Groups target 'un-American' professors

In a campaign of suspicion and smear, a handful of national organizations have begun identifying university professors who criticize the war on terror and the Bush administration's foreign policy strategy in general.

This virtual blacklist has led some to recall the actions of McCarthy-era conspiracy theorists. Increasing mistrust of the supposedly biased academe indicate possible similarities between the war on terrorism and suspected communists during the Cold War era. "The Cold War transformed domestic communism from a matter of political opinion to one of national security," said scholar Ellen Schrecker in her book, "The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents."

Soon after Sept. 11, 2001, a report from the Academic Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) referred to university faculty as "the weak link in America's response to the attack." The monitoring of apparently untrustworthy academics continued throughout 2002, with web sites such as campus-watch.org and NoIndoctrination.org.

Though their identification methods differ, all of the groups attempt to find specific instances in which professors have shown their biases _ anti-American, anti-Israel, or "sociopolitical agendas." The groups then try to make their lists as public as possible.

Although Tufts history professor Marty Sherwin does not believe the lists will approach the scale of McCarthyism, he does not dismiss the possibility that the attacks will intensify. Should the perceived threat against America increase, Sherwin said, "people will be willing to accept the kind of repression that is unacceptable at the moment. If that happens it's going to be a very nasty period that we're going to go through."

Luann Wright, the founder of NoIndoctrionation.org disagrees that the monitoring conducted by her website is comparable to McCarthyism. She said that she allows professors to give rebuttal to any postings on her website, and in fact encourages them to do so. "I'm not creating a dossier on them, this is just what the students' opinion is," Wright said.

However these organizations themselves are not devoid of political orientation, lending weight to comparisons to McCarthy-era blacklisting. Two of the founders of ACTA are Lynn Cheney _ wife of Vice President Dick Cheney _ and Joseph Lieberman _ senator and potential democratic presidential candidate.

According to Campus Watch, one of the identifying groups, "American scholars of the Middle East... reject the views of most Americans and the enduring policies of the US government about the Middle East." The group's site lists academics who are concerned about the frequent vilification of US interests on campus. "Campus Watch seeks to reverse the damage already caused by the activist/scholars on American campuses," the site reads.

Professors generally choose not to dignify these sites with formal responses _ often because they do not wish to draw further attention to themselves. However, Sherwin himself chose to take another route. In an open letter which was published in The Nation magazine, he said that in cooperation with the ACTA report, he was "stepping forward to name a name, my own..."

The letter continued with a confession, "On December 3, 2001, I remarked to a class at Tufts University studying World War II that there was an ominous resemblance between the sense of panic in 1942 that produced Executive Order 9066, permitting the internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry, and the post-9/11 atmosphere that supported the Justice Department's arrest of hundreds of Muslims."

The letter concludes by urging Sherwin's colleagues to "tattle" on themselves _ which many enthusiastically did. Dozens of sarcastic responses were sent to The Nation, in which professors from universities and high schools across the country listed instances in which they, too, had spoken against US policies. The respondents also asked the ACTA to include them in future reports.

Sherwin said he is not surprised by the anti-academic movement. "This is a traditional thing, anti-intellectualism. Americans don't like people who challenge them, and they are not unique. People who criticize the norms at a particular time are mistrusted."