Shame on student club for sponsoring visit by CIA

Editor,

Last week, the CIA paid a visit to campus in an event sponsored by Inspire Anderson Marketing. A student club sponsoring a top terrorist organization? What a shame.

It is sad that ignorance has again come to stain the floor of our University. Do these UNM students know that the organization they brought to campus has a history that, for more than 60 years, includes planning and carrying out coups d'état and supporting dictators? Do they know that this organization is behind the killing of students, teachers and workers? Were they told that many children and mothers never saw their relatives again because they simply disappeared? Do they know that this organization trained some of the most sick-minded terrorists of the 21st century?

Well, perhaps they should know. Perhaps it is important to know that this organization backed several dictatorships in Latin America, and that as recently as 2002, it supported the attempt to overthrow the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. It might be important to check the background of the organizations we want to bring to campus to present to our peers. Isn't it important to know that a visiting organization once supported a terrorist like Posada Carriles (and his buddies) in blowing up a civilian airplane in 1976? The list of direct and indirect actions taken by the CIA over the last 60 years fills many books and Web sites. It is not hard to find at all.

It did not surprise me to see the CIA on campus. However, knowing that they were sponsored by a student organization gives me the chills. They highlighted the fact that "the agency" was recruiting engineering, IT and business majors, that they were not recruiting agents. Now I ask, if you knowingly help someone in any way to commit a crime, isn't it likely the judge will punish you? If you collaborate with the CIA, you are helping an organization with a very nasty background. For now, shame on Inspire Anderson Marketing.

Sebastian Pais

UNM student