4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 12, 2005
OPINION
UT*£rka ~1
JASON Z. PESICK
Editor in Chief
SUHAEL MOMIN
SAM SINGER
Editorial Page Editors
ALISON GO
Managing Editor
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
''They couldn't
conceive of the notion
that (inner-city resi-
dents) couldn't load up
their SUV's, put $100
worth of gas in there,
put some sparkling
water and drive off to a
hotel and check in with
a credit card."
-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) criticizing the
federal government's response to Hurricane
Katrina, on ABC's "This Week" this Sunday.
01
MICHELLE BIEN
Imagined terrorists
ELLIOTT MALLEN IRRA1IONAL EXUBERANCE
T he Federal
Bureau of Inves-
tigation was
recently caught with
its proverbial pants*
down after the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties
Union received docu-
mentation of a meet-
ing entitled "Domestic
Terrorism Sympo-
sium," in which the
FBI, U.S. Secret Service, Michigan State Police
and Michigan State University Public Safety
sat down together at a Holiday Inn Express in
Belleville to discuss the terrorist threat posed
by such allegedly violent East Lansing ne'er-
do-wells as the pro-affirmative action group
BA MN, the anti-war Direct Action and, per-
haps the most threatening of the lot, the East
Lansing Animal Rights Movement.
Not surprisingly, many students are dismayed
to find that the terrorist label has become broad
enough in the aftermath of Sept. 11 to apply to
both Hamas and a handful of students who get
miffed when Maybelline gets smeared in the
eyes of rabbits. The FBI maintains that students
have nothing to fear, with FBI senior resident
agent Richard Licht assuring us that illegal sur-
veillance is not an FBI tactic and that "there is
a lot of misconception about what we do out
there." However, when it comes to investigating
student groups, the bureau's less-than-perfect
track record shows that it lost any claim to the
benefit of the doubt a long time ago.
It's always clich6 to compare anything to the
1960s, but in this case, the parallels are clear.
The FBI launched the Counter Intelligence Pro-
gram (COINTELPRO) in 1956 to investigate
(and subsequently destroy) the Communist Party
USA, but soon set its sights on the much more
formidable growing student movement. Accord-
ing to internal FBI documents, COINTELPRO's
explicit purpose was "to expose, disrupt and
otherwise neutralize the activities of this group
(the New Left) and persons connected with it. It
is hoped that with this new program their vio-
lent and illegal activities may be reduced if not
curtailed." This kickoff document recommended
the authorization "to immediately initiate a coor-
dinated Counter-Intelligence Program directed
at exposing, disrupting, and otherwise neutral-
izing the New Left and Key Activists," all in the
name of ensuring domestic peace and quiet while
maintaining racial segregation in the South and
a disastrous war in Vietnam. This was accom-
plished through menacingly-titled programs such
as Project MERRIMAC, Project RESISTANCE
and Operation CHAOS. In Operation CHAOS
alone, the CIA illegally spied on its on citizens
in order to compile 3,500 "domestic security"
memos and 3,000 "action items" that it sent to
the FBI. COINTELPRO's efforts hit uncomfort-
ably close to home when former Michigan Daily
editor and Students for a Democratic Society co-
founder Tom Hayden was specifically targeted as
a "key activist" in one internal memo that out-
lined the various options that could be used to
smear his name and "neutralize" the threat he
posed to domestic security.
While the FBI's current scrutiny of MSU stu-
dent groups clearly isn't as draconian as actions
taken under COINTELPRO, that doesn't mean
that there isn't cause for concern. At the risk of
sounding like a conspiracy theorist, it's worth
pointing out that COINTELPRO's existence
wasn't even made public until a group called the
Citizens' Committee to Investigate the FBI broke
into bureau offices and released stolen documents
to the press. On the other hand, the FBI's current
involvement with student groups was made public
through a Freedom of Information Act request, in
which the FBI is allowed to withhold any informa-
tion it deems too sensitive to reveal to the public.
It took much agonizing on the part of the ACLU
in order to finally receive the meager 10-page
document that reveals the FBI's involvement with
MSU student groups, and the ACLU has pressed
charges in order to speed up the release of docu-
ments detailing the investigations of Greenpeace,
United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Ameri-
can-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and
the Muslim Public Affairs Council. The ACLU
has found other examples of the FBI working in
conjunction with local and state law enforcement
agencies to gather information on peaceful left
leaning groups, such as the compiling of names
and license plate numbers of anti-war and envi-
ronmental activists in Denver. Through the FOIA,
the ACLU has only been able to take tiny peeks
into the FBI's domestic anti-terrorism investiga-
tions. While another exploratory break-in is prob-
ably ill advised, we are still without a full picture
of the FBI's involvement with student political
organizations.
Although unsettled by the investigation,
Direct Action is not letting it interfere with its
plans for the year. The State News, MSU's stu-
dent newspaper, has fallen in line with the FBI,
running a news article with the hysteria-tinged
title "Local terrorist activity suspected" in the
aftermath of the ACLU's discovery. I spoke with
DA member Stefan Lanwermeyer about this,
expecting him to be dismayed by both the FBI's
actions and with the negative portrayal of Direct
Action by the student press. Although DA's offi-
cial response to the State News's coverage was
nothing short of scathing, Lanwermeyer was
excited about DA's future. He says that "we view
the FBI's investigation as an intimidation tactic,"
but this is having the opposite effect. He cheer-
fully reports that "our first meeting this fall was
the largest we've ever had, and about 60 percent
of the attendees were there because of the head-
lines." DA, whose plans for the year include such
typical terrorist standbys as providing resources
for hurricane relief and encouraging high school
students to resist military recruiters, has been
subjected to a history of police interference that
ranges from not-so-subtle eavesdropping on
meetings to videotaping rally participants. Lan-
wermeyer is wary of hastily linking this with
the FBI's previous activity, saying that "what
happened in the 1960s was a long time ago."
However, he points out that current law enforce-
ment activities "could shape" into something
resembling COINTELPRO, but that it's a ways
off. Instead, he seems more inclined to ride the
wave of press and watch the organization grow.
So much for intimidation tactics.
Mallen can be reached
at emmallen@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Let the people decide on
Roe v. Wade
To THE DAILY:
In his dissent (The Bush Court, 09/09/05),
John Stiglich boasts about how a John Roberts-
led Bush court could overturn Roe v. Wade. He
writes, "(They) could ensure liberals' worst fear
- that the people decide on abortion." Despite
being fiercely, 100-percent pro-choice, I actually
agree with Stiglich and would actually be happy
to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Why, you might
ask? Because it would be the single biggest
windfall the Democratic Party has ever seen.
In the words of our "glorious" leader, "Bring it
on!" Polls show almost two-thirds of the coun-
try believes that Roe should not be overturned.
According to one Pew poll, fewer than 10 per-
cent of Americans believe that abortion should
be completely illegal. So yes, let's allow the
people to decide.
For decades, Republicans have been scream-
ing until red in the face about the injustice of
abortion without ever being able to outlaw it.
Let's let them vote and have them answer to
the people who elected them. Let's have Sen.
Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) explain why he thinks
a raped girl must be compelled by law to carry
her rapist's child to term. Let's have Sen. Rick
Santorum (R-Pa.) explain why he believes fer-
tility clinics should be outlawed because of the
mere chance that an embryo might be discard-
ed. Let's have Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)
justify why he contemplated filibustering the
bipartisan-supported ,stem-cell bill earlier this
summer. Let's have all our Republican leaders
look us in the eye and tell us that our mothers
and our daughters, our sisters and our cousins,
our aunts and our nieces are all worth less to
College ratings fail to grade
education quality
To THE DAILY:
The American obsession with'convenient sta- M
tistics (Michigan's rating drops to 3rd, 09/09/05) has
damaged the college search process. You can't
grade an entire school with one or even a dozen
numbers. It takes plain research and campus visits
to judge the quality of a college, with every pro-
spective student responding differently. Even then,
any student can ruin a college experience for him-
self regardless of the school's quality.
At the end of the day, these rankings are ban-
died about like sports scores and celebrity gossip.
They're fun to know and make nice dinner-party
conversation among parents. It's unfortunate
though that so many high school students mistake
them for decent college evaluations.
James Cho
Engineering junior
them than a mere embryo.
Ryan Manthey
LSA senior
VIEWPOINT
An open letter to Lloyd Carr
0
BY AARON JOHNSON
Dear Lloyd,
I came to see you this Saturday. I even brought
some friends. We piled into a car, drove a really
long distance, paid a lot of money and parked pret-.
ty far away just to stop in and have a visit. So why
the lack of hospitality?
I wouldn't be so upset if after the game (You
know the one I'm talking about, the one with the
goal-line offense that would have choked a yak
and the quarterback who didn't seem to know up
from down, left from right or maize and blue from
gold and white), you didn't get on the radio and
talk about how happy you were with how your
team played.
I begin to wonder, is it really that great to be a
Michigan Wolverine? I love you guys, you know
that, but why is it so great to be associated with
a team that has not beaten a top-10 opponent in
a shovel pass or do anything that the other team
can't possibly replicate 5,000 times in practice the
week before they show up? Resting on talent alone
is great when you have Braylon Edwards, who can
jump 14 feet into the air and snag down even the
most errant balls. It's not so good when you have
Steve Breaston, whose last moment of glory was
two seasons ago, because you hoodwink his abil-
ity to confound defenses by limiting him to two or
three deep ball opportunities per game (even my
mom knows he's not that kind of receiver, Lloyd).
Or when you treat Jason Avant (a very capable
receiver), like Mike Williams, when he's really
more of a Mercury Hayes.
Then again, no one player can carry your team,
Lloyd, and since you can't really coach, or demand
excellence from the team at large, the team slips
into mediocrity.
How hard would it be to turn all these tal-
ented guys into something wholly unique, excit-
ever hope to compete in NCAA Division I football
with this current mindset?
I do love Michigan football. I love how you
guys ram it up the opponent's nose 40 percent
of the time, try to control the clock and never go
too crazy on either offense or defense, but when
Kirk Ferentz, Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll and,
oh heck, Charlie Weiss, are making a mockery
of the last 130 years of football triition just
by being demanding and innovative, we've got
problems, Lloyd.
Don't get me wrong. We used to have the inno-
vative and demanding Fielding Yost, and at least
we had demands for excellence (if not always
innovation) in Bo, and even Moe.
Honestly, I can't remember the last time you
successfully beat a team that had a better coach
than you. I remember Braylon defeating Jim Tres-
sel in 2003, but every other instance is just you
being outcoached - pure and simple. You've even
been ouitco'.hach by neolike BRob Da~vis and
Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Amanda Burns, Whitney Dibo, Jesse For-
ester, Jared Goldberg, Eric Jackson, Brian Kelly, Theresa Kennelly, Rajiv Prabhakar,
Matt Rose, David Russell, Dan Skowronski, Brian Slade, Lauren Slough, John Stiglich,
I