THE MCCARTHY ERA RETURNS

FBI QUESTIONS PROFESSOR OVER VENEZUELAN VIEWS

SAUL HUDSON, REUTERS - A U.S. academic accused the FBI on Friday of
trying to silence his criticism of Bush administration policy toward
Venezuela, further straining ties between Washington and the major oil
supplier. Venezuela seized on agents' questioning of the professor,
condemning it in a statement as "a violation of the freedoms of
expression, thought and academic inquiry, and ... a desperate attempt to
link Venezuela to terrorism."

The FBI did not address the accusations directly but said in a statement
it had conducted an "informational interview" of Miguel Tinker Salas, a
history professor at Pomona College, a liberal arts university in
California. The State Department said the United States did not have a
policy of targeting academics critical of U.S. policy.

Tinker Salas said two agents of an FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force
questioned him this week at his offices about his contacts with the
Venezuelan Embassy. "The intent was to intimidate," the Venezuelan-born
American citizen told Reuters. He said the agents asked if his opinions
about U.S. policy had been influenced by the embassy and told him
Venezuelans living in the United States were "of interest" to the task
force, whose job is to prevent terrorist attacks.

Jonathan Knight, who directs a national program to protect academic
freedom, said that if the allegations were true, it appeared the FBI
wanted to silence a professor using tactics that he had not seen since
the persecution of academics perceived as pro-Communist in the 1950s.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=
2006-03-11T030216Z_01_N10540520_RTRUKOC_0_US-VENEZUELA-USA-FBI.xml