CIA Recruiters Expelled from UCSB Campus

A routine CIA information and recruitment session was suddenly disrupted on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara today when a small group of student protesters walked in and lead a man with bound hands to the front of the room, where he was laid on a table and (voluntarily*) tortured with a CIA-approved technique used to simulate drowning, known as water-boarding. The CIA speakers were struggling to speak over the "torture victim's" coughs and cries for help, while potential CIA recruits looked on with bewilderment at the grotesquely real portrayal of torture.

UC Santa Barbara Students Drive Out CIA

UC Santa Barbara,
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

A routine CIA information and recruitment session was suddenly disrupted on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara today when a small group of student protestors walked in and lead a man with bound hands to the front of the room, where he was laid on a table and (voluntarily*) tortured with a CIA-approved technique used to simulate drowning, known as water-boarding. The CIA speakers were struggling to speak over the "torture victim's" coughs and cries for help, while potential CIA recruits looked on with bewilderment at the grotesquely real portrayal of torture.

As the torture victim screamed in terror, a large group of students, with a faction of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) at the lead, stormed the room. CIRCA members untied the bound man and pushed his torturers aside to chants of 'NO TORTURE AT UCSB!' and 'CIA, GO AWAY!'. One of the rebel clowns even took advantage of a CIA operative's vacant chair at the head of the room to begin a new, and interactive, information session with the crowd to discuss the true history of the CIA and why they must be resisted. Meanwhile, clowns and students mingled with the potential recruits to discuss the truth of the organization, and other options for those who had attended the meeting. People got on tables, chairs were overturned, and the projector screen was rolled up.

The two CIA recruiters heading the meeting appeared to be caught completely off guard. They packed up and began to leave, followed first by a few of the students who had come for the recruiting session, and then by the entire clown-and-student insurgency, which proceeded to disrupt every attempt at meeting in other parts of UCSB's U-Cen, or University Center, building, by surrounding CIA agents and confronting them with a battery of questioning and shame, making it clear that torturers will not be tolerated at UC Santa Barbara. When it was apparent that any attempt at recruitment would fail, the meeting dispersed and one agent was escorted off the university by the chanting, confrontational insurgency.

When it was clear that the agent was no longer a threat to impressionable University students, the crowd returned to the U-Cen to forcibly eject the other agent, only to discover that he had already left as well. The former meeting room was occupied and used for a networking and debriefing session, where the insurgency was able to use the energy of the event to lay down the foundations for future resistance.

*The volunteer in question was, per his request, actually tortured using the water-boarding technique, so as to give the students the necessary picture of what the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States is guilty of doing to human beings. Although the demonstration was obviously painful, he felt it was essential, and bravely allowed himself to be put through this terrible experience. Don't try this at home, and don't let anybody do it to you; especially if they work for the government.


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From UCSB's Daily Nexus (student newspaper)

Students Protest CIA’s Torture Tactics
UCSB Students Dress in Clown Costumes to Denounce CIA, Follow Presenter Across Campus

By Evan Wagstaff / Staff Writer
Published Thursday, November 15, 2007

Student protesters dressed as clowns follow a CIA representative from the UCen conference room to his car near Pardall Tunnel on Wednesday evening. The group interrupted the event to perform imaginary torture methods in order to deter recruitment at UCSB.

Student protesters dressed as clowns follow a CIA representative from the UCen conference room to his car near Pardall Tunnel on Wednesday evening. The group interrupted the event to perform imaginary torture methods in order to deter recruitment at UCSB.

The clowns interrupt the CIA informational meeting to criticize torture tactics and other allegedly negative influences of the program yesterday. They distributed pamphlets on campus and used the clown theme to try to make a mockery out of the CIA.

The clowns interrupt the CIA informational meeting to criticize torture tactics and other allegedly negative influences of the program yesterday. They distributed pamphlets on campus and used the clown theme to try to make a mockery out of the CIA.

A group of several protesters dressed in clown costumes and painted faces followed a CIA recruiter last night from his presentation in the UCen to his car behind the Thunderdome.

A CIA recruitment and informational meeting was taking place in a conference room on the UCen’s lower level, when, at 5 p.m., a group of protesters interrupted the recruiter’s PowerPoint presentation by placing one of their fellow clowns on the front table, binding his hands and arms, and pouring water on his face to simulate waterboarding torture in front of the presentation’s unsuspecting audience. The group also held a mock press conference citing historical torture statistics and played limbo with a fuzzy green boa before the recruiters quickly packed up their equipment and left the room.

The crowd of a dozen clowns and almost 50 onlookers followed the lead recruiter through the halls of the UCen, up and down two flights of stairs, and out to Storke Plaza, chanting “No torture at UCSB” and “CIA, go away.” The recruiter, who did not stop for comment, said only “I’m not in violation of anything,” before getting into his car at the lot next to Pardall Tunnel.

Jennifer Bamberg, a UCSB alumni and protester, was passing out anti-torture signs to fellow supporters in front of the UCen throughout the protest. She said students should reject the CIA and cited various allegations.

“It’s the fact that they practice torture since their inception,” Bamberg said. “They had a hand in the coup in Chile in ‘73, they go into places like Afghanistan and assure opium gets to poor black areas in the U.S.; they supported crop dusting in Columbia and poisoned thousands of families’ farm supplies.”

According to third-year environmental studies major Whitney Walberg, “Community Members Against War” is the unofficial group behind the protest. The group has no set roster of members, but serves as a place for concerned students to plan action. Walberg said that the group chose the clown motif to embarrass the CIA and make a joke out of their meeting.

“The reason they feel this is effective is because they completely make the situation a joke,” Walberg said. “It takes the seriousness and legitimacy away from the CIA. UCSB is one of the only UCs that the CIA recruits at and we want them to stop what they’re doing.”

After the recruiter left, Will Parish, the most costumed of the protesters, spoke against the CIA while in character as a high-pitched clown.

“All I wanted to know was if, by Western standards, it’s OK for me to tickle you in the butt if it’s okay for you to torture people,” Parish said. “That guy was an evasive asshole.”

The protesters also distributed pamphlets detailing several instances of alleged CIA international abuses.
First year zoology and film studies major Lindsey Parker said she heard about the event through Facebook and came to protest what she deemed as unacceptable practices by the CIA.

“We claim to support a peaceful cause but then we do shady things like this,” Parker said. “There are all sorts of barbaric acts that are going on.”