USE OF CIA FUNDS PROMPTS CALL FOR OUSTER AT HARVARD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100020043-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2010
• Sequence Number: 43
• Publication Date: October 16, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Approved For Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100020043-1
BOSTON GLOBE
16 October 1985
Use of CIA funds prompts
call for ouster at Harvard
By Richard Higgins
Globe Staff
Throe members of the execu-
tive committee of Harvard's Cen-
ter for Middle Eastern Studies yes-
terday called for the dismissal of
the center's director amid a con-
tinuing university probe into his
use of CIA funding for a scholarly
conference and a new book.
In a letter delivered yesterday
to A. Michael Spence, dean of the
faculty, and professor Nadav Sa-
fran, the center's director, the
three professors charged that Sa-
fran's use of C1A funds and his
failure to tell colleagues about
them had damaged the center's
credibility. They also said his ac-
tion had potentially endangered
many of the center's scholars who
travel and study'abroad.
The letter was signed by Dr.
Richard Frye, Aga Khan professor
of Iranian, Wolfhart P. Heinrichs,
professor of Arabic, and Abdelha-
mld I. Sabra, professor of the his-
tory of Arabic science.
Meanwhile, university officials
said yesterday that Spence is still
"closely investigating all circum-
stances" surrounding Safran's
contracts with the C1A.
The review covers Safran's use
of CIA funds for a conference be-
ing held this wcek on Islamic fun-'
damentalism and his use of
$107,00 in CIA funds to finance a
book he wrote on Saudi Arabia's
internal security and foreign poli-
cies.
Spence is continuing to review
the matter, including the contract
for the book published last month
by the Harvard University Press,
"Saudi Arabia, The Ceaseless
guest for Security," said John
Shattuck, vice president for public
affairs.
On Friday, Safran said he did
not acknowledge the CIA funding
in the preface to his book because
he was under no legal obligation
to do so. He also said he did not
grant the agency permission to
make unilateral changes in the
book without first informing him
in writing. Harvard rules for spon-
sored research forbid professors
from accepting funding that in-
volves prepublication censorship.
Frye said that past directors of
the center, such as Nur Yalman,
had declined to accept .funding
from the CIA and from Middle
Eastern governments because it
would endanger the center's credi-
bility.
Not all Harvard faculty mem-
bers agreed. Professor Joseph Nye
of the John F. Kennedy School of
Government, a specialist In nucle-
arproliferation and a former State
Department official, said he "saw
no problem" with accepting CIA
funding as long as the source of
the funding could be disclosed and
no censorship were involved."
Approved For Release 2010/08/12 :CIA-RDP90-008068000100020043-1