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Background
In 1999, Congress passed a law that formally established a National Commission on Terrorism as part of a response to the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa. The Commission is composed of ten commissioners, three appointed by the Majority Leader of the Senate, three appointed by the Speaker of the House, two appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate and two appointed by the Minority Leader of the House.
The Commission was given six months to review and assess the laws, regulations, policies, directives and practices relating to counterterrorism. The Commission was also mandated to assess the Executive Branch's efforts to coordinate counterterrorism activities among federal, state and local agencies, and with other nations, to prevent the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons by terrorists. Between January and June, the Commission held fourteen plenary meetings and was briefed by outside experts, government officials and representatives of other nations including Canada, Egypt, France, Israel, Jordan, Poland and the United Kingdom. After the analysis, the Commission issued a report to the President and Congress with recommendations of changes to U.S. policy in preventing and punishing international terrorism directed at the United States entitled, "Countering the Changing Threat of International Terrorism."
Monitoring Foreign Students
Many of the Commission's recommendations have possible negative implications for the conduct of science, academic freedom and human rights. The Science and Human Rights Program (SHR) is most concerned with the specific recommendations to monitor foreign students. The proposal is to use an existing INS program that is now in its pilot phase, the Coordinated Interagency Partnership Regulating International Students (CIPRIS). CIPRIS is an Internet-based system that allows universities and colleges to electronically file information about the status of their foreign students directly to the INS. The Commission recommends adding elements to the system that would monitor such things as declared majors or any changes in majors. Presumably, there would be certain courses of study designated as "red flags" or high risk such as nuclear physics. The information is to be shared with the participating U.S. agencies including the Department of State, Department of Education and the U.S. Information Agency. Considering the large number of foreign students currently studying in the U.S., the government would most likely engage in profiling of certain nationalities. The monitoring of certain courses might dissuade international students from studying the sciences.
Racial Profiling and Discrimination at National Labs
The Commission's recommendations to more tightly regulate control of pathogens at laboratories could have the effect of fostering an environment that encourages racial profiling and possible discriminatory actions directed against professional scientists. SHR is already concerned about discrimination and profiling of Asian scientists in national security laboratories as a result of the Wen Ho Lee case. There is some indication that profiling is now occurring with other ethnic groups. The Program has already received a report of the FBI visiting the work place of a Muslim Pakistani chemical engineer seeking more information about his associations and contacts. The FBI implied that since he knew about chemistry, he would also know about explosives.
Increased governmental monitoring of foreign scientists leading to institutional discrimination against certain groups will make recruiting of foreign scientists or students from those groups very difficult. Some scholarly groups have urged Asian and Asian-American scientists to boycott jobs at national security labs. Discrimination may have an adverse impact on moral at scientific labs and academic institutions. A recent New York Times article reported that the number of Asian and Asian-American applicants for postdoctoral positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory has decreased to three in the first half of 2000, down from an average of 28 in 1998 and 1999. There is also a steady decline in Asian and Asian-Americans accepting jobs, down from 18 in 1998 to 9 in 1999 and 3 in the first half of 2000.
Privacy Concerns for Students and Scientists
The SHR is also extremely concerned about the implications for protecting the privacy of foreign students and scientists. Several of the recommendations call for collecting more information and greater sharing of intelligence among federal agencies. Both would increase the greater the risk that information about a foreign students and professional scientists might be compromised. Also, if a person is labeled as a security risk and the information is shared widely throughout various government agencies, there would likely be an adverse impact on the individual's ability to conduct business, apply for travel visas or interact with other groups without the right of appeal.
The Report
The National Commission on Terrorism's report, "Countering the Threat of International Terrorism" can be found online at http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/commission.html. For those who cannot access the Internet version, please contact the Science and Human Rights Program for a copy of the Report.
"Amid Race Profiling Claims, Asian-Americans Avoid Labs" by James Glanz. New York Times 16 July 2000.
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 Copyright 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved. |
