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University Professor
Worked For CIA

By Neil Mackay
Investigations Editor
and Ruaridh Arrow
The Sunday Herald - UK
5-22-4
 
Picture the scene. It's just days before the invasion of Iraq. You're a hard-working undergraduate at Glasgow University studying for your degree in political science, and standing before you in the lecture theatre is your professor ñ a suave, erudite American.
 
What could be better for a young student trying to get to grips with the affairs of the world than having a US professor explain the pros and cons of regime change in Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
 
There's one problem though. The professor's name is Richard Mansbach and he worked for the CIA ñ the US spying agency equivalent to Britain's MI6.
 
During his US career, Mansbach is known to have used his own students to un wittingly carry out research for the CIA on perceived "liberal" threats in western Europe such as unions, churches and political activists.
 
A university spokeswoman said: "As far as we knew he came here to teach. We can't confirm that he worked for the CIA. He only taught at Glasgow University. He was not engaged in any research. He never said he worked for the CIA."
 
She did admit, however, that staff had "heard allegations that he did research in America for the CIA", adding: "He may well have given advice to the American government."
 
The spokeswomen said that Mansbach had now returned to America and is currently teaching at Iowa State University. She added that Professor Andrew Lockyer, the head of politics, "could not say that it [information about Mansbach's past as a CIA operative] was formally mentioned to him".
 
Mansbach taught for one academic year ñ from 2002-2003 ñ as part of an exchange of senior academic staff between Iowa and Glasgow universities.
 
As a visiting professor on a "highly valued exchange course", Mansbach taught classes ranging from first year to final year.
 
But Mansbach's career in the US has been dogged by his CIA connections. In 1984, Mansbach was working at Rutgers University in New Jersey as chair of the political science department.
 
He and Harvey Waterman, department professor and associate dean of the graduate school, hired students and used an undergraduate group to supply the CIA with extensive research on western European peace groups, unions, churches, opposition parties and womenís organisations.
 
For failing to inform the university of their work for the CIA and for enlisting students without their knowledge, Mansbach and Waterman received letters of reprimand deposited in their permanent files. However, no other action was taken.
 
Not long after his covert project for the CIA was exposed, The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that the CIA financed the work to the tune of $25,000. The Inquirer interviewed Mansbach by phone and he told a reporter that CIA research on campus "can provide a heck of a lot of insight perhaps not available to Washington".
 
In 1975, Mansbach lectured at CIA headquarters, then in 1977 at the US Information Agency and in 1982 at the National Security Agency and the US Army War College. It is known that between 1981-83, he was full-time staff at the CIA when he worked in the National Intelligence Council's European Analysis division. When he left he was told the CIA had "profited greatly" from his work.
 
While he was at Rutgers, the CIA's National Intelligence Coun cil set up the European Non-State Actors Project (ENSAP), which looked at how groups ranging from the SNP to the German Greens and from CND to anti-nuclear clergymen may affect US foreign policy.
 
With top-secret security clearance, Mansbach then used his Rutgers students to prepare data for the CIA's ENSAP programme on the assets, ideologies and clout of church groups, unions, media outlets and feminist groups.
 
The Sunday Herald contacted Mansbach at his office in Iowa but he did not return calls. At the time of the outbreak of war with Iraq, Mansbach supported the invasion.
 
A number of Glasgow University students criticised Mansbach's "lazy teaching style" to senior staff.
 
In 2000, a Sunday Herald investigation revealed that a former MI6 chief, Andrew Fulton, was working in the university's Law School at the Lockerbie Trial Briefing Unit which was meant to inform the media about Scots law.
 
© newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved http://www.sundayherald.com/42162


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