[Peace] Advice for Ahmed campaign and beyond

[Rosemary Braun]

> From Kranich at WILL.uiuc.edu Sat Jun 01 03:17:47 -0500
>
> We should find out to what extent the U of I is in collusion with the
> FBI/INS. UW Madison has refused, for example, to cooperate with the FBI/INS
> because their interrogations are based on racial profiling. What is the U of
> I's position?

I don't know if the position has changed since this piece was published
in late December (I've seen no indication that it has), but Bill Murphy
had then told the Chronicle that they *would* cooperate "because of
the sensitivity we believed our police would show to our students."
I've pasted the story below; the UI part is at the end.

-rosemary

Source: http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i17/17a01901.htm

| Chronicle of Higher Education
| December 21, 2001
| 
| Some Colleges Refuse to Help Justice Department Interview Foreign Students
| 
| By SARA HEBEL
| 
| Several public universities have declined to help federal investigators
| arrange or conduct interviews with foreign students who may be among
| those on a list of 5,000 people the U.S. Justice Department wants to
| question as it seeks information about terrorist activities.
| 
| In late November and early December, Eastern Michigan University,
| Michigan State University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor,
| and the University of Wisconsin at Madison said that their campus police
| officers would not participate in the federal government's interviewing
| process.
| 
| Many administrators said they would not allow their police departments
| to do so because the list of those being sought for questioning consisted
| of people who were not criminal suspects.
| 
| Some campus officials also said they feared that involving campus
| police officers could hurt relationships between the university and its
| students. And most officials said that university participation in the
| process didn't seem to be critical to helping federal investigators get
| their job done.
| 
| Officials in the Justice Department have sought to question men between
| the ages of 18 and 33 who have entered the United States on nonimmigrant
| visas, which include student visas, since January 1, 2000.
| 
| They want to talk mostly to men from countries where U.S. intelligence
| officials have found a significant presence of members of Osama bin
| Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network.
| 
| There are no official estimates of how many students may be on the federal
| list. But many campus officials assume that a significant number are
| students, given the ages of the men being sought and the visa categories
| officials are focusing on.
| 
| In Wisconsin, a total of about 100 people are being sought for interviews,
| but officials at the university's campus in Madison and the U.S.
| attorney's office there said that they did not know how many of those
| might be students.
| 
| This month, university officials issued a statement saying that they   
| would not participate in any of the interviews, although they would
| give government officials some attendance records and other information
| that they are allowed to release under state and federal laws. Federal 
| officials had asked if any members of a Madison-area antiterrorism task 
| force -- which includes the University of Wisconsin's police department --
| would volunteer to help federal investigators conduct the interviews.
| 
| "Let me emphasize that the university always cooperates fully with 
| local, state, and federal law-enforcement investigations of suspected
| criminal activity. We will continue to do so in the future," John Wiley,
| chancellor of the Madison campus, said in a written statement. "But
| university officials, including me, believe the criteria to select  
| individuals for interviews ... is broadly based and appears to consist  
| of people who are not suspected of any crimes or suspicious activities."
| 
| In an interview, Mr. Wiley added that he worried about how the
| university's participation in the information-gathering process might
| alter students' trust of campus police officials. "I just didn't think
| it would be appropriate," he said.
| 
| Grant C. Johnson, the U.S. attorney in Madison, said he disagreed with 
| Mr. Wiley's decision but that the lack of university participation was
| "not a big deal."
| 
| "It doesn't make any difference because we didn't really need their help,"
| Mr. Johnson said.
| 
| In Michigan, meanwhile, federal officials are seeking interviews with
| about 800 people. About 70 to 80 of those individuals are in the Ann
| Arbor area, and officials at the University of Michigan believe that 
| "many or most" of those people are students, said Julie Peterson,
| associate vice president for media relations and public affairs.   
| 
| In late November, Ms. Peterson issued a statement saying that the
| university had received a written request from federal officials to help
| conduct interviews but that the institution would not participate.
| 
| "Since none of those identified for questioning are suspected of or  
| associated with criminal activity, we have decided that our public-safety
| personnel will not participate in the interviews," her statement read. "If
| criminal activity is suspected at any time, campus police will participate
| fully in follow-up investigations."
| 
| Like their counterparts at Wisconsin, Michigan officials also said
| they would provide some information sought by federal investigators as
| long as the request did not violate state or federal laws. In addition,   
| Ms. Peterson said university officials were allowing some interviews to
| be conducted on the campus for students' convenience.
| 
| Meanwhile, officials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| decided late last month that campus police officers would help federal
| officials conduct interviews of students.
| 
| Bill Murphy, associate director for public affairs at Illinois, said
| the university shares the other institutions' concerns about protecting
| students' rights during the interviews.
| 
| "We just have different solutions to the same question," he said. "After
| extensive discussion, we decided that it was in the best interest of our
| students if we did participate because of the sensitivity we believed
| our police would show to our students."


-- 
rosemary braun  :: theoretical biophysics, univ. illinois ::  braun at uiuc.edu
vocation www.ks.uiuc.edu/~braun :: avocation www.ks.uiuc.edu/~braun/personal