Oct. 20, 1985
Harvard Widens Inquiry in C.I.A. Aid to Professor
By Colin Campbell, Special To the New York Times
Officials of Harvard University have decided to broaden their inquiry into $150,000 in grants that the Central Intelligence Agency made to a Harvard professor of Middle Eastern studies.
John Shattuck, Harvard's vice president for governmental and public affairs, said in an interview here Wednesday that ''all aspects of this matter'' were being investigated by A. Michael Spence, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences.
''This is an extremely serious matter that affects the heart of the academic enterprise,'' Mr. Shattuck said today.
Dean Spence said last week that the professor, Nadav Safran, head of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, had ''erred'' in failing to inform Harvard that a conference on Islam and politics this week was being supported by a $47,700 grant from the intelligence agency. But Dean Spence said the professor would not be disciplined.
Grant for His Book, Too
The Harvard dean had also said that an additional C.I.A. grant of $107,430 to Professor Safran to support work on a book, ''Saudi Arabia: The Ceaseless Quest for Security,'' which was published last month, was not of formal concern because Professor Safran had told the university about the grant.
But Harvard officials have suggested in recent days that the grants have raised more questions than they seemed to last week. ''Last week,'' Mr. Shattuck said Thursday, ''a very limited number of facts was available.'' Mr. Shattuck said that the grant for the book was now also being investigated.
Starting Oct. 10 The Harvard Crimson startled the university by publishing a series of articles on Professor Safran's support from the intelligence agency. The articles included quotations from the C.I.A. contract.
The contract to support Professor Safran's book, dated in 1982, included this sentence: ''Clause E of the subject contract is consistent with standard Agency practice to reserve the Government's right to review and approve any and all intended publications resulting from Agency-funded research efforts.'' The same section also states, ''Nothing in this amendment shall be construed as waiving the Governmen's right to deny permission to publish.''
Mr. Shattuck said that under Harvard's policy such conditions ''would be absolutely out of the question.''
His Resignation Called For
The matter has quickly grown bitter. On Tuesday and Wednesday, as Professor Safran conducted his two-day conference on politics and Islam, three of the six professors on the governing committee of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies demanded that Professor Safran resign as director.
Richard N. Frye, professor of Iranian studies, one of these faculty members, said in a telephone interview that a copy of the letter urging the resignation had been sent to Dean Spence and that he and the dean had discussed it.
Professor Frye argued that C.I.A.-sponsored conferences and research on the Middle East, especially projects whose sources of financing remained undisclosed, exposed all academic researchers in the field to the suspicion they were spies and saboteurs. He said that such charges, which are common in the Middle East, not only made it difficult for researchers to obtain visas but in some circumstances could also expose scholars to danger.
'Can You Think of Any Way?'
''That's why we're asking for his resignation,'' Professor Frye said. ''Can you think of any other way to repair the damage? People who haven't lived in the Middle East don't understand the implications of this.''
Serious differences have emerged on how to view Professor Safran's handling of the grants.
Last week Dean Spence suggested that Harvard's key objection was to Professor Safran's failure to disclose the source of the money. Some of Professor Safran's critics, including Professor Frye, have condemned virtually any connection of the agency with sensitive areas of scholarship.
Mr. Shattuck said, ''The fact that the C.I.A. is involved is not the issue.'' Intelligence agency support for unrestricted research falls within the rules of research grants at Harvard, he said. But it is against the rules, Mr. Shattuck said, for researchers working under the aegis of Harvard not to disclose the sources of their finances. It is also against the rules, he said, for Harvard researchers to submit their work to the censorship of any outside agency.
No Changes Asked, He Says
Professor Safran has said that the agency required no changes in his book on Saudi Arabia. His precise understanding with the agency remains unclear, however.
Professor Safran said Wednesday, shortly after the end of his conference on ''Islam and Politics in the Contemporary Moslem World,'' that he had not seen the letter calling for his resignation until late that afternoon.
Despite arrangements to keep the conference private, several reporters were allowed to listen in. The open sessions focused mainly on fundamentalist resurgent Islam.
About half the 90 or so expected participants showed up for the conference at the Harvard Faculty Club.
Papers presented dealt with Iran, Shiite Islam, the radical Moslem Brotherhood and United States policy toward what some speakers called an extremely hostile political and religious ideology. The conference's panelists included Israelis and Arabs as well as Americans.
A spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency, Patti Volz, asked to comment on the grants to Professor Safran, said that the agency would not discuss specific cases but that disclosing the financing source was ''the professor's obligation,'' not the agency's.
''It's his obligation to follow Harvard's guidelines,'' she said.