Universities across the country routinely conduct research that aids in industries including defense and satellite technology, as well as nuclear engineering and munitions, regularly receiving funding from major defense companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Given the sensitivity of information involved in some of this research, the Obama Administration has proposed a controversial rule that would limit the involvement of foreign students in these programs who could, the State Department argues, relay potentially classified information to rival governments.
A number of colleges and universities are pushing back against the rule, calling it discriminatory and an affront to academic freedom.
“We wouldn’t be able to perform the same basic foundational research that we do,” said Steve Eisner, Stanford University’s director of export compliance.
“Stanford has a policy of conducting research openly regardless of citizenship. We’re not going to tell our Chinese students that they can’t participate.”
Stanford, along with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Association of American Universities, representing 62 research institutions, have signed a letter to the State Department in protest of the proposal.
The Chinese government has also expressed outrage.
“China’s scientific and technological developments have been achieved through the hard struggle of the Chinese people,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei declared during a briefing on Thursday.
This move represents the latest attempt by agencies under the Obama Administration to protect national security by engaging in what many consider to be a consistent pattern of paranoid overreaction. Under Obama, the US government has been increasingly closed to the press and has gone after whistleblowers in record numbers.
One such whistleblower, John Kiriakou, was jailed for unveiling the CIA’s torture program. Speaking to Radio Sputnik, he pointed out that Washington’s paranoia is odd, given its own illicit activities.
"The CIA knew from the very beginning that what it was doing was wrong," he told Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear. "Ethically, morally and even legally, and they decided to act anyway.
"There has to be a price to pay for these lies."
