Bloodless Coup

If the government wants the benefit of my knowledge for a task force...

...they can hire me and pay me for my professional services by appointment and contract, not show up unannounced at my office hours, pump me for incriminating information and harass my students.

Sheriff Lee Baca said Friday that his deputies were doing nothing more than gathering information on the political situation in Venezuela for a federal anti-terrorism task force coordinated by the FBI. But he said he would discourage workplace interviews in the future, especially with members of academia.

Bullshit.

Plain and simple, baldfaced bullshit. How many of you academics who have done government consulting have ever been approached this way? It's either the "government hired you and jump through a million paperwork hoops" version or the "someone you know recommends you and you get a call from someone smart in the government who informally wants your opinion" version. Not the "sheriff's deputies show up to your office hours and ask you impertinent questions version.

Bullshit.

Professor Miguel Tinker-Salas said the deputies entered his office without an appointment Tuesday during hours normally set aside for student conferences. He said the deputies were there for about 25 minutes and asked him about the Venezuelan community and his relationship with it. They also told him he was not the subject of an investigation.

"They cast the Venezuelan community as a threat," said Tinker-Salas, an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Latin America who was born in Venezuela. "They asked me if the Venezuelan government had influenced me one way or another. I think they were fishing to see if I had any information they could use."

...

"They asked me about the Venezuelan community. Where do they congregate? Do they have a leadership?" he said. "They asked about the consulate and the embassy. They wanted to know if I had contact with the Venezuelan government."

Tinker-Salas said the deputies also questioned waiting students about him and examined cartoons on his office door.

"They asked them about my classes," he said. "My students were intimidated."

Cartoons on his door? Questioning students about a professor's classes? Sending a little signal to the kiddies and professor, perhaps? Can we say "counterproductive" boys and girls?

Of course, when called on it, law enforcement doesn't seem particularly concerned about it being wrong wrong, but merely wrong as in ineffective by being too public.

Pomona College President David Oxtoby said Friday that he was "extremely concerned about the chilling effect this kind of intrusive government interest could have on free scholarly and political discourse. I am also concerned about the negative message it sends to students who are considering the pursuit of important areas of international study, in which they may now feel exposed to unwarranted official scrutiny."

Oxtoby said the school, in Claremont, was consulting with legal advisors about the strongest way to protest Tinker-Salas' questioning. "He's a national expert," Oxtoby said. The deputies "could have called. They could have made an appointment."

The Venezuelan government weighed in as well Friday, issuing a statement that called the questioning "a violation of freedoms of expression, thought and academic inquiry," and said the government "views the move as a desperate attempt to link Venezuela to terrorism."

U.S. law enforcement officials said Friday that the concerns raised about the interview have only underscored the importance for federal agents — or others handling interviews — to follow accepted procedures.

"We're mindful of the need to be sensitive about these discussions, no matter how benign the subject may be," said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the controversy the incident has generated.

In a statement, the FBI said law enforcement officials should be mindful of the timing and location of an informational interview. As for the Pomona College meeting, the FBI said there was no intent "to place the professor, his students or Pomona College in an uncomfortable situation."

Baca, meanwhile, said the deputies were not working on any particular case. But he said he would have preferred it if the deputies had avoided the college grounds or at least called ahead.

"It is important not to go to college campuses and interview professors and students in such a way that leads to questions like, 'Why are they under suspicion?' " he said.

See, they want to make sure the time and location of the interview doesn't raise suspicion. Better to do it in secret, so there are no witnesses to raise a stink.

Here again is the problem with the ever expanding security state. When the decentralization and delegation of authority to interrogate anyone anywhere. To get all Arthur for a minute and quote myself:

The problem is that there are individuals ... who believed themselves to be empowered by the law to act this way. It doesn't have to be a national directive. However if the national policy creates ripe circumstances for such actors to engage in this kind of behavior, we have to call attention to it.

This was why I linked to Neiwert's original post. The idea that no one can see it coming, or can see that the constellation of policies could be exploited in undemocratic ways, or that there is a growing culture that fosters this misuse, is mistaken. We can see it. We choose not to see it, or not to see it as important. Democracy is a lot of work, and part of that work is done by regular people who have the courage to call bullshit on policies - well-meaning or not - that infringe on our liberty.

Call bullshit. Shine the light.

Posted by binky at March 15, 2006 10:35 AM | TrackBack | Posted to J. Edgar Hoover | Latin America | Shine the Light on It