Editor,
UNM is commemorating the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, in an odd way - odd for an institution of higher learning and education, that is. Senior CIA analyst Emile A. Nakhleh has been invited to tell us how things are going five years into the big war of the neo-conservatives.
The campus might want to ask some questions of this speaker.
The first that comes to mind concerns President Bush's admission that the CIA has been holding and torturing people overseas. Has the invited speaker - whose own writings show he has worked in Palestine for the U.S.-supported Zionist occupation - had any role in facilitating these criminal acts? Also, what are Nakhleh's ties to Israel in seeking out and assassinating Palestinian and other Arab leaders in the Middle East?
It comes to mind that the University invited Stephen Younger of the Department of Homeland Security to speak here a couple years ago on the role of higher education in the war on terror. Younger said that institutions like UNM, especially the social science departments, could help research and find people the empire does not like that will be killed.
The University received a large grant from Younger's agency and recently claimed ignorance of any role in building a new world order. Does Nakhleh have a hand in the recruitment of spies at UNM who are then apparently trained to kill and lie to the public?
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I would ask UNM what its role is in the covert war carried out by the CIA and other agencies against people in the Middle East. Come clean, UNM. Or would that cost you more government grants?
It might be good to ask Nakhleh if he sees any blowback from the CIA's 1953 coupe against the democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, and the use of fundamentalist Islamic groups to undermine democratic movements and leaders in the Middle East.
I could think of a number of political activists who would be better qualified to speak on Sept. 11. One is David Barsamian of Alternative Radio, who will speak at CNM's Smith Brasher Hall at 7 p.m on Saturday, Sept. 16 .
Why are representatives of terrorist organizations like the CIA being invited to our campus?
Bob Anderson
UNM alumnus
