The Chronicle: Education Department Mined Hundreds of Students’ Records as Part of FBI Antiterrorist Operation
The U.S. Education Department has given the Federal Bureau of Investigation information on hundreds of students who applied for financial aid over the past five years as part of the federal government’s antiterrorism investigations following the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The program, known as Project Strike Back, was aimed at finding out if suspected terrorists were financing their operations through federal student aid obtained by using other students’ identities. The secret effort was uncovered by a journalism student at Northwestern University, Laura McGann.