------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
UMass Amherst FIGHTBACK GREETS GOV'T HARASSMENT OF PROFESSORS By Bryan G. Pfeifer Amherst, Mass. The USA Patriot Act and "Homeland Security" have found a home at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst--at least temporarily. On Oct. 24 Associate Professor M.J. Alhabeeb of the Department of Resource Economics, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iraq, was questioned by UMass police detective Barry Flanders and an FBI agent from the Joint Terrorism Task Force office in Springfield, Mass. The interrogation came after the Boston FBI office supposedly received a "tip" that Alhabeeb was "anti- American" and opposed to U.S. policy toward Iraq. Flanders, who is paid by the university, has been assigned as a "liaison" to the task force and works two days a week in Springfield. At Alhabeeb's office, the officers told him the tip came from someone linked to Amherst Community Television where Alhabeeb is on the board of directors. If in fact this is true, Alhabeeb surmises that the informant may be someone disgruntled with his votes against budget cuts at the station. Alhabeeb told Workers World that since arriving in the United States from Iraq in 1982 he has never publicly aired his political views. He said conversations at ACTV were "all internal, budgetary and administrative talk. I can't recall once that I talked politics at ACTV." Alhabeeb initially asked that his name not be publicized for safety reasons--he is married and has two children--but three local newspapers used his name in articles and the UMass Amherst Daily Collegian published his picture on the front page. Besides sitting on ACTV's board of directors, Alhabeeb is a former executive board member of the Massachusetts Society of Professionals -- the UMass faculty union. He is also one of a few original Arabic calligraphers in the West. In fact, four days after he was interviewed, the art exhibition "Islamic Art: Peace & Beauty, Islamic Calligraphy by M.J. Alhabeeb," began a month-long run in the Augusta Savage Gallery housed in the New Africa house where the Afro American studies department is located People on campus first learned of the attack on Alhabeeb the week of Nov. 10. Longtime U-Mass Sociology Professor Dan Clawson circulated an email after Alhabeeb told him about the "interview." Calling for a meeting on Nov. 18 to address the issue, Clawson said, "We need to organize to stop FBI interrogation of UMass faculty (or students or staff), and UMass cooperation with and assistance to that process. "Police and FBI investigation of those with dissenting views threatens the integrity of the university," added Clawson. "In an all-too-typical pattern, such investigations are targeted first at people of the 'wrong' race or ethnicity." At the Nov. 18 meeting over 75 faculty, staff and students packed a meeting room in Machmer Hall. They agreed to draft a statement opposing "investigations" on campus and take other actions to expose "investigations." Alhabeeb has not been the only one under attack. At the meeting Sri Lankan-born Yaju Dharmarajah, an organizer with Service Employees Local 509 on campus, said his wife Pilar Schiavo was visited at their home in Hadley, Mass., by Hadley police and an FBI agent from UMass in September while Dharmarajah was out of town. "They wanted to know if we were terrorists," said Dharmarajah. He said they asked Schiavo about his activities, his membership in various groups and his political views. By speaking out Dharmarajah showed great courage. Under the Patriot Act he could be detained indefinitely as a foreign national. "It is very scary to be put in that situation, especially when your husband is not a citizen yet," Schiavo told the Daily Hampshire Gazette. In the racist and terrorist climate fostered by the Bush administration since Sept. 11, 2002, hundreds, if not thousands, of faculty, staff and students have been "interviewed" by the FBI and other U.S. agencies. This is according to information posted by the American Association of University Professors on its website. The fight-back campaign being waged at UMass Amherst against racist, terrorist state repression is one of many at higher- education institutions nationwide. This movement is growing. n - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
