Washington State U. Denies Any Role in Award Given to Qaddafi

Officials of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith here said they were satisfied that Washington State University had “no official role” in a visit to Libya three months ago by a faculty member and graduate students who were part of a group that presented the Martin Luther King Jr. Award to Libya’s leader Muammar Qaddafi. Jerome Anches, ADL advisory board chairman, said this assurance was received from Dr. Glen Terrell, president of the State University in Pullman, Wash., in response to a query last October by the ADL regional office in Los Angeles.

Anches and David F. Stahl, Pacific Northwest regional director, acknowledged Terrell’s recent response and stated that “It was most gratifying to learn that no state funds were used for this frovel and that WSU was not involved in the planning or implementing of this trip.”

The matter arose when the ADL learned from information released by the Metro Atlanta Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that the Black studies department at Washington State had coordinated the visit of 18 Black Americans to Libya to meet with Qaddafi and present him with the award.

Anches said, in a statement released here, that “Dr. Terrell’s response to our inquiry reassured us in the League that our state was not even indirectly involved in the unpardonable awarding of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award to Col. Qaddafi, the mastermind of the recent outrageous takeover of our nation’s embassy in Tripoli. I am pleased that Dr. Terrell clarified the facts concerning this trip and clearly indicated that Washington State University in no way participated or sponsored the actions of those individuals who traveled to Libya in September of this year.”