An Anonymous Submission
This week, job recruiters from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will speak to students with disabilities and student veterans. According to the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) website, CIA recruiters will offer informational sessions and one-on-one advisory sessions for interested applicants. Concerned students will wonder why the CIA is openly recruiting on a bustling college campus. In fact, colleges have become prime poaching grounds for federal agencies looking to bolster the surveillance state that is now commonplace in the so-called United States and beyond.
College campuses were once radical nerve centers that led disruptive actions against the Vietnam War and other atrocities. Post 9/11, they have been tamed by predatory organizations such as the CIA and the US military. Colleges feature a steady flow of international intellectuals, malleable minds, and relative anonymity. The intellectuals provide key information about the health and strength of rival states. Flexible and eager students, especially younger ones away from family for the first time, are vulnerable to manipulation by ruthlessly trained recruiters. And at a campus like UT Austin, a probing face in the crowd can do a lot of damage.
The presence of the state’s eyes and ears makes everyone less safe. Far from friendly, and even further from scrupulous, CIA agents are responsible for massive destabilization campaigns across the world. And under the vaunted liberal values of diversity and inclusion, the CIA is not only allowed but encouraged to recruit from various student communities, such as those receiving services from SSD. Apparently, they need more token members to prop up their reputation.
UT members concerned about autonomy and freedom from the state’s apparatus of surveillance and murder should be gravely concerned about the CIA’s presence on campus. It is up to us to send the message that feds and their ilk are NOT WELCOME in any capacity.
Editor’s note: The recruitment session described above will occur on September 27th in the Student Services Building.
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