4
OPINION_
".ge 4
Monday, December 7, 1987
The Michigan Daily
4
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
CIA
crimes
need
protest
Vol. XCVIII, No. 61
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.
Recru it -more minorities
LAST THURSDAY, the University
Admissions Department sponsored a
symposium to encourage qualified
minorities from southeastern Michi-
gan to come to the University. While
the program will attract some minori-
ties, the administration must do more
Ito increase minority enrollment.
The same program has been taking
place annually for over 10 years.
Though this program is worthwhile,
the University can only fulfill the
promises it made following anti-
racism protests last spring by devel-
oping new programs. The small in-
crease in minority enrollment
recorded this year indicates that more
needs to be done.
The University should not just cen-
ter its efforts in the southeastern
Michigan area, as it has done for the
past several years. Following last
spring's protests, the University set a
goal of 10 percent Black enrollment.
To achieve diversity, the University
should recruit throughout the broadest
possible geographic area within
Michigan.
For last week's function, the Ad-
missions Office invited over 450 of
the top minority high school seniors,
based on their grades and standard-
ized test scores of whom 110
attended.
The criteria used by which the Uni-
versity judges its applicants are inad-
equate. Many educational experts re-
gard SAT scores as biased against
Blacks whose social and educational
background do not prepare them for
the tests.
Both grades and SATs are racist
and classist standards because they
discriminate against low-income fam-
ilies, both inner-city and rural, whose
children do not receive quality
schooling. This is another reason,
aside from the morality of passing the
buck, that a strategy of getting high
schools that use racist and classist
standards to improve the applicant
pool will not work to improve the
representation of the underprivileged
at the University.
An individual's SAT scores and
grade point average should not be
factors for determining admission to
the University. Students who can
contribute to the University and their
communities are the ones who belong
here, not necessarily the ones with the
high grade point averages.
Also, after minority students do en-
roll, the University should do more to
be a hospitable place for the under-
privileged. The transition from a
mediocre high school to a demanding
institution like the University can be
tough, and if a minority student has
trouble, it does not mean the student
is not qualified to be here.
The University should provide tu-
tors, as well as other special pro-
grams, to help reduce the drop-out
rate of minorities.
The administration definitely must
do more to get minorities to come to
the University. A lot of promises
have been made; it's time to see re-
sults.
By Phillis Engelbert
On Wednesday, Nov. 25, the Latin
American Solidarity Committee protested
the presence of the CIA at the University of
Michigan. The confrontation, however, soon
turned into one between police and campus
security forces and protesters. At one point,
protester Harold Marcuse was kicked in the
groin by a campus security guard. Protesters
who witnessed the assault, immediately
demanded that campus security guard, Robert
Patrick, be charged. In retaliation for
Harold's insistence on pressing charges,
police and campus security manufactured
charges of assault against Harold. Charging a
victimized protester with assault is a
common tactic used by the police to justify
police abuse. In similar incidents in the past,
the charge against the protester has been
dropped in return for charges against the
security guard being dropped by the
protester.
It's ironic that while defending the terrorist
CIA, police and campus security turned to
violence. Police and campus security should
be investigated for conspiracy in their
retaliatory measures, which are intended to
deny Harold's civil rights to press assault
charges
This incident once again raises the issue of
the need for a civilian board to review police
actions. It also indicates that the creation of
an oppressive climate on campus may result
if the proposal to arm campus security forces
is passed.
While it's important to bring attention to
the abuse of power by police forces, the real
issue, the crimes of the CIA, has been all
but ignored in the press. Here I would like to
summarize the events which led to our
protest and clarify our reasons for protesting.
First, this was a rather odd time for the
CIA to show its face on campus. The
organization's reputation has suffered
greatly, recently. The revelations of the
Contragate report highlighted some of the
CIA's illegal and immoral undertakings in
Central America. It is also interesting that
the CIA chose the day before Thanksgiving,
when most students had already left for
home, to come. Maybe they thought their
visit would slip by unnoticed. Maybe they
thought there would not be enough students
around to organize a protest. The CIA prefers
to come out only when they think it's safe -
like so many termites hiding from the light.
Phillis Engelbert is writing for the Latin
American Solidarity Committee.
It's also interesting that the CIA decided to 1980, President Carter authorized the CIA to
return at all, given their history of pass funds to anti-Sandinista labor, press,
attempting to recruit on this campus. and political organizations - an operation
After repeated protests over their presence resembling the agency's destabilization
on campus, the CIA chose not to include the campaign against the socialist government
University of Michigan on their recruitment of Salvador Allende a decade earlier." (p. 19)
circuit, last year. In October, 1984, the CIA There are many tactics the CIA has
was "placed on trial" for its crimes against employed in Nicaragua to, in the word's of
humanity, by a large group of protesters. ex-CIA Director William Casey, "disrupt the
They were "found guilty" and left. The internal peace and economic stability of a
following year, the CIA returned. 26 people small country." Tactics such as mining
were arrested over two days and brought Nicaragua's harbors, generating
much attention to the terrorist activities of disinformation, and publishing a terrorist
the CIA. The CIA needed another reminder manual for contras which describes how tc
that they are not welcome here! carry out political assassinations, have been
We at the University of Michigan do not used by the CIA to try to make the
stand alone in our opposition to the CIA. To Sandinistas "cry Uncle" (in the words of one
the contrary, we are but one link in a long famous ex-Hollywood cowboy.) R
chain of activist groups at universities across What do the policies of the CIA in sucl
the country. To give a few examples, in the countries as Guatemala, Chile, an4
fall of 1986, the CIA was protested at Nicaragua, have in common, and what dq
University of Wisconsin, Madison. Police they mean for the average person in thos0
used tear gas to break up the protest. countries? In each of those countries theret
Around the same time, 15, including Amy had been a mass movement which instated a
Carter and Abbie Hoffman were arrested at government that responded to the people's
U-Mass, Amherst during an anti-CIA needs. This entailed a redistribution o1
protest. On April 27 of this year, 183 were resources so as to benefit the poor majority
arrested while protesting the CIA's crimes at of people. The CIA, in each case, worked to
the CIA Headquarters in Virginia. And most subvert the will of the people and to place|
recently, in the last three weeks, over 80 the power in the hands of those sympathetid
people have been arrested at anti-CIA to U.S. business and military interests. The
protests. These protests have taken place in CIA works to crush any hopes impoverished
Santa Barbara, California; Springfield, Latin Americans may have to create a better
Massachusetts; and Burlington, Vermont. life for themselves.
The CIA came to campus seeking young We hear the words: "terror," "torture,"
recruits to carry out their policies of terror
and torture around the world. We came oppression," but what do they really mean?
out to protest the CIA because of the To those in the third world who are
suffering the CIA has inflicted on thousands victimized by the CIA's policies, it means
around the world, in our name. In 1954 the the violence of watching one's children die
CIA backed a coup to overthrow President of hunger. It means the oppression imposed
Arbenz in Guatemala. In 1973 the CIA by a vicious military and the fear to spear
destabilized and crushed the Allende outdagainst the oppression, as in Guatemala
government in Chile. 1979 the CIA created and El Salvador. It means facing
the terrorist contra force aimed to topple the unemployment and hunger with the
new Sandinista revolutionary government of knowledge that the majority of your
gw Sndii t re lui o teru scountry's land is owned by foreign
Nicaragua. According to Peter Kornbluh's cutysln sondb oeg
new book, Nicaragua: The Price of corporations which produce cash crops. It
Intervention, means keeping your eyes fixed on the hills
"Even as FSLN fighters joined the all night, in anticipation of another contra
EpntaousFel tighter tedafteattack and it means the recurring nightmare
spontaneous celebrations that erupted after of your son being murdered and your
Somoza's departure, the United States began daughter being raped before your eyes by the
setting the stage for a counterrevolution. O contra, as is the case for one peasant woman
July 19, U.S. operatives mounted a I came to know in Nicaragua.
ciandestUe mission to evacuate commanaers
of the Nicaraguan National Guard who had
been unable to flee Nicaragua. Aboard a DC-
8 disguised as a Red Cross plane, an
American known as "Bill Furillo" airlifted
dozens of Guardsmen and their families to
Miami wherenthey could reorganize to renew
their fight against the Sandinistas. In late
That is why we protest when the CIA
sends representatives to recruit on this
campus. We protest to demand an end to
these gross injustices being committed in
our name. There are many innocent people
whose lives depend on s speaking out. We
will not be silenced.
Seeing through the media
WassermanP PW~~ Vop i E6L~Yot~-I~
A LEXANDER COCKBURN, one of
the most prominent radical
journalists in the United States, will
be speaking tonight at the Rackham
Auditorium, at 7 p.m. Admission is
free. Students of politics, media, or
culture - or anyone interested in
examining the alternatives to the
narrowly circumscribed reporting
and analysis of the corporate
media's "junk-food journalism" will
find this talk worthwhile.
The subject of Cockburn's talk
will be "The Alternative Press in the
Reagan Years." Cockburn is himself.
a leading contributor to the
alternative press, with regular
columns in the Nation, In These
Times, and other left publications, in
addition to the Wall Street Journal.
This subject is particularly
important in view of the growing
concentration of ownership of the
mass media and its increasing
reliance on government sources of
information. While independence
and objectivity have never been, and
never will be, more than myth for a
media controlled by big business,
the last few years have seen a
remarkable erosion in the ability of
the mainstream media to maintain
even the necessary appearances.
Thus, when the R e a a n
administration decides to focus
attention on Nicaragua, the war in El
Salvador is suddenly forgotten.-
Coverage of the war is absent, in
spite of the fact that casualties are
much higher in El Salvador than in
Nicaragua, and that El Salvador is
the fourth largest recipient of U.S.
government funds in the world.
The mainstream media dutifully
countryside, is always "improving"
its human rights record; while any
arrest or censorship of opposition
leaders in Nicaragua is a major
object of concern.
Cockburn's article in the spring of
1985 on the massive, almost daily
aerial bombardment of the
Salvadoran countryside, and the role
of the U.S. media in ignoring this
violence for more -than two years,
finally forced the New York Times
to report the bombing. But for the
most part the corporate media feels
that it can safely ignore its critics on
the left, and the role of the alternative
press has been has been to increase
popular awareness of the social ills
that don't seem to be part of "all the
news that's fit to print."
The alternative press -
periodicals such as the Guardian
(New York), The Nation, In These
Times, and Monthly Review, to
name just a few of the more widely
circulated national publications -is
readily available in Ann Arbor, in
bookstores and at the University
Library. In fact, the University's
Labadie collection, in the Graduate
Library, has one of the best
collections of left publications in the
country.
Unlike citizens of countries in
which the press is directly
controlled, we cannot claim that the
information necessary to see through
the lies and crimes of our
government is not available to us. It
is there, although one has to make a
conscious effort to find it. It is
unfortunate that most people
continue to get all of their news from
notoriously one-sided sources. But
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LETTERS
Daily biased against CIA recruitment
To the Daily:
I an writing this letter in
response to your coverage of
the CIA's visit to Ann Arbor
on November 25, 1987. I find
it disappointing that the Daily
chose to present the readers
with such a biased view. I
though that newspapers and
reporters were supposed to
present the readers with an
impartial view and let the
readers draw their own
conclusions. I think Michigan
students and faculty are
intelligent enought to do this.
A perfect example are the
headlines that were used on
November 30, "Student gets
kicked at CIA recruiting
protest." This sugggests that
the CIA recruiters were the
only ones doing the pushing.
This was not true. I think it is
important to point out that
before the University student
was allegedly kicked, h e
allegedly assaulted an
undercover policeman. The
difficult for people who unlike
themselves wanted to meet
with CIA employers and learn
about the available jobs.
The Daily can not go
unblamed. On November 24,
the Daily suggested that people
demonstrate against the
interviews. They announced
the date and place where the
interviews would take place,
and suggested as well as
encouraged people to protest.
The cartoon which appeared at
the bottom of the editorial page
also implied gross
generalizations. Personally, I
do not think it was meant as a
total joke, but, rather, made in
jest.
While everyone has the
right to demonstrate, everyone
also has the right to interview.
The demonstrator refused to
allow the interviews to be held
as scheduled.
As an interviewee, I was
forced to use the back enterance
of the Career Planning and
scared for my safeyty as a
result of it.
Just because someone has'
an interview with the CIA does
not mean that they have agreed
with all of their actions in the
past. In fact, to many people's
dismay, numerous positions-in
the CIA have little to do with
foreign intervention or contact.
The Daily should stop
trying to mold people's views
and belief. I have nothing
against people disagreeing with
what the CIA does, but such
views should not come from
feature articles in the
newspaper, and should be
handled so that arrests and
injuries are unnecessary.
-Paula A. MighioO
December 3
Violence at protest
To the Daily:
The Daily has been a
usually interesting diversion,
but I am amazed at the biased
reporting of event that
continually takes place. The
most recent example was the
article titled "Student gets
kicked at CIA recruiting
protest." (Daily 11/30/87)
This headline does not fairly
document what went on. If we
what. might do the protesters
have to push their way into the
building, knock people down,
and try to disrupt the actions of
the CIA? I applaud tho
protesters efforts at civil
disobedience -- it is a right.
But that right has limits.
Physical violence goes beyond
those bounds, slight as it may
be. The CIA, whose role is