of this in- vestigation is the fact that Weissman never applied for CIA employment and was not aware that he was being investigated. Weissman was never contacted by the Agency. Weissman learned of the CIA's interest in him through documents received as aresult of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Although the CIA has forked over 44 documents concerning Weissman it is still withholding 26 ad- ditional reports. Weissman is pressing a lawsuit against the CIA to affect the disclosure of the remaining documents which the Agency has refused to release on the basis of "national security." Just like countless others, Weissman was "spot- ted" by an Agency contact on the University of Wisconsin campus. The contact gave the name of a student to the CIA, without the student's knowledge, then the CIA investigated the student's past and followed the student or as long as two or three years. AFTER EXTENSIVE files were created on the student and after his movements had been recorded and analyzed by Agency personnel, a decision would be finally made by the cia to approach the student or move on to someone else. But recruiting agents for either the research or clandestine offices of the CIA is only one aspect of the Agency's relationship with academics. The CIA documents which have been released to wminubm~ THESE SCHOLARS received among other things reference materials usually concerning China or the USSR from the government and perhaps the world's best intelligence source. The CIA also held closed seminars where a few select scholars were invited to discuss international relations with Agency analystys and other top government officials. The groups were generally not larger than 15 including Agency personnel. But if the CIA is the world's leading intelligence organization questions arise about who benefitted most from these seminars., In a May 9, 1974 memorandum, VIA Coordinator for Academic Relations Harold Ford wrote that these seminars profitted the Agency immensely. He wrote that the Agency also picked up some nw per- spectives on "key questions of U.S.-Soviet detente, and of the interplay of Soviet-Chinese-U.S. relation- ships." BUT FORD also described in length the third benefit the CIA derived from the seminars. He summerzed by writing that "these outings depend on friendships with existing contacts and expanded friendships to additional professors whom we had not previously met." Several professors who have admitted to atten- ding these seminars, have said they were in- valuable learning experiences. These professors, who attended the seminars also received the CIA reference materials which, although not officially classified, were not available to all scholars. These professors interviewed, who said they received CIA reference materials were surprised to learn they were part of a small group of American scholars-no more than 100-earmarked for CIA benefits. How the CIA selected scholars for seminars or for other research benefits os not clear from the documents received thus far. But it is generally believed that those scholars who cooperated with the Agency in other respects-spotting candidates, writing propaganda, spying for the Agency on trips abroad, and making introductions for intelligency purposes-were held in the Agency's favor. One professor who although approached by the CIA but did not cooperate, expressed concern about the Agency's influence on academic competition and the genuine search for truth in the scholarly world. The professor said those few scholars who are cooperating with the CIA have an unfair advantage over those who don't. Once privy to such infor- mation the scholar would think twice before doing anything which might stop the flow from the Agen- cy, they said. AN INTERESTING note about the seminars-most of the CIA seminars were held between 1967 and 1973. Precisely between those years the CIA ran PROJECT RESISTANCE-a counterintelligence program during the most violent anti-war years on college campuses. Through documents released just three weeks ago to the Campaign to Stop Government Spying, a coalition of more than 80 religious and social in- terest groups, it is now known that the Agency used its campus contacts to spy on the student population-specifically those issueing opposition to government foreign policy, or the Vietnam War. 'This Monday the Faculty Senate will begin to ad- dress the issue of guidelines for relationships bet- ween academics and intelligency agencies. Although many have charged that such guidelines are an infringement on a professor's academic freedom it would be naive to ignore not only student's academic freedom but the right of all Americans to privacy and life without fear of government repression for political thoughts. political thoughts. The Faculty Senate should be aware of the war- ning from the Senate Select Committee before deciding on guidelines with respect to intelligency agencies. The Committee is concerned, however, that American academics involved in such activities may undermine public confidence that qtose whoetriqour y , re upho/dg ideals, indep hetvj rNJq i u But Mayor Belcher has a better plan. He has suggested a $4 fine that would be reduced to $2 if paid within the first 24 hours of the violation. In effect, this would keep the parking fine at only $2, but would increase the penalty for late payment. But the root of the parking problem goes much deeper. First, there simply isn't enough parking available in Ann Arbor. Anyone who owns a car in this city has had the frustrating experience of driving around the block over and over searching for a single spot. By the time you park you are either too angry or too late to bother with puttiing money in the meter. And when you receive the inevitable ticket you curse the city and police department, and tear it up. Another problem is that most meters have a one or two hour limit, which is extremely inconvenient for working per- sons. Perhaps, if one could simply pump $2 worth of change into the meter at one time, more per- sons would pay the meter rates. But regardless of whether or not parking fines are increased, the city will retaini ts paring and its fine collection problems, until someone in city government realizes that adequate parking is a necessity, a simnlvbreak' aslpsy rx lv 7#5 and 4elpful to a small, privileged group of scholars. s