TAINTED BY THE CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030054-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: January 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/02 : CIA-RDP90-
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH (MO)
3 January 1986
Tainted By The CIA
The director of Harvard's Center for
Middle Eastern Studies has resigned as a
result of the school's investigation of his
acceptance of money from the Central In-
telligence Agency for a book and for a
conference on Islamic fundamentalism at
the university. The director, Nadav Safran,
will remain a tenured member of the Har-
vard faculty, but the incident will compro-
mise his scholarly standing and, worse,
that of the center and Harvard. The funds
for the book were reported by Prof. Sa-
fran; those for the conference were not. As
to the latter, Prof. Safran declared that the
CIA is "like any other source of funds."
It is not. Other sources of money for
scholar4y undertakings do not come from
organizations that carry out espionage, po-
litical assassin nn ati ns, secret activities de-
signed to undermine legitimate govern-
ments and covert warfare. Other sources
of academic financing do not demand - as
the CIA did in the case of Prof. Safran's
book, "Saudi Arabia: The Ceaseless Quest
for Security" - the right of censorship and
that the publisher be kept ignorant of the
source of financing.
Harvard has no prohibition against its
faculty accepting CIA funds as long as they
are open and are not accompanied by con-
ditions - such as those imposing CQr
ski - that violate principles of academic
fie?dom. The lesson of the Safran case is
old and plain: Institutions of free inquiry
cannot easily coexist with institutions that
exist to serve clandestine ends.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/02/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030054-8