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PD #9: THE "FEDERALIZATION" OF ACADEMIA
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Joyce Lynn, Editor
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Jan 05, 2003 15:54 PST
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POLITICAL DIARY
The Inside Source for News
Joyce Lynn, Editor
By email: politicaldiary at hotmail dot com
www.topica.com/lists/politicaldiary
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THE POLITICAL DIARY, based on the truth-telling power of dreams, is
founded on the premise each of us has an Inside Source, which can reveal
the truth that will bring wholeness. Through commentary, news reporting,
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the stories behind the news so the populace can make informed choices.
Issue #9
December 2002
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK:
George W. Bush made a huge political miscalculation -- one that could
have proven fatal to Bush’s efforts to cover-up the true story of 9-11.
That was his appointment of Henry Kissinger to chair the "independent"
commission to investigate 9-11. The commission is suppose to determine
what our government knew and did not know and what it did and did not do
before the terror attacks on September 11.
Bush’s ploy to name someone known for his secrecy was destined to
backfire calling attention to the very issues the commission will
investigate.
In a November 27 Slate magazine article, writer Christopher Hitchens
called Kissinger "an errand boy and apologist for regimes such as the
Saudi Arabia oligarchy . . ..
"The commission will be chaired by a man with a long, proven record of
concealing evidence and of lying to Congress and the public," he wrote.
Kissinger resigned shortly after he was named because he ostensibly did
not want to reveal his business affiliations.
While Kissinger was still on the commission, Hitchens made the talk show
rounds blasting the man who has served in every Republican
administration since Richard Nixon.
On December 6, Bill Moyers’ Now program featured Eugene Jarecki,
director of "The Trials of Henry Kissinger," based on Hitchens’ book.
The KQED-TV promo for the show exclaimed, "A new film that has landed
smack dab in the middle of the raging debate on whether Henry Kissinger
can be counted on to tell the truth after a career filled with secrecy."
Kissinger’s resignation saved the administration from endless headlines
about Kissinger’s role in U.S. foreign policy, such as installing and
supporting corrupt government regimes and prolonging the Vietnam War for
years costing thousands of U.S. and Southeast Asian lives.
In his business dealings, Kissinger has profited greatly from the
policies he helped put in place as the water boy for David Rockefeller’s
oil politics and the strategies of the Trilateral Commission.
As PD urged in Issue #4, Follow the Flow (of Oil) for the money trail of
U.S. policies and to 9-11.
Appearing on Lou "American flag in his lapel" Dobbs’ Moneyline December
16, Kissinger tried to explain how he wanted to share his financial
dealings with selected third parities. Unfortunately, none of those
included the American people.
One Senate ethics committee member complained the White House pressured
the committee to bypass the legal requirement that Kissinger, like
others who serve on public commissions, reveal potential conflicts of
interest.
Kissinger’s appointment was an affront to 9-11 families. Its subtext was
clear: the Bush administration has used their grief to whip up patriotic
fever but has deserted them when finding the truth about 9-11 is at
stake.
To add insult to injury, Bush has appointed a new chairman, former New
Jersey governor Thomas Kean, who has ties to the oil pipeline going
through Afghanistan.
Kissinger’s appointment energized the 9-11 people’s investigation, a
coalition of activist organizations, whose leaders have pledged to bring
to light that which the government investigations leave in the dark.
Almost more shocking than Kissinger’s past is what Kissinger told Dobbs
about 9-11. Kissinger called the attacks "totally unexpected” and said
they "came from a quarter no one would have thought."
Journalists and researchers investigating 9-11 have known for more than
a year the administration had foreknowledge of the attacks. Osama bin
Laden, the supposed mastermind, was well known in intelligence circles.
The Joint Intelligence Committee last September released a 30-page
report supporting the litany of what the administration knew.
Was Kissinger hiding in a cave or is Bush so arrogant he thinks we still
don’t know?
Joyce Lynn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE "FEDERALIZATION" OF ACADEMIA: How the Government is Co-opting
College Campuses
by
Joyce Lynn
(Editor’s Note: In mid-May, I was pondering collaborators for a book
about 9-11. In a dream, a stop sign appeared as I contemplated the
project. The next night, I asked my dreams to shed light on the stop
sign’s meaning.
That night, I heard the words "Carnegie Mellon."
Clueless about this clue, I researched "Carnegie Mellon University,
located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The two stories in this issue derived from the "Carnegie Mellon" dream
tip indicate the story of 9-11 is more than a political or even a
geo-political one. It is a fabric woven of historical, social, and
spiritual threads.)
The federal government is extending its control into academia and yet
another arena of our lives.
Government power has already co-opted media as large conglomerates with
defense holdings also own networks, and newspapers curry favorable
government rulings on mergers. The government has already made it
difficult for ordinary citizens to seek redress from industry
wrongdoing, granting liability exemptions for drug and insurance
companies and pandering to corrupt corporate leaders.
If your child attends a higher education institution, you’re paying
$40,000 a year to a school that is likely receiving huge defense and
other government contracts.
For example, within the first five months of 2002, Carnegie Mellon
received a huge NASA research grant, a $750,000 Centers for Disease
Control grant, and, in June, G.W. Bush named the Carnegie Mellon
president to a Homeland Security post.
The "federalization" of college campuses has a myriad of consequences:
* Recent silencing of student protests at Ohio State University and the
New School of Social Research, where president Bob Kerrey has named big
defense contractors including United Technologies, Honeywell, and
Lockheed Martin to the Board.
Kerrey has also joined a committee to "liberate" Iraq, and, according to
students, banned speakers who question the government’s war policies
from speaking on the college founded to promote free speech.
* Harvard University’s budget includes Department of Defense grants
amounting to more than $300 million, guaranteeing military recruiters a
prime place on campus.
*M.I.T. has a budget-sustaining federally financed research center to
develop technology for the U.S. missile defense system. Recently, a MIT
physicist alleged a cover-up of problems with the system that is at the
core of the Bush administration’s foreign policy.
Fears of federal and industry funding repercussions are “why they get
(angry) at me at Stanford when I hang my banner," says activist Carol
Brouillet. Her banner reads: "Guilty of 9-11, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld.
You ask why: Drugs, Oil, Power. See tenc.net."
In November, Stanford University announced a $225 million, 10-year grant
from Exxon Mobil, General Electric, and other industries to fund a
Global Climate and Energy Project at the Palo Alto, California,
university.
As college endowments shrink with the declining stock market, pressure
increases on college administrators to fill their coffers with industry
and government funding.
Federal grants often come with strings, such as demands to approve
foreign nationals and others working on the projects.
According to its web site, Carnegie Mellon University is a "research
university" of 7,500 students and 3,000 faculty and staff.
The school bears the last names of two Andrews, both huge business
forces. Andrew Carnegie founded Carnegie Steel Company. In 1901, he sold
the company to J.P. Morgan for $400 million ($4.5 billion today). Along
the way, he broke the steel unions. He gave to charitable causes, one
biographer wrote, hoping his philanthropy would "mitigate the grimy
details of accumulating his money."
After Andrew Mellon (1855-1937), financier and industrialist, took
control of his father’s banking interests, he created Union Trust Co. He
expanded his holding into industries like Gulf Oil. He became secretary
of the Treasury in 1921 and served three presidents. Some say his tax
and other policies favored the wealthy and led to the economic
depression.
Mellon also was the driving force behind the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C.
Mellon family holdings include Mellon Bank, Mellon Financial
Corporation, and the Dreyfus Group. It was Richard Mellon Scafe, who
bankrolled the right-wing opposition to President Clinton.
In 1900, Carnegie donated funds to create Carnegie Technical Schools.
His vision: a vocational training school for the children of
Pittsburgh’s working class.
Renamed Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1912, the school grew into a
leading private research university. In 1967, Carnegie Tech merged with
Mellon Institute to become Carnegie Mellon University. Today, Carnegie
Mellon is a national leader in computer science, robotics, and
engineering.
In the past decade, decreasing government grants caused Carnegie Mellon
to turn to industry for research funding. Now, Carnegie Mellon is
experiencing an up surge in federal research money.
In 1997, Jared L. Cohon, former dean of Yale University’s School of
Forestry and Environmental studies, was named University president.
On February 5, NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California,
in the Silicon Valley, awarded Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer
Science a five-year, $23 million research grant to measure and improve
the dependability of NASA’s systems.
NASA scientists will collaborate with researchers from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, University of
California, University of Washington, and the University of Wisconsin.
Carnegie Mellon has worked for two years to establish a presence in the
Silicon Valley including formation of a consortium with NASA and 15
Silicon Valley companies focused on reducing computing system failures.
The CIA is also building a new facility in Palo Alto to "get Silicon
Valley on board." The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has long
been a big defense force in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon is considered a
leader in computing and robotics. Founded in 1984 with funding from the
U.S. Defense Department, the SEI administers 109 programs including
robotics, artificial intelligence, and software engineering.
On March 8, G.W. Bush visited Carnegie Mellon president Cohon and
praised the University for its work with computers. Subsequently, Bush
appointed Cohon to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
Tom Ridge, Homeland Security chief and a former Pennsylvania governor,
delivered the keynote address at Carnegie Mellon’s commencement
ceremonies May 19.
That is only the tip of the iceberg.
Last July, the National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC), part of
the Robotics Institute in the School of Computer Science, announced a
$5.5 million, 18 month “award” from the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) to build and test a prototype robotic unmanned
all-terrain combat vehicle.
NREC researchers have been working with subcontractors Boeing Co.
(Chicago), PEI Electronics (Huntsville, Alabama) and Timoney Technology
(Meath, Ireland) for a year and a half to develop the crewless vehicle.
The statement of PEI president and CEO Tom Keenan makes clear the tilt
toward the business of war. Carnegie Mellon’s press release quotes
Keenan as saying this project will “enhance the effectiveness of
tomorrow's war fighter. We . . . stand ready to successfully meet the
challenges associated with the future battle space."
Carnegie Mellon president Cohon’s ascendancy to the Homeland Security
advisory board was only a small step toward a larger role for Carnegie
Mellon in the “security” arena.
Last fall, Carnegie Mellon announced the creation of the Center for
Computer and Communications Security (C3S) and a $35.5 million five-year
grant. The benefactor -- the U.S. taxpayer – by way of the Department
of Defense.
Again, the Carnegie Mellon press release tells the story: This grant
will create “a new network security paradigm to tackle the challenges
related to Internet security, data storage, and privacy issues stemming
from America's ongoing war against terrorism.”
Pradeep Khosla, head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department and the new C3S, is cited as saying the crucial role that
information technology plays in warfare and homeland security inspired
Carnegie Mellon to create the new center.
The National Security Agency, one the nation’s intelligence cops, has
approved the Carnegie Mellon institute that will manage a graduate
degree program in information security as part of the grant.
The events of 9-11 gave the Bush administration justification to launch
its “war on terrorism.” The tentacles of military federalization -- as
the Carnegie Mellon grants show -- reach far and wide.
Carnegie Mellon’s website praises its arts and humanities leadership.
However, except for a grant from several foundations to develop a
database for arts organizations in southwest Pennsylvania, there were no
listings for grants supporting the arts in 2002. Carnegie Mellon did
announce the release of an opera CD and the appearance of a few
filmmakers and writers.
The School of Engineering, one of the beneficiaries of the technology
largesse, hosted a panel on 9-11 last August. Several journalists
appeared on the panel titled, “Running Toward Danger,” which told
stories of bravery, underscoring the patriotic themes that feed war
fever.
Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and its associated Vision and
Autonomous System Center design space robots, autonomous navigation
systems, virtual reality, and intelligent manipulations. The Robotics
Institute was founded in 1971 to conduct basic and applied research
relevant "to industrial and societal" needs. It received $24 million in
funding in fiscal 2001 from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and
other sources.
Some 9-11 investigators have theorized that the World Trade Center
and/or Pentagon planes were robotically controlled, which, could explain
how the hijackers the Bush administration said had flunked out of flight
school could hit their targets so successfully.
Recently, robotically controlled vehicles have made headlines, including
stories about unmanned space vehicles, the unmanned Predator that the
Iraqis shot down, the U.S. forces’ remote-controlled assassination of
alleged terrorists in Kenya, and a Global Hawk test flight from
Australia.
The capacity to remotely direct planes has been around since World War
II. A Robotics Institute associate told POLITICAL DIARY that Carnegie
Mellon scientists develop a myriad of technologies and how those
technologies are used is “beyond" the control of the scientists’ who
develop them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONTROL, FEAR, AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER: A Dialogue with activist Carol
Brouillet
Carol Brouillet has advocated cutting-edge global issues for a decade.
Writing articles, organizing events, and speaking publicly, she connects
people, ideas, and information to nurture economic justice, ecological
sustainability, and healthy social change.
Oliver Stone's film JFK led Brouillet to research the C.I.A. and
scandals she believes the mainstream media has whitewashed. Because a
film catalyzed her transformation, she focuses her activism on promoting
films, books, and audiotapes.
With film as her tool, she has helped to build social movements,
including reform of the media and of global economics.
She holds weekly “listening” events in downtown Palo Alto, California,
to educate the community about crucial issues.
Shaken by the events of September 11, Brouillet has mobilized and
educated people about the economic forces driving the “war on
terrorism.” Questioning the government’s official story, she has led
efforts to pressure Congress to investigate the events of September 11
and to find answers to the many questions the “official” government
story raises.
Here, the self-described “hyper-kinetic activist” adds her perspectives
to the “federalization” of academia.
"Centers for Disease Control, pharmaceutical and agricultural
industries, control of the water and food supply. They are so hell bent
on control. They are working so hard to control every aspect of life,"
said activist Carol Brouillet as she looked over Carnegie Mellon press
releases announcing wide-ranging government research grants.
In a day-long dialogue on a drive with Brouillet and another activist
from the fog-shrouded beaches near Half Moon Bay, California, to a sunny
park, and then to her house near the Stanford University campus in Palo
Alto, Brouillet asserted that the government’s co-opting of academia is
broader than extending its conservative agenda onto college campuses.
The conversation took place last summer and predated several of the
major defense and security grants the U.S. government awarded Carnegie
Mellon (see related article) heightening Brouillet’s insights and
analysis.
She likened the government’s growing financial stake in the nation’s
academic institutions to The Brothers Karamazov. In Fyodor
Dostoyevsky’s 700-page epic novel, which takes place in Russia circa
1890, Christ returns to earth and the religious community challenges
Him.
"Christ returns to earth at the height of the Spanish inquisition. The
Inquisitor had just burned a number of heretics. Christ has a glow about
Him so people recognize Him," explained Brouillet. "Terrified of Christ,
the Inquisitor orders his soldiers to seize Him. He says to Christ, ‘How
dare you come back to earth. You screwed up, this is where you went
wrong, and we are correcting your work.’"
The Inquisitor, said Brouillet, "represents organized religion, the
Church, and the hierarchy of the day. He is saying, ‘You are so wrong.
You misjudged humanity. One in 10,000 has the capacity to be free and
good. Everyone else is miserable and needs to be controlled.’
"Christ is like the female principle. Christ believes in the inherent
good of people and life. They should be free and have free will.
"You made your big mistake when the devil came down and offered Christ
three temptations. First, if you are really Christ, turn these stones to
bread. Second, if you are really Christ, throw your self from this
cliff, and God will save you. Third, the Devil tempted Christ with money
and power and greed.
"Christ turned down the Devil three times because He believed man should
be free and man was inherently good.
"The Church accepted the Devil’s offer. They gave bread, distributed
things, and took care of people. And they also accepted the mystic and
the mysticism. To entrance magic and to hold power rather than allow the
people to feel powerful, the Church took the white man’s burden upon its
shoulders to be caretakers of the soul and the spiritual life of
humanity.
"How else could they control man but by grabbing money and power to
entrance and trick humanity into being obedient and having control over
them?"
In Brouillet’s analysis, the Church is like the state and the
government, pushing for obedience and adherence.
Brouilett also cast the conflict as a male-female dichotomy in which the
male, patriarch God tells everyone, ‘You have sinned.’ Men are weak,
evil creatures who must be controlled for the good of everyone."
She described technology that can virtually "take off your clothes and
expose every little bit of you. There is no place to hide. Like in The
Skulls, bugs are everywhere. They’re watching; they’re listening. They
can catch you at anything. Once you start walking down the path, you’re
theirs forever."
Brouillet added: "Like global patriarchy, this is how they get away with
it. It’s deep and systemic. They frighten everyone into going along with
their control thing."
The Skulls released to video and DVD in October, 2000, is a complex
thriller and a morality play. "Skulls is a society so powerful it can
give you everything you desire…at a price," the film notes proclaim.
Secret, selective, clandestine organizations, like the Skulls, inhabit
prestigious colleges. “They are elite groups dedicated to propagating
their own agendas. They reward ‘loyalty’ with influence and money," say
the filmmakers.
In the movie, Luke McNamara, a “townie,” attends a prestigious Ivy
League school. He is challenged to "standup and do what’s right" at
great personal cost to his ambitions, financial future, friendships, and
moral beliefs. Luke, the populist, represents goodwill, "a moral compass
in a system that perpetuates societies in which the elite ruling class
dictates everything."
Luke McNamara was like the Christ figure and the members of the Sculls
were like the Church and the Government in Brouillet’s analysis. The
University Provost was directly involved with the Skulls because he
needed those big elite bucks to keep the school going.
According to the filmmakers, "Secret societies are part of Ivy League
life. They are a breeding ground of future presidents, senators,
captains of industry."
One of those societies is The Scull and Bones at Yale University, whose
members include G.H.W. Bush and G.W. Bush as well as luminaries in the
CIA and Congress.
The Skulls’ screenwriter and producer John Pogue was "tapped" in his
senior year to a secret society at Yale. He called the societies an
"anarchistic" system.
The filmmakers say that secret societies like Sculls "almost function
like Big Brother in the novel 1984 – they are everywhere and they know
everything about you. There’s no way out."
According to the filmmakers, "The Skulls poses questions about the
democracy we live in and whether it is actually run by members of
elitist organizations."
At her house, Brouillet emerged with a deck of Illuminati cards, The New
World Order, Limited edition. Dubbed a "card game of conspiracy," the
tagline reads: "Betray your friends, destroy the world." Under the
rules, any nation can direct an attack. Each group has a different
amount of power, and each has special goal. For example, one goal:
"Reduce by one the number of groups you need to control in order to win.
The more groups you destroy, the less groups you need to control."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DREAM TIP
BACK TO YOU: What Can We Do in 2003?
The morning last October when the House of Representatives began debate
on a resolution giving Bush clear sailing to invade Iraq, PD Editor
Joyce Lynn had this dream:
"The back of an SUV. American flag decals are affixed to both doors, to
the right and to the left sides."
The SUV pulls away, its back to me.”
The dream is a metaphor for why the U.S. is attacking Iraq (oil for
indulgent Americans and for American oil interests). The dream is a
metaphor for the acquiescence of the left and right, Democrats and
Republicans, to Bush’s "wag the dog" Iraq strategy.
The dream’s New Year 2003 message is clear: The solution for the
precarious world situation is “back to us.” The dream asks, “What will
you do about the oil oligarchy manipulating our democracy and co-opting
the world?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JOYCE LYNN is a journalist including eight years as a political reporter
in Washington, D.C. After she moved to San Francisco, she turned from
writing about the politics of social welfare issues to matters of the
mind.
She initiated the POLITICAL DIARY in the aftermath of the 2000 election
when her dreams predicted with 100% accuracy its outcome and
told the story behind the story.
POLITICAL DIARY is archived at
www.topica.com/lists/politicaldiary.
Joyce teaches INNER JOURNALISM: Writing, Dreams, and Telling the Truth
through Writers on the Net (www.writers.com). The next class begins
February 4.
She can be reached at politicaldiary at hotmail dot com
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c Joyce Lynn 2002
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JOYCE LYNN
Editor
POLITICAL DIARY
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