FBI Interviews HBS Student of Arab Descent

An international student of Middle Eastern descent at the Harvard Business School (HBS) said yesterday that he was interviewed by the the FBI Tuesday as part of its inquiry into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, adding Harvard to the list of over 200 colleges across the country that the FBI has canvassed in its the course of its ongoing investigation.

While the student said he was not accused of having any involvement in the attacks, he was asked to provide personal information and whether he knew anything about the hijackers or their associates, or if he had had any contact with them.

After learning the student’s history of travel to the U.S. and academic commitments, the student said, the investigator asked him if he knew “any of the people that you’ve seen in the papers recently who were involved with these attacks” and asked him if he was aware of any plans for future attacks.

“I asked at the end, ‘So what’s the background for this?’” the student said. “She said, ‘We’re trying to look at people who’ve come in the country recently.’ I don’t blame them, it’s part of their job, but clearly they’re not calling up French-born students.”

The student said he subsequently contacted HBS Senior Associate Dean W. Carl Kester, who said he would contact the University General Counsel’s office to alert them to the interview.

Neither Kester nor Deputy General Counsel Robert W. Iuliano could be reached for comment yesterday.

The FBI has been interviewing students of Arab descent nationwide in an attempt to keep tabs on the half-million international students currently enrolled in American universities, according to published reports earlier this week. One of the Sept. 11 hijackers entered the U.S. with a student visa.

The FBI has also sought information from Harvard directly, subpoenaing the records of a Kennedy School graduate last month.

But Kevin Casey, the University’s senior director of federal and state relations, said he was not aware of any subsequent subpoenas by the bureau.

While the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service have contacted financial aid offices at other colleges seeking confidential student records, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Marlyn McGrath Lewis ’70-’73 and Director of Financial Aid Sally Donahue said that Harvard’s undergraduate admissions office has not been contacted.

McGrath Lewis said the office would comply with any government request made through proper channels.

FBI Public Affairs Coordinator Gail A. Marcinkiewicz said the agency could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

—Claire A. Pasternack contibuted to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Daniel K. Rosenheck can be reached at rosenhec@fas.harvard.edu.