Students Protest CIA Recruiters

A recruiter for the CIA's Clandestine Service division spoke yesterday to a packed room in the International Affairs Building, answering questions from students interested in applying for jobs while ignoring questions from protesters.

Though most of the crowd asked about qualifications and the details of the application process, a small group of students stood in the back corners holding signs with slogans like "CIA: Supporting Dictators Everywhere Since 1947" and quietly waiting to be called on, hands raised politely.

"The CIA has no place on Columbia's campus," Zachary Zill, CC '06 and a protest organizer, said. "Any history textbook will show what the CIA has actually done around the world."

The recruiter, who never mentioned his name, emphasized that the organization has no role in policy formulation and is not a partisan organization. "We work to support the security interests of the United States ... not to set policy," he said. "No matter what you think about the war in Iraq, we all agree that what we needed before it ever happened was better foreign intelligence."

In March 2005, the New York University Campus Antiwar Network kept a large CIA recruiting event off campus with the threat of a protest. The group cited a few "highlights" of CIA history to justify its protests, including CIA assistance to the Iranian shah in 1953 and support of the Nicaraguan Contras in 1979, according to the Washington Square News.

Columbia's CAN chapter added allegations, first described by a Nov. 2, 2005 article in the Washington Post, that the CIA is holding and interrogating suspects in the war on terror in "black sites," secret prisons located in various foreign locations.

The Columbia students who filled the room to explore career opportunities did not seem discouraged by the demonstrations.

"That's not what we're here for!" several students called out in response to the protesters' questions.