Collegiate Times

A recent report published in the Washington Post concerning the Central Intelligence Agency?s covert network of secret prisons and interrogation centers has caused a coalition of concerned graduate students and campus organizations at Tech to stage a ?teach-in? last evening to protest CIA recruitment on campus.

The referenced Post article entitled ?CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons,? ran Nov. 2 and listed these centers known as ?black sites? as being located in countries including Europe and Cuba.

In a statement released by Nicholas Kiersey, environmental design and planning Ph.D. student and Devin Stone, junior economics major, prisoners at these facilities are held indefinitely and often in isolation, without due process of the law. Interrogators at these sites are permitted to use the CIA?s approved ?Enhanced Interrogation Techniques,? some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by U.S. military law.

?The purpose of the teach-in is to try and raise awareness of the actions of the CIA as an apparatus of the American government. The real point is that CIA representatives will be coming here to take student?s questions concerning recruitment,? Kiersey said. ?No student should attend such a session unless they are in full awareness of the facts.?
A professor speaking at the event who refused to be identified said that lawmakers have no excuse for not knowing about these issues.

?This is an information raising exercise. As a campus community we are not engaged enough to do something about this situation,? Kiersey said.

Kiersey referenced the fact that there have been recent acts of racially motivated graffiti on Tech?s campus, causing University President Charles Steger to evoke the Principles of Community to protect issues of human rights and dignity.

?We want the campus community to look more carefully at that document. If we agree to these values, are we not then responsible to do something about this situation?? he asked.

Kiersey discussed current legislation on Capital Hill concerning Senator John McCain?s proposed amendment, which Kiersey summarized as prohibiting cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment because of the immeasurable harm it puts on the image of the American public. Furthermore, the amendment states that U.S. forces will be subject to the same treatment in future conflicts and resolves that the practice of torture has been proven to be next to useless in terms of generating actionable intelligence information.

?We have a choice to lend our support to these people on the Hill who are trying to fix this problem now before it is too late,? Kiersey said.

While both Kiersey and the unidentified professor agreed that there are unattended issues regarding the CIA, they differ on the course of action students should take.

?As a university we try to create people with critical skills and power to allow them to decide the right way of doing things. As a scholar I try to make students think, but I'm not going to choose their direction for them,? the professor said. ?I want each one of you, and all students at Virginia Tech, to think for yourselves. What do you want to do? You get to decide, and then you are going to be held accountable for your choices.?

Kiersey said individuals can make their own decisions, but he said a prohibition should be placed on CIA recruitment on campus. The teach-in presented a draft letter to Steger requesting that Tech place a moratorium on all CIA activities until investigation certifies that the organization no longer engages in the cited activities.

?If we come together we can make a statement. I think a university can be a weapon of the people they can use in order to begin to change a society,? Kiersey said.

Students who don?t want to join the CIA and say that they shouldn?t recruit here are imposing their will on other students who want to join the CIA, the unidentified professor said.

?We are all different and have different priorities. Who are we to decide which is more important?? he said. ?Who is going to decide whether banning is a more right course of action than being absent for those who decide to be absent??

Kiersey concluded his speech by quoting Ghandi and said, ?We need to be the change we want to see in the world.?
Sponsoring campus organizations of the teach-in included the International Club and Amnesty International.