Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Repress U.?


The Nation article, Repress U., by Michael Gould-Wartofsky, discusses a number of ways that U.S. college campuses are

fast becoming the latest watchtower in Fortress America. The terror warriors, having turned their attention to "violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism prevention"--as it was recently dubbed in a House of Representatives bill of the same name--have set out to reconquer that traditional hotbed of radicalization, the university.

Building a homeland security campus and bringing the university to heel is a seven-step mission:

1. Target dissidents. (snip)

2. Lock and load (campus police) (snip)

3. Keep an eye (or hundreds of them) focused on campus (surveillance) (snip)

4. Mine student records. (snip)

5. Track foreign-born students; keep the undocumented out.

6. Take over the curriculum, the classroom and the laboratory. (treating faculty and students as assets for government research) (snip)

7. Privatize, privatize, privatize. (the multi-billion dollar industry of "homeland security") (snip)
click on the title to this post to read the entire, distressing article. I know something about some of the "steps" listed above at my campus, but there is a lot I don't know about! It's 11 o'clock. Do you know where your campus is?

The prison bars decorating this post are actually "Trail Bay Gaol, which is an old 1880's public works prison and WWI German prisoner of war camp." courtesy of http://www.tripsource.com/stories/Andy/Andy/Trip9/Aust3.htm, Andy Nunn in Australia.

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