u.s.armyspiesonnca - concernedanthropologists

U.S. Army Spies on NCA

at AAA Meeting

During a November 30 panel at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting featuring three NCA members, witnesses saw two U.S. Army personnel affiliated with the human terrain program writing down the names and institutional affiliations of anthropologists who had signed copies of the NCA pledge circulating during the panel. The email below, from NCA member Hugh Gusterson, asks the U.S. Army’s Col. Steve Fondacaro, director of the human terrain program, for clarification about the observed activities. (“TRADOC” is the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, which oversees the human terrain program.)

To: steve.fondacaro@us.army.mil
From: Hugh Gusterson <hgusters@gmu.edu>
Subject: HTS issue
Bcc: hgusters <hgusters@mail.gmu.edu>

Dear Colonel Fondacaro,

I understand you were at the American Anthropological Association
meetings last week. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to chat.

I'm writing to you in the hope you might shed light on an incident
that concerns me. A former US intelligence officer who now works
with the Network of Concerned Anthropologists saw Laurie Adler of
TRADOC and Jessica Lawrence of the US army writing down the names and institutional affiliations of anthropologists who had signed the pledge of non-participation in counter-insurgency work as the pledge was passed around a session at the meetings. This raises a number of questions:

* Whose orders were Adler and Lawrence following when they engaged in this behavior?

* How many names of signatories to the pledge has the US military collected?

* How and where are those named being stored?

* Who will have access to these names?

* What is the US military's purpose in collecting the names of
people who have signed the pledge?

I would appreciate your response to these questions at your earliest
convenience.

With best wishes,

Hugh Gusterson

Professor, Anthropology and Sociology

Department of Sociology & Anthropology
George Mason University, MSN-3G5
Robinson Hall B445A
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-993-4084
hgusters@gmu.edu

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