www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/09/MNCFLEADIN.DTL
According to thousands of pages of FBI records obtained by The Chronicle after a 17-year legal fight, the FBI unlawfully schemed with the head of the CIA to harass students, faculty and members of the Board of Regents, and mounted a concerted campaign to destroy the career of UC President Clark Kerr, which included sending the White House derogatory allegations about him that the bureau knew were false. The FBI, in contrast, developed a "close and cordial" relationship with Reagan, who made campus unrest a major issue and vowed to fire Kerr during his 1966 gubernatorial campaign. And after he was elected, the FBI failed to report that Reagan falsely stated on a federal security clearance form that he never had been a member of any group officially deemed subversive, an omission that could have been prosecuted as a felony. Reagan's administration information it could use "against" protesters. The disclosure of the FBI activities concerning the University of California during the 1950s and 1960s comes as the bureau has been granted wider authority and more resources to conduct domestic intelligence activities, and as President Bush seeks to create a new Department of Homeland Security. Experts said the FBI and CIA's past activities involving the University of California provide a cautionary tale about potential dangers to academic freedom and civil liberties. The Office of Ronald Reagan referred questions to Edwin Meese III, who was Gov. Meese acknowledged that Reagan had had a long-standing relationship with the FBI, but said that as far as he knew, the bureau gave Reagan no special political help. In the mid-1970s, Congress held hearings that revealed widespread FBI and CIA surveillance of law-abiding citizens, as well as FBI "Cointelpro" (counterintelligence operation) programs to "disrupt and neutralize" organizations and citizens who engaged in legitimate dissent, such as civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The Chronicle obtained thousands of pages of previously undisclosed FBI records concerning the University of California as a result of three lawsuits brought under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents provide the most detailed account to date of the FBI's activities at any American university during a turbulent, historic period and show that those covert operations spilled off campus and into state politics. The FBI maintained in court that its activities regarding UC were proper and intended to protect civil order and national security. But a series of federal judges concluded that the FBI engaged in a range of unlawful activities that included investigating student protesters, interfering with academic freedom and intruding into internal university affairs. Edgar Hoover took a special interest in UC, which was the nation's largest university, operator of federal nuclear weapons labs and the scene of some of the nation's first and largest campus protests over constitutional rights and academic freedom. The director also ordered his agents to search bureau files for derogatory information on UC's 6,000 faculty members and top administrators. The resulting 60-page report said 72 faculty members, students and employees were listed in the bureau's "Security Index," a secret nationwide list of people whom the FBI considered potentially dangerous to national security who would be detained without warrant during a crisis. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Operations. Regents, Kerr also targets The FBI also gave Pauley reports on the backgrounds of three liberal regents from San Francisco: lawyer William Coblentz, businessman William M. Roth and former Democratic National Committee member Elinor Haas Heller. The FBI campaigned to get Kerr fired from the UC presidency, the bureau's records show, because it disagreed with his policies and handling of the Free Speech Movement protests. When President Lyndon Johnson was considering appointing Kerr to be his Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in December 1964, he asked the FBI to conduct a routine inquiry into Kerr's background. But the bureau sent the White House allegations that Kerr was "pro-communist" - even though the bureau knew the claims were false. Kerr said he was unaware of the FBI's actions against him until contacted by The Chronicle. That process began when Reagan filled out a federal form required to get a security clearance, and stated that he never belonged to any group deemed officially subversive, a copy of the form shows. According to FBI records, the bureau knew Reagan had been in two such groups in the 1940s - the Committee for a Democratic Far East Policy and the American Veterans Committee - but the FBI background report failed to note that Reagan's denial was untrue. Hundreds of people in the 1940s and 1950s had faced hearings and sometimes dismissals from federal employment for failing to disclose membership in groups deemed subversive. Cartha "Deke" DeLoach, Hoover's third-in-command, told The Chronicle that the FBI gave Reagan no special treatment. But two former FBI agents said it was routine procedure for the FBI to point out such discrepancies. A "helpful" relationship Reagan was also a more active informer in Hollywood than has been previously reported. Ellingwood asked if the FBI would give Reagan more intelligence reports, and Hoover agreed. While the FBI was charged with defending the United States against Soviet intelligence operations during the 1950s and 1960s, he said, the bureau improperly focused on citizens engaged in lawful dissent.
|
http://csua.com/feed/