[A-List] US imperialism: CIA in UK universities

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Revealed: university professor worked for CIA
By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor and Ruaridh Arrow
The Sunday Herald, 23 May 2004

PICTURE the scene. It's just days before the invasion of Iraq. You're a
hard-working undergraduate at Glasgow University studying for your degree in
political science, and standing before you in the lecture theatre is your
professor - a suave, erudite American.

What could be better for a young student trying to get to grips with the
affairs of the world than having a US professor explain the pros and cons of
regime change in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

There's one problem though. The professor's name is Richard Mansbach and he
worked for the CIA - the US spying agency equivalent to Britain's MI6.

During his US career, Mansbach is known to have used his own students to un
wittingly carry out research for the CIA on perceived "liberal" threats in
western Europe such as unions, churches and political activists.

A university spokeswoman said: "As far as we knew he came here to teach. We
can't confirm that he worked for the CIA. He only taught at Glasgow
University. He was not engaged in any research. He never said he worked for
the CIA."

She did admit, however, that staff had "heard allegations that he did
research in America for the CIA", adding: "He may well have given advice to
the American government."

The spokeswomen said that Mansbach had now returned to America and is
currently teaching at Iowa State University. She added that Professor Andrew
Lockyer, the head of politics, "could not say that it [information about
Mansbach's past as a CIA operative] was formally mentioned to him".

Mansbach taught for one academic year - from 2002-2003 - as part of an
exchange of senior academic staff between Iowa and Glasgow universities.
As a visiting professor on a "highly valued exchange course", Mansbach
taught classes ranging from first year to final year.

But Mansbach's career in the US has been dogged by his CIA connections. In
1984, Mansbach was working at Rutgers University in New Jersey as chair of
the political science department.

He and Harvey Waterman, department professor and associate dean of the
graduate school, hired students and used an undergraduate group to supply
the CIA with extensive research on western European peace groups, unions,
churches, opposition parties and women's organisations.

For failing to inform the university of their work for the CIA and for
enlisting students without their knowledge, Mansbach and Waterman received
letters of reprimand deposited in their permanent files. However, no other
action was taken.

Not long after his covert project for the CIA was exposed, The Philadelphia
Inquirer revealed that the CIA financed the work to the tune of $25,000. The
Inquirer interviewed Mansbach by phone and he told a reporter that CIA
research on campus "can provide a heck of a lot of insight perhaps not
available to Washington".

In 1975, Mansbach lectured at CIA headquarters, then in 1977 at the US
Information Agency and in 1982 at the National Security Agency and the US
Army War College. It is known that between 1981-83, he was full-time staff
at the CIA when he worked in the National Intelligence Council's European
Analysis division. When he left he was told the CIA had "profited greatly"
from his work.

While he was at Rutgers, the CIA's National Intelligence Council set up the
European Non-State Actors Project (ENSAP), which looked at how groups
ranging from the SNP to the German Greens and from CND to anti-nuclear
clergymen may affect US foreign policy.

With top-secret security clearance, Mansbach then used his Rutgers students
to prepare data for the CIA's ENSAP programme on the assets, ideologies and
clout of church groups, unions, media outlets and feminist groups.

The Sunday Herald contacted Mansbach at his office in Iowa but he did not
return calls. At the time of the outbreak of war with Iraq, Mansbach
supported the invasion.

A number of Glasgow University students criticised Mansbach's "lazy teaching
style" to senior staff.

In 2000, a Sunday Herald investigation revealed that a former MI6 chief,
Andrew Fulton, was working in the university's Law School at the Lockerbie
Trial Briefing Unit which was meant to inform the media about Scots law.

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http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mansbach/