FBI seeks info on foreign college students

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The FBI is asking U.S. colleges and universities to provide personal information about foreign students and teachers so the government can determine whether they have ties to known or suspected members of terror groups, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"The data obtained from schools will be compared with information compiled by the Justice Department's Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, which is building a classified database of suspected and known terrorists," the newspaper said, citing sources.

The report said, according to a sample copy provided to the paper, letters sent from FBI field offices beginning last month ask schools to provide "names, addresses, telephone numbers, citizenship information, places of birth, dates of birth and any foreign contact information" for teachers and students who are foreign nationals.

FBI and Justice Department officials say language in the new USA Patriot Act allows schools to provide the data without notifying those involved, the report said.

The FBI declined to say how many schools have been asked for the information, or how many have provided it, but said compliance is voluntary, The Post reported.

"There's no requirement on the part of the colleges to provide this information," FBI spokesman Bill Carter told the paper. "We can request it and they can provide the information. They don't have to comply."

The newspaper said the Association of American College Registrars and Admissions Officers has told its 10,000 members that providing the information would violate federal law. It also noted that the U.S. Department of Education indicated in an earlier general advisory that some of the information now sought by the FBI cannot be provided without a court order or subpoena.

Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education, told the newspaper that he does not see any problem with the FBI's request.

"We don't see any reason why a school should not be able to honor this request if they choose to. ... This is part of the new landscape that we're all becoming accustomed to since September 11," he said.

In the weeks following the September 11 attacks, about 200 colleges acknowledged in a national survey that they had turned over information about specific foreign students to the FBI, most of the time without a subpoena or court order, The Post said.

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