Lobbyists call Summit Learning an ideal system of personalized learning, providing individual tasks for each student, the ability to create their own curriculum and individual support for special mentors (who, by the way, also engaged in retraining of teachers) via the Internet. The Internet platform claims to be one for the whole of America – many public schools continue to move to it, first of all – in small cities, where budget funding for education is sharply reduced. But the more personal experience of students is accumulated, the more obvious becomes the inefficiency and even the danger of the project.

In November 2018, about a hundred high school journalism students in Brooklyn staged a protest demanding to change the program Summit Learning.

“The platform requires hours to sit and stare at the computer. There are not enough computers for everyone, the tasks are tedious, they are too easy to pass and you can easily write off. The platform does not help to prepare for the final exams. Most importantly – such a program excludes most of the human interaction: support for teachers, discussions and discussions with classmates, which we need so much to improve critical thinking. Despite the statements in your promotional materials, we, the students, feel that we do not learn almost anything”, – say the students in an open letter to Zuckerberg.

The second negative point noted by students is the total collection of personal data by the operators of the program.

“The Summit program collects our data without informing us. We were not informed by the program or the school, but recently learned that Summit collects our names, student numbers, email addresses, attendance records, illnesses, absences, deductions, as well as our race, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, our date of birth, teachers ‘ observations of our behavior, raising and lowering our grades, test scores, College applications, our homework, and extracurricular activities. The Summit website also says they plan to track us after release. Summit collects too much personal information and discloses it to 19 more corporations. What gives you that right, and why were we never asked about it before Summit invaded our privacy?”- ask students Zuckerberg.

According to one of the organizers of the protests, a student of the High school of journalism Kelly Hernandez, the students were not asked at all if they wanted to study at Summit Learning. Both pupils, and parents repeatedly complained to the Director, but any reaction didn’t follow. “Just take the computer and do it. Here’s your login, here’s the password. Enjoy,” Kelly says. After massive disturbances, the school refused to use Summit Learning in grades 11-12, but still uses it in grades 9-10.

Local journalists quickly found out that this is not the first case of complaints about Summit Learning. The Chairman of the parents ‘ Council on student personal data security, Leonie Heimson, says she has received complaints about the platform from parents in 15 States. In 2017, the Connecticut school district officially ended cooperation with SL a couple of months after the platform was introduced.

Why refuse the project “digital school”

Students and parents of Kansas state in the cities of Wichita, MacPherson, Wellington and others had a very negative impression of the “personalized” online education at digital space the Children were literally mad from the daily hours of sitting at computers and endless tests, from tasks that are no longer discussed in classes. And their teachers turned into Tutors – now they just tell you what button on the keyboard you need to press the student, in which electronic section he should go. In neighborhoods, where never was political posters, suddenly appeared makeshift banners against SL.

“I just want to pick up my chromebook and tell them I’m not going to do it,” says 16-year-old Kylie Forslund, a 10th grade student in Wellington.

Many high school students in Wellington began to complain of frequent headaches and cramps in the hands, some began to go into themselves and more nervous. Often teenagers are forced to use earplugs during school hours, as the cries of classmates distract them from the process of “learning”, which is a continuous staring at the monitor.

A survey of parents of secondary school MacPherson showed that 77% percent against the education of their children with Learning Summit, and over 80% noted that their children are dissatisfied with the training on the platform. “We let computers teach kids, and they became like zombies,” said Tyson Koenig of MacPherson after attending his ten-year-old son’s lessons. He picked him up from school in October.

The 16-year-old Maryland French after a computer “lessons” became quickly tired eyes, she was missing the conversations with teachers and students in the class. Eighth-grader Colleen winter, participated in the January strike along with 50 other students. “I was a little afraid, but I still felt good doing something,” says Colleen. In the backyard of one of his parents ‘ auto shop, Tom Henning, held an organizational meeting. Driver Chris Smalley, the father of two children 14 and 16 years, put in front of his house a sign against the Summit: “We are very beautiful all described. But it was the worst lemonomobile we’ve ever bought.” Dinna Garver also hung a sign in the yard: “we do Not want to sink with the Summit.”

In MacPherson, the könig couple saved up money and transferred the children to a Catholic school: “We are not Catholics, but it is easier for us to discuss religion lessons at dinner than Summit.” According to Wellington city Councilman Kevin Dodds, after the fall semester, about a dozen parents in Wellington have already transferred their children from public school and another 40 are planning to pick up this summer. “We live in the periphery, and we were made Guinea pigs,” he laments.

In Indiana, the school Board first downsized and then completely abandoned the platform after a survey in which 70% of students asked to cancel it, or use it only as an option. And in Cheshire SL was curtailed after the protests back in 2017. “When there was disappointment with the results, children and adults were able to overcome it and go further. No one has come to terms with the new system of education,” says local parent Mary Burnham,

In September 2018, some of the students SL received the dubious content on the recommendations of the program sources in an open network. In one of the lessons on the history of the Paleolithic SL included a link to an article by the British newspaper The Daily Mail with spicy advertising for adults. On these claims, the developers replied that the training course was created on open sources and the article in The Daily Mail allegedly fit his requirements. “The Daily Mail writes on a very primitive level and it was a mistake to add this link,” they admitted.

As you know, most of Silicon valley’s leading it specialists from technochocolate avoid the gadgets at home and send their children to school, free from high technology. But at the same time they have long been trying to remake the American and world education, put it on a digital track. Opponents of traditional teacher-led learning, using notebooks and textbooks argue that their “innovative” programs give children access to high-quality curricula and teachers, especially in small towns with poor infrastructure. In fact, it all comes down to budget savings on fundamental education.

In 2014, the Zuckerberg Foundation allocated five Facebook engineers to develop the SL platform. In 2015, Zuckerberg wrote that Summit would help “meet the individual needs and interests of the student” and “free teachers’ time for mentoring – what they do best.” In 2016, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has allocated for the SL grant in the amount of 99.1 million dollars. “We take the issues raised very seriously, and Summit is working with school leaders and parents on the ground. Many schools that use Summit have come to love and support it,” the Executive Director of The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Abby Lunardini, reassures the public.

In 2016, SL paid the Harvard research center for a comprehensive assessment of the platform’s impact on students ‘ knowledge, skills, and mental health, but then unexpectedly withdrew from the evaluation project . The founder of SL Diana Tavenner vaguely commented to say: the results of the tests can stop the progression of online learning. In her opinion, the results of the study will be of interest “primarily to journalists and philanthropists, not schools.” Quite a strange argument, given the fact that the platform is massively planted in us schools in no alternative. One Harvard researcher named Tom Kane cautiously notes that it is too early to expand this experience…

The post WHAT ABOUT THE DIGITAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA first appeared on Global Policy.

Harvard offers its students a new course, learning about which You can lose all confidence that Your child should do there mathematics, sociology, or even the study of small rodents. Moreover, it is possible that the phrase “prestigious Western education” will soon begin to cause you involuntary disgust.

Here’s what the famous news Agency Huffington Post writes about the new course of Harvard

Harvard University offers its students a new course called “What What in the Butt: Anal Sex 101”, which translates as “what’s in the ass: anal sex 101″, designed for beginners. Apparently, the course for continuing will open a little later. During the educational process, students of the famous University of the country will learn ” the basics of preparation for anal sex, appropriate hygiene, different types of lubrication, sex toys and anal penetration.”

These classes are conducted by specially invited experts from the sex shop “Good vibrations”.

Harvard University offers a course on anal sex in an accessible form “to destroy the myths surrounding anal sex, to explain why people are engaged in this type of sex and tell how to make anal sex better.”

At Harvard, the tradition of spending weeks of sexual education there is not the first year

Kirin Gupta, co-President of the group “Sexual Health Education & Advocacy Throughout Harvard”, that is “Healthy sexual education and propaganda at Harvard”, which is engaged in the organization of weeks of sexual education, said in an interview:

“We spend a week of sexual education for the third year, and in previous years we have not touched on the topic of anal sex, but I think such activities are clearly not enough. This is part of the sexual life of a large number of people, but many do not want to talk about it, since such sex is not part of the traditional heterosexual sex life.

If we refuse to give seminars on this subject, we are thus saying that we do not need sex education, or that we should give abstinence lessons, or that people should be ashamed of some part of their sexual practices.

The protests of conservative circles against our seminars speak of latent homophobia, which society, in its own opinion, has already overcome, but in fact it is not. This reaction speaks to the remaining prejudices that people experience when faced with what they do not want to recognize or respect.”

That is, if you do not like the course of anal sex from the experts of “Good vibrations”, know that You are just a latent homophobe, nothing more.

ANAL SEX 101′ CLASS OFFERED At HARVARD

“You want to teach us abstinence? No respect for perverts? You’re a retarded dude! Everyone has been doing it for a long time!”—tells us this girl of Indian origin, easily pereplavka their ancient culture with the perversions of sick people into a single American “melting pot”.

The post HARVARD COLLEGE. HIGHER ANAL EDUCATION ! first appeared on Global Policy.

Federal (state) loans provide 90% of all student loans, while the share of private loans, though small, is gradually growing.

As of 2017, borrowers over 60 years of age have an average of about $33,800 in educational loans, which is 44% higher than in 2010. The total amount of student loans to older persons increased by 161% between 2010 and 2017. In all other age groups, growth was markedly lower.

STUDENT LOANS, DESIGNED FOR PEOPLE OVER 60 YEARS

Those pensioners who do not pay their student loans on time, the state can cut pensions and other social benefits. In 2015 alone, such measures were taken against 40,000 people over 65 years of age (362% more than 10 years before). Especially hard for those who took out a loan for their own education, but, for one reason or another, did not succeed and did not get a well-paid job.

In General, the total debt of Americans over 60 years in 2017 amounted to $615 billion-this includes credit cards, car loans, other personal loans and student loans. This figure is 84% higher than in 2010.

DEBTS ON STUDENT LOANS

The debt problem was compounded by the fact that after the 2008 financial crisis, the US Federal reserve sharply lowered base rates, which made loans much more affordable. However, the growth of supply in the labor market at the same time was not enough for people to be able to successfully settle and repay debts.

USA: EDUCATION IN DEBT AND FOR A LONG TIME

That’s why parents in the US have to work longer and longer, postponing retirement to Fund their children’s education and help them pay off loans.

In the United States in the field of education built a system that combines the worst features of capitalism and socialism:

WHY THE YOUNGER GENERATION IN THE UNITED STATES CHOOSES SOCIALISM

on the one hand, it is an absolutely socialist model in which the state guarantees loans to citizens for training, on the other — wild capitalism, with inflation and obvious cartels of educational organizations that de facto plunder both the population and the state.

The option offered by American socialists-free college for all (free education for all) — in American realities, most likely, will become the following: private universities will directly take money from the budget, and take them more and more — by analogy with American private companies from the military-industrial complex.

The capitalist option of solving the problem: to increase competition, to remove state guarantees, to break the cartels — now in the United States will not be popular, although it would be much more effective.

The post DEBT PRESS AMERICAN EDUCATION first appeared on Global Policy.

The amount of the benefit paid by the state to these families depends in part on the number of children – the more children in the family, the higher the benefit is paid. Here there are whole generations of families who have never worked a day in his life (this explains why in the American movies show a lot of single mothers, and why are rappers singing about “baby-momma”).

Accordingly, such parents do not fundamentally the quality of education received by children. For anybody not a secret (Yes will not call me racist) that basically it is African Americans. You can also guess that they attend public schools, with police and metal detectors at the entrance (famous YouTube videos about fights in schools from such places).

The middle class is trying to settle in the so-called suburbs. One of the disadvantages of this accommodation is the time it takes to get to work (often about two hours). However, the level of public schools will be much higher than in the cities. The higher the average earnings of residents in a particular village, the higher the cost of housing, the level of taxes on which local schools are maintained, and accordingly the higher the quality of public schools. The number of poorly educated / poor in such public schools is minimized, because subsidized housing is not built in such places.

Given the above, we chose a private school. I wanted the children in the class to be mostly from the families of educated parents, where at least one of the parents goes to work, and parents do not care what kind of education their children receive. The need to pay tuition to a private school produces this filtering to some extent. Tuition is $8000 per year per child. For a private school is, in principle, not expensive, as in the US there are schools, the cost of study in which there is $60,000 per year, which is comparable to the price of College.

The city we live in has the following demographics: 32% white, 25% black, 20% Asian, 23% Latino. In our school, for a class of 15-17 people have 2 baby blacks, 5 Asians (Indians, Filipinos), 2 Latino, 8 white. There are no representatives of families living on state benefits in our school.

Now a little about the school and the curriculum

HOW TO EDUCATE THE BRITISH ELITE

Classes start at 8: 30 am, but you can take the child to 7 am, and in this case it will be looked after before the start of classes. At this time, the child can finish lessons, eat Breakfast (which should be Packed with a child) or watch TV. “Morning service” is actively used by families in which parents work. This service costs an additional $ 20 per week.

Classes end at 3 PM. From three to six there is a homework club. Detention costs an additional $ 175 per month. Cram school, the children will do homework in nice weather will lead to walk to the school yard. A variety of mugs are also available at an additional cost. The average price of a mug is $ 60 per month.

Here is a list of clubs: football, chess, drawing, LEGO, tennis, music (guitar and piano), orchestra, choir, programming, dancing, skateboard, foreign languages (Spanish, Chinese), jewelry.

No additional” official ” levies, except for the above, the school is not done. The child is given all the way up to notebooks. Donations to the school seem to be voluntary. Theoretically, if you don’t sacrifice, no one will throw stones. In reality, you are forced to make these donations in every way.

For example, children should go to school in uniform, and this form is strictly regulated by the school (on the shirt should be the coat of arms of the school, pants of a certain shade, socks and shoes – only dark colors). On certain days, the school arranged a “day without uniform”, but to be able to put the child in a t-shirt and jeans of his choice, on this day it is necessary to pay the school $ 2. Of course, no one wants a child on this day the only one in the class, like pariah, came in shape, and all give their children two dollars.

Parents ‘ meeting is held once a year, in early September. The teacher tells the parents about the plans for the year, about how the school day will be held, and about his General requirements. During the year, the teacher holds meetings with parents individually, every three months. The meeting should be recorded on the Internet, and each parent is given exactly 15 minutes. During the meeting on the teacher’s Desk is an alarm clock. As soon as the time is up-you need to leave the office.

School Lunches are paid. The cost of lunch is $5. Not all dishes offered to choose from, can be called in our opinion a healthy diet, given that we are mainly grown on soups, cutlets and compotes. The menu is given for a month, and parents can order a school lunch for their chosen days.

Here is a sample list of dishes to choose from: Croutons with cheese and pasta salad, Fried chicken with string beans and carrots, Mexican tacos with beef, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese, Cheese sticks, pizza with cheese (it’s just pizza with tomato sauce and a lot of cheese), Ravioli with cheese, Pasta with chicken, Pancakes, hot dog, chicken Sandwich, Spaghetti with meatballs.

If on any day the child does not buy a school lunch (for example, my children do not eat cheese sticks), then on this day the child should be given lunch with him. In the morning I pack the child a hot lunch in a thermos, as the school does not have microwaves and the ability to heat the food is not available. In addition to lunch, you need to give your child something for a light snack (fruit, cookies…)

Marks on a one hundred point system. 90-100% is A, 80-90% is B, 70-80% is C, and everything below is F (that is, in our opinion, two). Despite the advertised American justice, the teacher’s bias against the student is still possible. For example, a child was downgraded for a wrong shade of green when he was painting a model of the earth.

In the third grade, the main subjects are reading, English, Spanish, drawing, singing, music, physical education, natural Sciences, mathematics and social studies. For the first seven subjects I had no questions. I would also like to highlight the quality of music teaching, as the child was taught to play the pipe, and he already has a basic idea of how to play the notes.

Natural science seemed to us relatively adequate. During the year, children go through various topics, such as the properties of matter, the water cycle in nature, the basic concepts of the planets, the rotation of the earth around the sun, food chains, etc. Here is an example of questions from the test:

Garvey crushes a piece of ice on the clay, trying to model a glacier. Which of the following shows how ice differs from clay? Options answers (the right answer-Clay softly):

– Clay softer

The clay harder.

– Clay is coarser

– Clay is smoother

Here’s another example of the issue:

Sand was one of the materials used by Rodrigo to model the glacier. What happened to the sand when Rodrigo ran a piece of ice over the clay and sand? (correct answer-Sand scratched clay)

– Sand turned to crumbs .

Sand’s gone.

– Sand scratched the ice

– Sand scratched the clay

Mathematics, of course, leaves much to be desired

Tasks on sharpness (from a series about tails and hooves) are not present as those in General. There is also no system of education, which in our understanding means teaching concepts from easy to complex.

There is a jump from one topic to another, not related to the previous one. For example, with the topic of adding a column, on which the teacher spent only one week, switched to the topic of studying fractions. Fractions is dedicated to also a week. On fractions the test is written, and next week already study system of measurements (kilograms, liters, degrees Celsius, kilometers). And then for some reason go to the study of geometric shapes. For some reason, it is taught how to determine the sum of the first two digits of the folded numbers, and this is after the children have learned to add a column.

Now I’ll tell you about the subject that caused my husband and I brain explosion. There will be a lot of text. Subject called social Studies (Social Studies), but the tutorial is called Weekly Lessons on Democracy. Below is a photo of this masterpiece.
Topics go by week

Immediately I note that any system on which these topics were selected, no. The feeling that the author of the program their children never had, and he/she/they are clearly something of a smoke and selected topics according to the principle of random drawing of cards. So, the theme is laid out exactly in the order that they appear in the textbook.

The study of each topic takes a week

Keep in mind that eight-year-olds are encouraged to study these topics.

Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece (why this theme here at all?)

The Independence Of America

New nation

Slavery in America

Freedom in America

Women’s right

Geography of America (Yes, we jumped from women’s rights to geography. By this point in the mind of a child is a complete madhouse)

World geography

Pioneers

Education for all (about the pioneers, we probably have already forgotten by this point)

The character of the American

Government

A new era for America

Eleanor Roosevelt.

Justice and tolerance (Yes! Here about what we need to accept others for who they are)

Resources

We depend on each other

How Much Is It?

Money! Money Is Everywhere!

Money in your pocket

American legal system

Becoming a wonderful society

Law and order

American labor

Diversity and culture

Young democracy in Mali (why Mali?)

Democracy around the world

Materials on democratic weeks are presented in the form of newspaper articles. Their content is a separate topic. We were very much interested in whether the compiler took into account the fact that the target audience was eight – year-old children.

DEATH OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Here’s a picture of the week on ” Money in your pocket.” Children are taught what the interest rate is and that they are well placed to invest in the securities market at the age of eight.

Here is a picture from the theme “money, Money Everywhere!”The child is offered to study how the dollar appeared, what forms of money are, that the dollar was provided with gold, who and how prints money. How useful is this information for a child aged 8?

And here is how the theme of the Second World war is revealed. Did you know, for example, that Roosevelt defeated everyone with the help of Stalin and Churchill? And that he founded the UN?

Note also that the topic of the Second World war in parallel tells about the origin of Teddy Bear. Why not? And just in case the paragraph about the need to respect themselves and others. Who would know how these concepts are related to each other.

How do we fill the gaps in education? The child attends additional classes at the Russian Sunday school, where he goes to mathematics, chess and Russian lessons. Chess was originally recorded for the development of logical thinking, and the lessons of additional mathematics, if possible, fill in the blanks of the American program.

As for democratic weeks, we, firstly, notice that half of this nonsense in the child’s head does not even remain (as in other things and in ours, although her husband still complains that he remembered for a lifetime that the largest cargo plane in the US is CJ130 Hercules). When women’s rights jump to geography, and then with the pioneers of education for all, in my head such a mess that specific knowledge the child does not receive and simply does not remember what was taught last week. Secondly, taking advantage of the fact that the child is free to read in Russian, in accordance with his age, we offer him books on the Russian program. The older he is, the more detailed and detailed we will cover the topic of the Second World war for him.

As for the issues of minority rights, tolerance, race and everything else, we ask him the relevant questions, which we do not answer directly. For example, we say that mom and dad both work. Is it right that we pay 30% of taxes on every dollar that we earn, and the government partially transfers this money in the form of benefits to those who prefer not to work for years (such people he sees every day on the street, and Yes, they are not white). As for freedom, in a previous article I wrote that a child spends his summer in Russia with his grandparents, where he freely walks, rides a Bicycle, can even go to the store. Conclusions about where he feels freer and more confident, he will do for himself.

The post PRIVATE PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE UNITED STATES first appeared on Global Policy.

According to a well-informed source, this meeting, which took place about ten years ago, the scouts prepared a few months. Through a shell company, they funded and organized a conference at an unrelated international science center, invited participants and brought their people into the ranks of the maintenance staff — all in order to lure a nuclear worker from Iran, separate him from the guards for a few minutes and talk to him one-on-one. At the last moment, the plan almost fell through: the scientist changed the hotel, because the hotel offered by the conference cost 75 dollars more than the Iranians were willing to spend.

To demonstrate sincerity and goodwill, the agent had a hand to heart. “Salam, Habibi,’ he said. “I’m from the CIA and I want you to fly with me to the United States.” On the Iranian’s face was a mixture of surprise, fear and curiosity. The agent already had experience with defectors, so he understood well what questions swarmed in the head of the scientist: what will happen to my family? How will you protect me? Where will I live and for what? How do I obtain a visa? Will I have time to pack? What happens if I say no? The scientist had already opened his mouth to ask something, but the interlocutor interrupted him: “first, take a bucket of ice.” “Why?» “If your guards Wake up, tell them you went for the ice.”

***

Carrying out probably the most daring and complex plan in its history to invade the academic world, the CIA secretly spent millions of dollars on the organization of scientific conferences in different countries. His goal was to lure Iranian nuclear scientists from Iran into a more favorable environment, where intelligence representatives could work individually with them and convince them to change sides. In other words, the Agency tried to delay the development of the Iranian nuclear program, using the international nature of the academic environment. To this end, it was forced to resort to large-scale deception and mislead both the structures that held these conferences and the scientists who spoke at them. Participants of scientific events did not even suspect that they were involved in the staging, only simulating reality. You can argue about how tasks national security to justify such manipulation of the professors, however, do not doubt that most scientists disagreed that the CIA may use them as “dummy”.

Conferences – the most convenient side of scientific life for espionage

Thanks to globalization, this social and intellectual ritual has become widespread. Like Golf and tennis tournaments, they are held wherever the climate is favorable enough — and in the same way attract a successful audience. Although scientists are constantly communicating with each other remotely, virtual communication is not a substitute for personal meetings, allowing you to make useful connections, look at new devices and read the report, which will later be released in the collection. “This engaging conference, wrote the English novelist David Lodge (David Lodge) in 1984, in his satire on academic life called “small World” — they allow you to combine useful with pleasant, that is, professional occupations in tourism, the money from someone else’s pocket. Wrote an article — see the world” (op.CIT. by lane O. E. Makarova).

The importance of the conference can now be measured not only by the number of Nobel laureates or Oxford professors who participate, but also by the number of spies. American and foreign intelligence are drawn to conferences for the same reasons that army recruiters are drawn to poor areas: there is most production. If a certain University can have only a couple of professors who are interested in the security services, then at the right conference-say, drones or ISIS (an organization banned in Russia — approx. TRANS.)- there may be dozens of them.

“Every intelligence Agency in the world works with conferences, sponsors conferences and looks for ways to send their people to conferences,” a former CIA officer told me.

“Recruitment is a long process of seduction,” says mark Galeotti, a senior researcher at the Prague Institute for international studies (Mark Galeotti), a former special adviser to the British Ministry of foreign Affairs. — First you need to be on the same partition with the object. Even if you just exchange a couple of meaningless remarks, next time you can already say, “I think I saw you in Istanbul?”».

The FBI warned in 2011, American scientists to be cautious conferences, outlining this scenario: “the Researcher suddenly receives an invitation to send abstracts to an international conference. She sends them and receives an invitation. At the conference, a representative of the host party asks her for a presentation, attaches the flash drive to her laptop and quietly downloads all files and data from it.”

The FBI and the CIA also do not leave the conference without attention

According to a former FBI agent, at events in the United States, “foreign intelligence agents hunt for Americans, and we hunt for them.” The CIA works with conferences in several different ways: it sends its agents to them, it organizes them through Washington shell companies so that the intelligence community can access scientific knowledge, and it holds fake conferences to get in touch with potential defectors from hostile countries.

The CIA monitors upcoming conferences around the world and identifies those that may be of interest to him. Suppose, for example, Pakistan hosts an international conference on centrifuge. The CIA will either send their undercover agent there or contact the scientist who was going there anyway to write the report. If it finds out that there was someone from the Iranian nuclear industry, it will mark it as a potential target for recruitment at the next event.

Intelligence gathered at academic conferences, can influence policy

For example, they helped convince the George W. Bush administration that Saddam Hussein continued to develop weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (which proved to be untrue). “Our staff and informants, of course, noticed that Iraqi scientists involved in chemistry, biology and, to a lesser extent, nuclear physics, continued to appear at international symposia — wrote in 2009 in his memoirs, a former CIA officer John kiriaku (John Kiriaku), specializing in the fight against terrorism. “They made reports, listened to other people’s speeches, actively took notes and returned to Jordan, from where they went by land to Iraq.”

Perhaps the scouts sometimes making invalid conclusions, due to the fact that among them there were few professional chemists, biologists and nuclear physicists. Without specialized education can be misunderstood what is at stake. In addition, the stranger is more likely to get caught. At conferences held in Vienna International atomic energy Agency on topics such as isotope hydrology, and nuclear fusion, spies probably has more than scientists, says gene Coyle (Gene Coyle), who worked for the CIA from 1976 to 2006: “There is only one little problem. When you send an agent to a conference like this, he has to keep talking. A man with a degree in history is very difficult to pretend to be a specialist in plasma physics. In addition, it is a very small world. If an agent, for example, says that he works at the Chicago Fermi Institute, he will immediately be asked how Bob, Fred and Susie are doing.”

Therefore, according to Coyle, the office attracts people from the scientific world through the Sector of national resources — its secret internal service, “cooperating” with many scientists. “After learning, say, about a suitable conference in Vienna, they ask Professor Smith if he will be there.”

“Smith might say, Yes, I’m going there and then I’ll let you know who I’ve been in contact with. If I run into any Iranian, I will not run away from him.” If he says he would love to go, but the University doesn’t have the funds, the CIA or the FBI can say, “Well, maybe we can get you a ticket — in economy class.”

***

Recruitment of a scientist often begins with an allegedly random meeting — as experts say “first contact” – at the conference. One former CIA officer — let’s call him R. — explained to me how it works.
“I recruited a lot of people at conferences, “he says. – I was good at it — but, however, it’s easy.”

In between assignments, he studied the list of upcoming conferences, chose one of them and found out which of the interested scientists participated in it in the previous years at least twice, and therefore likely to visit it again. He then instructed interns from the CIA and the national security Agency to prepare a profile of the facility-where he studied, from whom, and so on. Then he telegraphed his superiors, asking for funding. The request had to be sufficiently persuasive for the office to allocate the money, but sufficiently unconvincing that other agents who would become familiar with it and who were closer to the conference venue would not hunt for the same object.

Then R. developed a cover. He used to be a businessman. He came up with the name of the company, built a standard website, printed business cards, created for a non-existent company documents, phone and credit card data. He also chose which of his several aliases he would use this time.

R. was not a scientist and could not easily start a conversation about the hypothesis of Riemann. Therefore, he, realizing that most scientists are introverts and have difficulty communicating, turned to the object before the reception: “you also do not like crowded events?”After that R. stepped aside. “The first contact should be fleeting,”he believes,” it is Important that your face is simply remembered.” In this case, no one should notice such contact. A typical beginner’s mistake is to start a conversation in the presence of people who may be observers assigned to the scientist by the authorities of his country. If they report this conversation, the security of the facility will be at risk, and he will not be able — and will not want — to go to further contacts.

The rest of the time R. “rushed like crazy”, trying to contact the scientist at every opportunity. With each interaction (in CIA jargon they are called “time at the object” and are taken into account when measuring the efficiency of work), he tried to win the sympathy of the object. This has been helped by the habit to get well prepared for recruitment. Let’s say he told the subject that he’d read an amazing article on a subject, but he couldn’t remember the author. He was embarrassed and admitted that this is his article.

After a couple of days, R. invited the scientist to lunch or dinner and threw a fishing rod — said that his company is extremely interested in the subject on which the object works, and would like to support his work. “All the scientists I know are constantly looking for grants to Finance their research. They only talk about it,” he says. They discussed the scientific project and the amount that varied depending on the country: “for Pakistanis it is usually from 1000 to 5000 dollars, for Koreans — more.” After the Professor receives money from the CIA, he, even if the source of funding is unknown to him, becomes dependent, because at home exposure can jeopardize his career — and sometimes life.

Scientific conference of so drawn to intelligence that the CIA almost first began to fear the intervention of the colleagues in office, chasing the same academic production. “We navodayam such actions,” — says a retired tsereushnik, writing under the pseudonym Ishmael Jones (@Ishmael Jones), in his book in 2008 called “the Human factor: inside look at ineffective intelligence culture of the CIA” (“The Human Factor: Inside the CIA”s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture”).

Jones writes that in 2005, having come to a conference in Paris, which seemed to him “a suitable feeder for weapons developers working for rogue States”, he fell in spirit when he noticed two other CIA agents (and part-time scientists) in the hall. This, however, did not prevent him, trying not to catch their eye, scour the room, consider the badges of participants and seek out “potential sources of information”, ideally — from North Korea, Iran, Libya, Russia or China.

“I am surprised how large the open presence of special services at such events — said Karsten Geier (Karsten Geier). – At every step you come across people from abbreviation offices”. We spoke with Geyer, who is responsible for cybersecurity policy at the German foreign Ministry, at the Sixth annual international conference on cybersecurity, which was held on April 26, 2016 at Georgetown University in Washington. On it, program reports on the confrontation of one of the main challenges of the 21st century — cyber attacks — were made by the leaders of the NSA and the FBI. Objects of religious art, stained glass Windows and classic quotes that adorn the Gaston hall, where it all happened, looked on this background something like a carefully designed cover.

Among the speakers were a former chief cryptanalyst from the NSA, a former Chairman of the National intelligence Council, Deputy Director of the Italian security service and Director of the center conducting classified research for Swedish intelligence. Judging by the badges of the participants (there were 700 of them), the vast majority of them worked for the American government, foreign embassies, contractors cooperating with the security services, and companies that produce products that are related to cybersecurity — or taught at universities.

Probably not all intelligence presence was open. 40 countries — from Brazil to Mauritius, from Serbia to Sri Lanka-but not Russia were officially represented at the conference. However, at the same time in the audience, in the gallery, a thin young man with a briefcase, listening to the reports, was spinning. He didn’t have a badge. I approached him, introduced myself and asked his name. “Alexander,” he said. Then, hesitated and added: “Belousov. “How do you like the conference?» “I don’t know,” he said, obviously trying to avoid further questioning. – I’m from the Russian Embassy, I’m not an expert, just trying to understand.” I handed him a business card, but he refused to give me his, “I’ve only been here a month, my cards haven’t been printed yet.” I did not lag behind and began to ask him about his position in the Embassy (later it turned out that in the diplomatic Handbook he is listed as “second Secretary”). In response, he only looked at his watch: “Sorry, I have to go.”

***

When the CIA wants to know the opinion of Professor John booth (John Booth), call him and ask if he could participate in the conference. At the same time, the name of the Department is not on the official invitation and in the program of the event, the formal sponsor of which is one of the Washington contractor companies.

Hiding his involvement, the CIA makes life easier for scientists

This allows them to indicate their participation in conferences on resumes without disclosing that they actually consulted with the CIA. Such information could not only incite some of their colleagues in science against them, but also damage their reputation in the countries in which they conduct research.

Booth, Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of North Texas, specializes in Latin America. In this region, historical experience has taught officials to be wary of the CIA. “If you’re going to travel to Latin America, it’s very important that you don’t have certain things in your biography”, Booth explained to me in March 2016. – When you go to such conference even if it is carried out by intelligence services or military, in the summary it isn’t reflected. Participants need such a Fig leaf also because there are still some biases in academic circles. For example, at the events of Latin Americans, I will not tell you that I recently participated in a conference organized by the CIA.

The CIA holds conferences on foreign policy issues so that its analysts familiar with classified information can learn from researchers who see the picture as a whole and are familiar with open sources. Professors usually pay $ 1,000 in the idea of the fee and compensate for the costs. The events themselves look like an ordinary scientific conference with reports and questions to the speakers — minus the fact that many participants (as you can assume, CIA analysts) wear badges, which indicate only the name.

Of the ten intelligence conferences that Booth attended — the last of which was held in 2015 and was dedicated to the wave of refugee children from Central America that swept the United States-only two were held directly by the CIA and the Office of the Director of national intelligence [ADNR]. The rest was engaged in the company Centra Technology Inc-one of the leading Washington intermediary firms (“pads”, as they are called), which organize conferences for the CIA.

The CIA provides Centra with funding and tells us who to invite. The events themselves take place at the Centra Convention center in Arlington, Virginia. As reported on the company’s website, it is “an ideal place for conferences, meetings, games and joint events held by our customers.”

“Those who in the subject, when you see the Centra conference, you know that we are talking about the CIA or about the of the Academy, — said the Professor of international politics at Columbia University Robert Jervis (Robert Jervis), a long time consultant to the CIA. “They understand that some scientists benefit from formal cover.”

Centra, established in 1997, has since received more than $ 200 million in government contracts, including $ 40 million from the CIA for organizational support — in particular, for the selection and editing of classified dispatches for the Senate intelligence Committee, five years of studying the practice of torture Department. In 2015, the company’s management consisted of many retired high-ranking intelligence officers. Its founder and head of the Harold Rosenbaum (Harold Rosenbaum) was a scientific and technical consultant to the CIA. Senior Vice President Rick Bogusky (Rick Bogusky) headed the Korean Department in the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of defense. Vice President for research James Harris (James Harris) 22 years led the research projects of the CIA. Director of international Affairs Peggy Lyons (Peggy Lyons), has long been a CIA agent, several times sent to East Asia, held administrative positions in the office. David Kanin, Director of analytical work, worked for 31 years in the CIA as an analyst.

A political scientist from the University of Indiana. Sumit (Sumit Ganguly) spoke at several conferences Centra. “Everyone who cooperates with Centra knows that they are actually working for the us government,” he says. – If events were held by the CIA itself, some would be nervous. As for me, I’m not embarrassed in front of my colleagues. If they don’t like something, it’s their problem. I am an American citizen and I am always ready to give my government good advice.”

According to another political scientist, who made four reports at Centra events, he was told that the company represents some unnamed “clients”. He realized that we are talking about the us intelligence services, only when he saw in the audience of people with badges without names, with the same names. Then he met some of them at another academic conference. They did not have badges, and they did not appear in the program.

Centra’s trying to mask its ties to the CIA. In 2015, it has removed from its website the biography of leadership. Among the” leading customers ” on the site mentioned the Ministry of internal security, the FBI, Land forces and 16 Federal government agencies — but not the CIA. When I called Rosenbaum and asked him if Centra was holding a conference for the CIA, he said, ” That’s not where you’re calling. We have nothing to do with it,” and hung up.

Then I came to the office Centra, located in Burlington, Massachusetts, a Northern suburb of Boston. It is located on the fifth floor. In the logbook all visitors are asked to indicate citizenship and “type of visit” – secret or unclassified. The receptionist led the Director of human resources Diane Colpitts (Dianne Colpitts). She politely listened to me, contacted Rosenbaum, and said that Centra would not comment on anything. “To be honest,” she added, ” our customers prefer that we do not communicate with the press.”

***

For Iranian academics fleeing to the West, a scientific conference has turned into the modern equivalent of the underground railroad. The CIA is actively using it. As the head of the Institute of science and international security David Albright (David Albright) told me, since the time of President George W. Bush, the US government has allocated “unlimited funds” for covert operations to slow down Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons. In particular, the CIA organized an operation “brain Drain”, the purpose of which was to push the leading Iranian nuclear scientists to flee to America.

As a former intelligence officer explained to me, it was difficult to get to scientists in Iran itself, and so the CIA lured them to friendly and neutral countries at the conference. Management, in consultation with the Israelis, chose the object for development. Then it organized a conference at a famous scientific Institute. To do this, we used a “gasket” — usually some entrepreneur, allegedly allocated for the event (at the expense of the CIA) the amount of 500,000 dollars to 2 million dollars. It could be the owner of a technology company — or intelligence could specifically create a shell company for him, so that his sponsorship did not cause suspicion in the Institute, which should not have been aware of the involvement of the CIA. “The less you know, the scientists, the safer the situation for everyone,” says the former tsereushnik. The pads knew they were working for the CIA, but they didn’t know the purpose of the job — and the Agency only used them once.

The conference was to be devoted to one of the aspects of nuclear physics having peaceful application, as well as to correspond to the research interests of the facility. Iranian nuclear scientists usually work in universities at the same time. Like any Professor, they love to travel at someone else’s expense. The Iranian government has allowed them to occasionally attend conferences-even if under protection-to keep up with the latest research and to get acquainted with suppliers of modern technology. In addition, it was of propaganda value.

“From the Iranian point of view, it certainly made sense to send scientists to the conference on the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Ronen Bergman (Ronen Bergman) told me. Bergman is a prominent Israeli journalist, published a book “the secret war with Iran: 30 years of a hidden struggle with the most dangerous terrorist country in the world” (“the secret war with Iran: the 30-year clandestine struggle against the most dangerous terrorist power”) and is now working on a political history of the Israeli intelligence — Mossad. “It was advantageous for them to say that they were sending their researchers to the conference to then use peaceful technologies for peaceful purposes.”

A CIA agent leading the operation, was able to impersonate a student, a technical consultant or representative of the company with an exhibition stand. His first task was to rid the scientist of the guards. Let’s say there was a case where a CIA-recruited kitchen staff poisoned the guards ‘ food with a drug that caused them to vomit and diarrhea. The calculation was that they will carry the disease at the expense of eaten on the plane lunch or unusual cuisine.

With some luck, the agent was able to catch the object alone for a few minutes and talk to him. Usually before that, the intelligence agent carefully studied the Iranian-read the file and talked with “access agents” who were in direct contact with him. As a result, if the scientist doubted whether he was really dealing with the CIA, the scout could say that he knew everything about it — and prove it. For example, one agent told a potential defector, “I know you had cancer and had your left testicle removed.

Even after the scientist agreed to switch sides, he could change his mind and escape. “He had to constantly recruit, again and again,” explains the former intelligence agent. Even when he was already sitting in the car going to the airport, and the CIA together with allied intelligence services organized a visa and tickets. The CIA also made every effort to take his wife and children to the United States — but not his mistress, as one of the defectors demanded. The office provided him and his family with housing and certain long — term benefits-in particular, paid for the higher education of his children.
As I was told by a competent source from among the former employees of CIA, in the USA — through conferences and not only — scientists ran enough to seriously brake the Iranian nuclear program. According to him, the engineer who built centrifuges for the Iranians agreed to flee on one condition: that he would be allowed to defend his thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of technology. Unfortunately, the CIA took him out of Iran without documents – including without diplomas. Therefore, the MTI first, and then the CIA turned him down. However, in the end, the Agency insisted, and the famous engineering UNIVERSITY agreed to meet the scouts and cancel the formalities. To test the defector, a group of professors from different departments was assembled. He brilliantly passed the oral exam, was admitted to graduate school and defended himself.

MIT Administration claims that they know nothing about it. “I’ve never heard anything like it,” said the head of the Department of mechanical engineering, Gan Chen (Chen gang). However, two academic sources confirmed the credibility of the story at key points. Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of oil field studies at the University of southern California (Mohammad Sahimi), who studies Iranian policy in the nuclear industry, said that a defector who worked in the Iranian nuclear program defended his thesis at MIT on mechanical engineering. Professor of mechanical engineering from MIT Timothy gutovsky (Timothy Gutovsky), in turn, said: “in our laboratory worked one guy. One day I learned that in Iran he was dealing with centrifuges, and I wondered how we had it.”

Due to the fact that in 2015 Iran agreed to limit — in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions — the development of nuclear weapons, the issue of recruiting defectors from the Iranian nuclear program has partially lost importance for us intelligence. However, if President trump abandons this deal, which he condemned in his September speech to the UN General Assembly, or decides to revise it, the CIA can once again engage in a secret hunt for prominent Iranian nuclear scientists with the help of staged conferences.

This is an edited excerpt from the book of Daniel Golden, “Espionage in higher education: how the CIA, FBI and the foreign intelligence agencies secretly used by American universities” (“spy schools: how the CIA, FBI, and foreign intelligence secretly to exploit America’s universities”) opening November 1 in the publishing house of Henry Holt.

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