Student militants on campus, terrorism and textbooks: It seems like a page out of the `60s. But on a seemingly quiet commuter campus on the Northwest Side, a more violent version of history seems to be repeating itself with potentially deadly effects.
A small but significant number of faculty and students at Northeastern Illinois University have been linked to radical militant movements, specifically FALN and El Rukn terrorist plots. Since 1981, four of these individuals have been convicted and one was named in court as a bomber during last month`s trial of El Rukn gang members charged with plotting to commit terrorist acts for hire.
Currently, a tenured Northeastern professor and a university academic counselor face criminal charges. The professor, who was named as an unindicted conspirator in the recent El Rukn trial, has been indicted in Operation Incubator, a federal investigation into city corruption. The counselor is on trial for planning the violent escape of a jailed FALN leader.
Historically, Northeastern is just one of many campuses across the country where militant students or faculty have run afoul of the law. But the number of Northeastern faculty, students and graduates who have been linked to terrorist plots has grown so steadily through the `80s that law enforcement has focused its attention on the university itself.
This month, in a move all but unprecedented since the `60s, the federal government subpoenaed the records of a Northeastern graduate and a current student as part of its continuing investigation of alleged El Rukn terrorist plots, law enforcement sources said. Among those records were autobiographical essays that Northeastern officials said were required in the nontraditional program in which they were enrolled.
University Provost Barbara Hursh said the school administration will not tolerate faculty members` association with terrorism.
”If either the Northeastern professor or academic counselor now facing criminal charges are convicted, we will not regard them as the type of individuals who are constructive educators or role models for our students, and we will begin reviewing their employment,” said Hursh, who along with the university`s president, was appointed last year.
Hursh said the recent subpoenas ”draw to our attention the possibility that agencies outside the university have reason to believe that there are others involved (in terrorist plots) at Northeastern. We`re sobered by that, and we will not be complacent.”
Although reluctant to comment on the school officially, FBI and police say that a handful of militants may be using Northeastern as a ”threshold to the underground.” In one bombing case tried in the early `80s, authorities showed how a Northeastern student who joined a nonviolent campus group that advocated independence for Puerto Rico eventually was taken to a North Side safe house, introduced to violent revolutionaries and trained to commit terrorist acts for the FALN, an underground group that believes Puerto Rican independence can be won only through violence.
Militants traditionally have tried to exploit the tolerant climate on many university campuses, said Richard Ward, who is conducting a study of domestic terrorism for the U.S. Justice Department. In addition to recruiting students, terrorists have used their ties to universities as mantles of respectability, explained Ward, vice chancellor and a professor of criminal justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
According to court and university records, the following Northeastern faculty, students and graduates have either been convicted or accused of having links to terrorist plots:
– Jaime Delgado, an academic counselor who headed Proyecto Pa`lante, a program at Northeastern designed to provide academic support to incoming Latino students is currently on trial. He is charged with planning the escape of jailed FALN leader Oscar Lopez Rivera from Leavenworth federal prison in Kansas. Delgado and three others allegedly conspired to use hand-held rockets, explosives and helicopters to effect the escape.
– Leon McAnderson, a Northeastern Illinois University graduate and El Rukn leader, was convicted last month along with four other El Rukns, including gang chieftain Jeff Fort, of conspiring in a terrorism-for-hire plot. McAnderson was among a group that illegally traveled to Libya and Panama and offered to bomb buildings and planes in the U.S. for Libyan chief Moammar Gadhafi in exchange for $2.5 million from the Libyan government. He graduated from Northeastern`s University Without Walls under an alias in the mid-`80s.
University Without Walls is a nontraditional program that grants college credits for skills attained through life experiences. It requires students to write extensively about themselves. McAnderson`s UWW records were among those recently subpoenaed by the federal government.
– Charles Knox, a tenured professor at Northeastern`s Center for Inner City Studies on the South Side and an adviser for University Without Walls, was named an unindicted coconspirator in the recent El Rukn trial. According to court testimony, Knox recently traveled to Libya with McAnderson and others. But Knox refused to testify at the trial on grounds of possible self- incrimination. Knox now is serving three years in jail for impersonating a lawyer in order to visit Fort in prison. In an unrelated case, he also has been indicted on charges stemming from Operation Incubator.
– Irish D. Greene, a current student at University Without Walls, was identified during the recent trial as the El Rukn bomber. The prosecution`s star witness, a former gang general, made the identification from the stand as Greene sat in the courtroom gallery. Greene, who served time in prison for aggravated and sexual battery, worked for an unaccredited law school run by Charles Knox, according to sources close to the investigation. Knox was Greene`s adviser at Northeastern. Greene`s school files also were subpoenaed by the federal government.
In a bizarre move, Greene had included in the files title pages of articles he had written that described the manufacture of plastic explosives and weapons and detailed his membership in violent black militant groups, law enforcement sources said.
– Alberto Rodriguez, a former academic counselor for Proyecto Pa`lante at Northeastern, was arrested on campus and convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1985. Sedition is insurrection against legitimate authority, in this case, the U.S. government. Rodriguez and three others were arrested before they could carry out several plots, including one to bomb two buildings that housed Army and Marine reserve units on the 4th of July weekend in 1983. He currently is serving a 35-year sentence.
– Carmen Valentin, a Northeastern graduate, was one of 10 self-proclaimed FALN members convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes in 1981. The convictions stemmed from a series of 28 bombings in the Chicago area over four years. Valentin, a former Chicago high school Spanish teacher and a counselor for the Central YMCA Community College, was described by police as one of the early organizers of the FALN in Chicago. She is serving a 90-year prison term. – Alfredo Mendez, a former Northeastern student, was another of the 10 FALN members convicted. Mendez later cooperated with the government and became a crucial prosecution witness. At that time, he revealed to authorities how the contacts he made at Northeastern led him to a North Side safe house and terrorist plotters.
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The titles of Irish Greene`s articles comprise a lethal how-to manual:
”Plastic Explosives, Instructions for the Making and Use of High Power Plastic Explosives From Ordinary Common Ingredients”; ”Illegal-Muffler or Silencer (Any Device for Diminishing the Explosive Report of a Portable Weapon)”; and ”The Homemade Cartridgeless Machinegun.”
The subpoenaed file also reportedly contained plans to develop underground security forces trained to battle police, the military, the National Guard, the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, the FBI and the CIA.
Law enforcement sources said the articles were written by Greene on behalf of an organization referred to in the file as B.L.A.C.K. The FBI believes it is an outgrowth of the Black Liberation Army, an ultra-militant group responsible for the shooting deaths of two police officers and a guard during a bungled hold-up of a Brinks truck in New York state in 1981.
Greene apparently included this material, along with academic work, in his university file in the hope that such ”life experience” would help him qualify for a college degree.
Reynold Feldman, dean of Northeastern`s Center for Program Development, said that because Northeastern no longer has custody of Greene`s records, the university could not confirm that Greene`s file contained pro-terrorist documents or determine who, if anyone, had reviewed them.
Had a faculty member or administrator seen Greene`s militant writings, any action they would have taken would have been a judgment call. Like most universities, Northeastern has no policy on students who discuss violent or illegal acts.
”Universities have to walk a very thin line,” said terrorist expert Ward. ”On one hand, campuses should serve as open forums and encourage the expression of a wide range of ideas. On the other hand, no responsible professor wants to become a silent party to crime.”
M. Cherif Bassiouni, another authority on terrorism and a professor of international law at DePaul University, outlined how a university can become a breeding ground for terrorist plotters.
”First of all, these people have to be based somewhere,” he said.
”Terrorists seek geographical proximity. Many of them feel intensely isolated and alienated. When they wake up in the morning, they want to have a place to go. They need to draw pschological support from each other. Then they try to strenghten their numbers through recruitment.”
Initially, the location of this base may be all but a matter of coincidence, Bassiouni continued. One militant is hired by a factory, a hospital or a school. He gains a foothold and brings in others. How much influence they exert on the institution depends on its checks and balances.
Universities that promote free speech and tolerate a wide range of ideas are particularly vulnerable to infiltration, Bassiouni said. Terrorists often target schools that cater to underprivileged minorities, some of whom may be predisposed to sympathize with militant movements. ”For example, if the school has a high concentration of Puerto Rican students, there`s a strong likelihood that you`ll find some students who are FALN sympathizers,” he said.
Militants are most likely to gain footholds in universities with mediocre to low academic standards, because, said Bassiouni, ”people will have plenty of time to focus their attention elsewhere.”
Northeastern conforms to Bassiouni`s criteria in a number of ways. Almost one third of the student body and one fourth of the faculty are minorities. Of the 10,638 students enrolled in the university, 12 percent are black, 12 percent Latino. A recent study showed that Northeastern had the highest population of Puerto Rican students of any college or university in the state. Most of Northeastern`s students are graduates of Chicago`s beleaguered public school system. According to the College Handbook of College Boards, Northeastern students` average composite ACT scores fall in the mid to lower range of the spectrum in Illinois state schools. At Northeastern, students`
average ACT composites range from 10 to 19 compared to 24 to 29 at the University of Illinois at Urbana; 17 to 24 for the University of Illinois at Chicago; and 13 to 17 for Chicago State University.
There are ways to protect campuses from falling prey to extremists`
control, said Ward. ”A university should strive to maintain a balance, cultivate a faculty that represents a diversity of views, and see to it that many sides of an issue are presented in classes. . . . If you have rabid ideologues on your faculty, you have to wonder whether they`re teaching or brainwashing. The administration should scrutinize people like that very carefully.”
In an apparent move to restore balance, Northeastern recently denied tenure to Jose Lopez, the brother of imprisoned FALN leader Oscar Lopez. A professor of criminal justice, Jose Lopez was convicted and imprisoned for contempt of court in 1977 after he refused to provide information to a federal grand jury about the whereabouts of his brother and other FALN suspects.
Northeastern faculty members speculate that the denial of tenure by the state board of governors came as a result of Lopez`s political affiliation and his failure to complete his doctorate degree. Lopez did not respond to repeated attempts to interview him. He continues to teach on campus.
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Northeastern Illinois University, at 5500 N. St. Louis Ave., was founded as Cook County Normal School in 1867 on Chicago`s South Side. The school`s Northwest Side campus, the university`s current site, opened in 1961 under the name Chicago Teachers College. Four years later, the school`s ownership and control were transferred from the city to the state. The school expanded, earned university status and assumed its present name in 1971.
Northeastern has a long tradition of liberalism and community activism, according to Marti Sladek, the school`s director of university relations. Many graduates-including Robert Donahue, deputy director for the Federal Aviation Administration, who was enrolled in the University Without Walls; Chicago Police Deputy Joe Mayo, who attended class at the Center for Inner City Studies; and 26th ward Ald. Luis Gutierrez-have gone on to become respected, dedicated public servants.
Although the school has continued to grow, for some the campus has remained in an increasingly militant time warp. ”In some ways, the `60s never left this place,” said Sladek.
Like their `60s counterparts, vocal groups of Northeastern students still print radical newspapers and hold demonstrations on the neat low-rise commuter campus.
Most of the activism is limited to minority students, said Northeastern history professor Fred J. MacDonald. ”The last thing on the minds of most average white middle-class kids enrolled here is activism. Most live at home with their parents and work at least 20 hours a week. They`re focused on getting ahead. But some minority students from depressed circumstances have a different attitude. Some are haunted by racism and problems in their communities.”
In addition to comfortably distant popular campus issues such as apartheid, causes closer to home inspire passionate stands by some students and faculty. The recent indictment of Northeastern counselor Delgado on terrorist charges prompted outcries by several black and Latino student campus organizations.
”No matter what the government tries to do to me, I know you will always support me,” Delgado told the crowd at a student-sponsored luncheon in October, according to ”Que Ondee Sola,” a left-wing Latino student newspaper with offices on Northeastern`s campus. The luncheon was the second reception held by students in support of Delgado.
Depending on whom you talk to on campus, Delgado and professor Charles Knox are either criminals, diligent professionals or freedom fighters.
”Jaime is highly respected on and off campus,” said Delgado`s supervisor, Santos Rivera, director of special programs at Northeastern.
”He`s a good person. His ideology never interfered with his work.”
”If Jaime is convicted, that`s fine,” said a Northeastern student who asked not to be identified. ”It`s a good indication that there is a Puerto Rican struggle, that something is going on. I personally support armed struggle. I don`t practice it. I support it.”
At Northeastern`s Center for Inner City Studies, where Knox taught, professor Robert Starks reflected on his colleague: ”Who defines what is terrorism? Is it denying single mothers day care and then calling them lazy when they can`t go to work? Is it denying the elderly financial support and then saying they go to soup kitchens because they want to? . . . Charles Knox was committed to helping the black community. Just because a man`s indicted doesn`t mean he`ll be convicted.”
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There are three levels of terrorism, said Ward. The first involves those who carry out terrorist acts; the second is composed of conspirators who provide philosophical and logisitic support; and the third includes financial backers who may not realize that their contributions are funding violent acts. Ward believes that in the future, growing numbers of level two and three supporters will surface on university campuses as violent extremists on the right and left refine their techniques for exploiting the system and recruiting members.
”We`re already seeing this imprisoned in a U.S. prison (Fort) refinement in the El Rukns,” said can negotiate (through Ward. ”They represent a brand intermediaries) with the head of a new type of terrorism, terrorism terrorist government, it`s for hire. The fact that someone craziness.”
Although he admits that the question of militants on campus versus academic freedom remains ”a knotty one,” Ward said, ”Universities should remember that an open learning environment is really very fragile. They have to take whatever steps necessary to protect it.”
