Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 4

4fl DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, ROCHESTER. THURSDAY. MAY 16. 1991 i profifa Spycraft ties to RIT are 40 years old, George Ryan says such estimates are "exaggerations" and points out that the corpora-, tion turned a profit for the first time last; year netting a total of $160,000. Officials are extremely reluctant to reveal details of CIA-sponsored claiming privacy because the Research-Corp.

is also involved in proprietary, or confidential, research. In this investigation, the Democrat and. Chronicle had to rely on other sources for facts and figures about the CIA connection, and then seek confirmation from RIT offi-j cials. No details were freely offered by the" administration, despite the statement by. Rose that RTFs links with the CIA are; open, non-secretive and above board.

Some data was found in a confidential report to a faculty and staff committee on-proprietary research that was established last year in response to growing concern among faculty about the CIA That data, confirmed by Ryan, reveals that from 1985 to 1990, the CIA sponsored $1.3 million in research at the Research Corp. 30 percent of all revenues there and $700,000 throughout the rest of Richelson, a former professor of government and public affairs at American University and currently a consultant with the National Security Archives, was not familiar with details of the RIT-CIA link. When it was described to him, he said he had not heard of any other campus where such extensive technological research was being done on behalf of the CIA. "Of the tens of millions of dollars spent on research by the directorates of Intelligence and of Science and Technology and by the National Intelligence Council, only seven universities receive any of this money," he said. "Most of it goes to private corporations and laboratories." Growth in CIA contracts is an exception to the general trend at the for-profit RIT Research which has mostly lost money in recent years, according to figures obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle.

In fart, in its first five or six years of operation, the Research Corp. ran up an accumulated deficit of more than $1 million some say as much as $2 million or $3 million. However, Research Corp. acting-President and Director of Operations aerial reconnaissance flights. In fact the action of RIT President M.

Richard Rose in going to work for the covert agency is only the latest development in a complex and longstanding relationship between RIT and the CIA, a relationship that goes back to the 1950s. For at least 40 years, say senior RIT officials, individual RIT photographic scientists and print experts have assisted the CIA, particularly in the area of aerial photography and image analysis. Before Rose's presidency and the establishment of the Research these links were erratic and relatively casual. For example, CIA-sponsored research at RIT during the entire period from 1966 to 1975 totaled only $200,000 or 10 percent of the amount expected to be generated this year alone. Today, RIT's diverse and longstanding relationship with the CIA gives it a special place among institutions of higher education.

For example, it is one of about 12 colleges and universities to host a CIA "Officer-in-Residence" a CIA officer who spends time on a college campus and may study, teach or assist with recruiting. Since the early 1960s, the CIA has been among agencies and businesses whose facilities have been made available to RIT students for "co-op" work experience, which is mandatory in several RIT courses. According to Rose, the CIA hires five to 10 graduating seniors annually, after interviewing 50 to 75 students during several officially sanctioned recruiting visits each year. What distinguishes CIA research at RIT from that at most other universities is that it is almost entirely related to technological support, or spycraft As such, it is mostly commissioned by the Office of Technical Service within the agency's Directorate of Science and Technology. Jeffrey Richelson, a Washington, D.C.-based expert on the intelligence community, says the basic function of that directorate is to harness new technologies in support of covert operations overseas.

"That would include exotic weapons, exotic explosives, forged documents and secret writing," Richelson said. "These are all technologies spies need and are different from processing satellite data to exploit intelligence from it" By Jennifer Hyman Democrat and Chronicle Links between Rochester Institute of Technology and the Central Intelligence Agency go back many decades, although there is evidence that they have deepened and become more profitable in the past five years. Despite official reluctance to release detailed figures, it is apparent that the quantity of research done for the CIA is growing, particularly at the institution's proprietary research subsidiary, the Research Corp. There, despite overall corporation losses on contracts with private companies, CIA-sponsored work has mushroomed. Last year, for example, the CIA sponsored $855,000 of research at the corporation, twice the amount generated between 1985 and 1989.

That figure is expected to grow to $1.5 million this year. About $200,000 a year in CIA money also funds research elsewhere on the campus, mainly in the Center for Imaging Science. There, researchers work on CIA-sponsored projects to perfect systems of extracting useful intelligence from satellite images and Several U.S. universities restricted links to CIA Faculty member recalls CIA offer to train spies tioned in South Vietnam. There, they drafted the government's constitution and pro- i vided police training and weapons to the! Diem regime.

As recently as 1984, a Rutgers University political science professor was exposed for; using undergraduate students without their knowledge as cover for a CIA project concerning European political, cultural, religious, labor and environmental movements. According to John Shattuck, a Harvard University law professor and vice president for government, community and public affairs, many of these incidents were not exposed until the mid-1970s. The revelations prompted many schools to establish "very clear guidelines," which continue today. "Harvard insists that sponsors have to be publicly identified and there can be no research contract that precludes publication," said Shattuck, who has written extensively on national security and constitutional law. Closer to home, the University of Rochester last year turned down an offer to establish an intelligence research 'think tank' in Washington on behalf of the CIA.

UR officials believed that such a link would be widely perceived as compromising the integrity of its research, particularly abroad. By Jennifer Hyman Democrat and Chronicle Unlike RIT, several leading American research universities have determined in recent years that close links with the Central Intelligence Agency are inappropriate for institutions of higher education. Some, like Harvard University, have imposed a flat ban on all classified research; others have imposed restrictions on on-campus recruiting of either American or foreign students. These actions followed a period during the late 1960s and early 1970s when loose and undisclosed research arrangements existed at many prestigious schools. Embarrassing disclosures, often years after the event, also demonstrated that college campuses were regarded as fertile recruiting grounds for future CIA agents or part-time informers.

At the peak of the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations of the 1960s, students were covertly recruited to spy on their colleagues, as well. Faculty also were used to identify, screen and recruit agents from among the student body. In an early case, Michigan State University received a $25 million CIA contract to provide academic cover to five CIA agents by purporting to employ them sta By Jennifer Hyman Democrat and Chronicle Central Intelligence Agency activities on the campus of Rochester Institute of Technology have included efforts to recruit facility to train spies in covert skills. Malcolm Spaull, chairman of RIT's Film and Video Department, for example, was approached about five years ago by Andrew Dougherty, President Richard Rose's executive assistant, and asked to train CIA agents in video surveillance. Spaull, who declined the offer on the grounds that he would not do any "directly aggressive" work that infringed human rights, agreed to discuss the incident in an interview.

"I was called to the seventh floor where Andrew Dougherty introduced me to two people from the CIA," Spaull said. "They put the offer to me. When I said, he (Dougherty) said that was OK, he respected my views." Neither Dougherty nor the two CIA officials pressured him in any way to change his mind, Spaull said. Dougherty said this week he couldn't remember the details of the video-surveillance training project he had suggested to Spaull. Spaull said his reluctance to do work for the CIA was influenced by a personal experience: He is an longtime friend of the family of Charles Horman, the American writer whose abduction and apparent execution by a right-wing death squad in Chile in the early 1980s was depicted in the film Missing.

In the film, CIA agents in Chile at the time are shown disseminating disinformation about the incident to Horman's distraught father and wife, as they attempt to find out what happened to Horman. Spaull said the case was not yet closed, and that there was "some evidence that the CIA knew he was in captivity and acquiesced in his execution." He said the incident provided direct evidence of what he believed about CIA activities. Spaull said he had no objection to other forms of research for the military and had once been instrumental in obtaining a U.S. Navy contract "But I draw the line absolutely at the CIA," he said. Another RIT faculty member who has had to let administrators know that he will not do work for the CIA is John Ciampa, who runs RIT's American Video Institute.

"I simply pointed to a clause in the contract with my institute that says it will engage only in activities that are life enhancing," Ciampa said. Jim Harmon Reporter Magazine RIT President M. Richard Rose in photo taken last week shows him at Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, where he is on sabbatical. Millions in CIA funding pumped into RIT during Rose's 12-year tenure FROM PAGE 1A imiiwuwwwijwpwil 1 CV. "The CIA has a lot of terhnnlmrv i 1 A 1 IJt i ill mmi.iMrttr mlii it nin Kevin Hlgley Democrat and Chronicle ine Federal Programs Training Center is a CIA-linked facility near the RIT campus.

It's regularly swept for listening devices. Nystrom said. "It believes in giving work support to the kids so as to build a pool of engineering skills." He sees other benefits for the students as well, such as developing research skills and having a lucrative part-time job. The program has been so successful that Nystrom predicts it will continue to double each year meaning next year's CIA-sponsored projects might total $3 million. RIT officials say that in the Research CIA contracts are treated under the same guidelines that govern other sponsored, proprietary research whether for private companies or government departments.

However, in a list of research contracts for 1990 obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle, all sponsors are mentioned by name, except the CIA. CIA contracts are referred to as "Washington," followed by words such as "Zeus," "Spectra" and "Socrates." Ryan said those codes probably referred to the names of the computers on which the work was done. THE KEY PEOPLE involved in CIA activities at RIT all express a strong personal ideology about the importance of national security, and a commitment to support the activities of clandestine intelligence services. "I'm involved because the CIA is clearly a legitimate part of government and because it's a small thing I can do to support the United States, through supporting national security," said Nystrom. Harvey Rhody, a professor of electrical engineering who spends half his time working on CIA-sponsored projects at the Research said he believed it to be legitimate to work for clandestine agencies.

"Those who voice suspicions that the work we do may not be appropriate just don't like the CIA," he said. "We need clandestine services and where it is appropriate for us to make a contribution to national security, we will do classified work." Asked who decided what research was appropriate, Rhody said those decisions were made by "people like myself who know the work." Nystrom said such decisions were based on "the moral and ethical values of the people leading the institution." Dougherty, Rose's assistant who says he oversees all CIA work on campus, say9 that "morality is built into every fiber of my body." "I have refused orders in the past," said the 26-year Air Force veteran. "No, scrub that. I am not a blind automaton and would refuse any order or request that I deemed immoral or wrong or inappropriate for RIT." However, Dougherty said he had never had to turn down a CIA request and he is convinced the CIA would never ask for anything that was morally questionable. "They are really gun-shy about doing any-; thing improper with an academic institu-' tion," he said.

not create forgeries. Another project, now completed, attempted to perfect a system of electronically scanning 9mm spy film and digitizing the selected images and storing them on computer discs. Rose has not been available for interviews this week but in a letter distributed Tuesday to faculty, staff and students, he defended his actions and the CIA's continuing activities at RIT. He said CIA-sponsored research, as well as the CIA's Officer in Residence program, fell within the same guidelines as programs sponsored by private companies or other government agencies. Nevertheless, faculty and student members of the CIA Off Campus Coalition, as well as national experts on CIA-university relations, say some of the research conducted at RIT is inappropriate for an institution of higher education.

"The pattern of everything we know about the CIA is one where all the intelligence gathered is used to support an existing viewpoint," said Jean Douthwright, a biology professor and member of the coalition that wants to see RIT sever all its CIA ties. "The people who are instrumental in gathering that intelligence are being used, and often without their knowledge." In the document reproduction project, students analyze the paper used in passports, visas or driver's licenses, as well as the ink and the type. They pay particular attention to security elements in the documents, such as bar-codes, Mylar strips, holograms, embossings or laminates. Sources close to the project, who spoke on condition of confidentiality, say there is no doubt about the purpose of the project: to produce forgeries that will better escape detection. Students involved in the work were told that an agent's life could be in the balance if his documents were detected as forgeries, the sources said.

According to Jeffrey Richelson, an expert on the intelligence community and consultant to the National Security Archives in Washington, D.C., forgery studies by the CIA are common and have been going on since World War II. "Technological advances in printing have made documents far more difficult to forge than they used to be," said Richelson. Dougherty, a former Air Force officer, staunchly defends RIT's work for the CIA and says the majority of people at RIT are not concerned about the link. "Intelligence is the life blood of anyone concerned about national security and an area where we can make a contribution," Dougherty said. "Everything the CIA does on this campus is to the benefit of RIT.

It is an absolutely overt relationship, It's all out there in the open and we are really quite proud of it." Some faculty object to all CIA-funded research on principle, on the grounds that the CIA depends on secrecy and subterfuge. Any involvement, they say, compromises an "wyH fr Dougherty Nystrom institution committed to openness, academic honesty and the public scrutiny of its scholarly work. Others accept some types of CIA-sponsored research the extraction of intelligence information from satellite or aerial flight images for example but draw the line at assisting in document forgeries or the concealment of bugging devices. "I have no problem whatsoever with university researchers being involved in unclassified, fully publishable research on techniques for satellite image gathering," said Edward Mclrvine, dean of the College of Graphic Arts and Photography, which includes the Center for Imaging Science. "However, there are gray areas that do cause me concern." Mclrvine cited the security document project, which could be used for forgeries, as an example of CIA work he could not justify being done at a university.

"I do not approve of the use of the CL as a means of executing a secret foreign policy," he said. The Democrat and Chronicle also found that- The Research Corp. offers consulting services to the CIA, producing technological forecasts on topics like telecommunications in Europe and the need for the agency to restructure itself to meet the demands of the post-Cold War era. Although the Research Corp. is supposed to be a separate entity from RIT, there is considerable overlap in personnel, funding and accountability.

The training center, for example, is in practice run by Dennis Nystrom, an RIT development officer who holds no official position in the of operations at the Research Corp. It has approximately 30 full- and part-time employees, including students recruited from disciplines such as engineering, imaging science, printing and computer science. Although Ryan directs the Research Corp. he referred most questions on the CIA training center to Nystrom, a former dean of Applied Science and Technology who currently holds the position of development director in the school's Center for Imaging Science. With Dougherty, Nystrom is one of the chief links between RIT and the CIA.

Students who work at the center are told never to discuss the work they are doing, or to identify the CIA as their sponsor. They are asked to fill out security clearance forms and to give presentations on their work to CIA analysts, both at RIT and at Langley. Nystrom recruits students for research projects at the center, although he claims not to know the details of the work. "I tell them the project is confidential and that working on it doesn't mean they have any commitment to the CIA," he said. "I tell them they don't have to accept if they have a problem working for the CIA." Juniors are paid $8 an hour for the work they do; seniors receive $9 and graduate students $10.

Instead of pay, they may opt for tuition discounts, Nystrom said. The training center works exclusively for the CIA, although it would be willing to extend its activities to other government or intelligence agencies, Nystrom said. He said that part of the rationale behind the center was to give the CIA access to potential employees, and students a taste of what it might be like working for the agen- Research Corp. The RIT Board of Trustees has approved classified research at the Research Corp. in the interests of "national security," but few policy guidelines exist to deal with potential ethical problems.

Outside the Research faculty members are approached from time to time by senior RIT officials and asked to do CIA work. In one case, a faculty member was asked to train CIA agents in the techniques of video surveillance. THE FEDERAL PROGRAMS TRAINING CENTER occupies a squat, two-story building of brown brick and glass on Technology Park Drive, in an area off John Street that RIT hopes to develop into a local "research triangle." The building contains a "secure" conference room, which is regularly swept for listening devices, according to people who have worked or visited there. The center was established in 1988, with the express purpose of providing "training and technological support" for the CIA, said George Ryan, acting president and director.