UPI - 9/27/87


   WASHINGTON -- The FBI maintained informants in high schools in suburbs
of the nation's capital in the late 1960s and spied on students as young
as 14, recently released FBI documents reveal.
   The investigation centered on a group called the Montgomery County
Student Alliance, which in 1969 was a 1,000-member non-violent organization
highly critical of the affluent Maryland county's education policies.
   The heavily censored documents also show that FBI agents attended a 
meeting members of the group held in 1969 with activist employees of the
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
   No reason for the FBI's activities is stated in the documents, which
contain no allegation of any unlawful activity. The documents show that
the student group was being investigated by FBI offices in Washington and
Baltimore.
   The documents also state that the FBI was passing on its information on
the alliance to other government agencies, including the Secret Service
and "interested military intelligence agencies."
   FBI spokesman William Carter said the investigation of the student group
would have been under the agency's COINTELPRO program. The program, which
was disclosed in the mid-1970s amid widespread denunciations by Congress
and civil liberties groups, was directed at a broad spectrum of anti-war,
student and black activists and organizations.
   Carter said such an investigation of a non-violent group would not be
possible under today's FBI guidelines. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he 
said, the FBI "had literally thousands of these cases," while today it has
only 15 to 25.
   He said he could not say why the Montgomery County investigation was
undertaken in the first place. The released documents, he said, "will have
to speak for themselves."
   The documents were obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of Information
Act by Norman Solomon, who in 1969 was a student alliance leader. Solomon,
who now lives in Oregon, is a widely published writer who is co-author of
"Killing Our Own," a book on the dangers of nuclear power.
   The alliance was formed in early 1969. The FBI documents quote a news-
paper article describing the alliance as an "educational reform" group
working for change in a school system the group says "presently inhibits
students' individuality, creativity, and independent thinking."
   Most of the FBI's spying on the alliance came during the first six
months of 1969, the documents show.
   Although most names are deleted from the documents, it appears from the
size of the deletions that between 15 and 30 students individually were
being looked at by the FBI, and that students in at least 12 county high
schools were being monitored. Because of the deletions, it is impossible
to tell whether the informants were students, faculty or others.
   The documents list just six of the schools -- Montgomery Blair, Walt
Whitman, Winston Churchill, Springbrook, Wheaton and Northwood.
UPI - 9/27/87


   WASHINGTON -- The FBI maintained informants in high schools in suburbs
of the nation's capital in the late 1960s and spied on students as young
as 14, recently released FBI documents reveal.
   The investigation centered on a group called the Montgomery County
Student Alliance, which in 1969 was a 1,000-member non-violent organization
highly critical of the affluent Maryland county's education policies.
   The heavily censored documents also show that FBI agents attended a 
meeting members of the group held in 1969 with activist employees of the
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
   No reason for the FBI's activities is stated in the documents, which
contain no allegation of any unlawful activity. The documents show that
the student group was being investigated by FBI offices in Washington and
Baltimore.
   The documents also state that the FBI was passing on its information on
the alliance to other government agencies, including the Secret Service
and "interested military intelligence agencies."
   FBI spokesman William Carter said the investigation of the student group
would have been under the agency's COINTELPRO program. The program, which
was disclosed in the mid-1970s amid widespread denunciations by Congress
and civil liberties groups, was directed at a broad spectrum of anti-war,
student and black activists and organizations.
   Carter said such an investigation of a non-violent group would not be
possible under today's FBI guidelines. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he 
said, the FBI "had literally thousands of these cases," while today it has
only 15 to 25.
   He said he could not say why the Montgomery County investigation was
undertaken in the first place. The released documents, he said, "will have
to speak for themselves."
   The documents were obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of Information
Act by Norman Solomon, who in 1969 was a student alliance leader. Solomon,
who now lives in Oregon, is a widely published writer who is co-author of
"Killing Our Own," a book on the dangers of nuclear power.
   The alliance was formed in early 1969. The FBI documents quote a news-
paper article describing the alliance as an "educational reform" group
working for change in a school system the group says "presently inhibits
students' individuality, creativity, and independent thinking."
   Most of the FBI's spying on the alliance came during the first six
months of 1969, the documents show.
   Although most names are deleted from the documents, it appears from the
size of the deletions that between 15 and 30 students individually were
being looked at by the FBI, and that students in at least 12 county high
schools were being monitored. Because of the deletions, it is impossible
to tell whether the informants were students, faculty or others.
   The documents list just six of the schools -- Montgomery Blair, Walt
Whitman, Winston Churchill, Springbrook, Wheaton and Northwood.
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