[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Stop The War! staged a protest in Memorial Union Tuesday criticizing the U.S. government for allegedly monitoring anti-war organizations and University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley for sitting on an FBI counterintelligence panel.

The protest was held while representatives of the U.S. Marines were offering recruitment information in the Union.

In a statement, Wiley said he supported "open debate" on campus, as well as the U.S. Marines' on-campus recruitment efforts.

"We will protect the rights of the students who wish to associate with recruiters," Wiley said in a statement.

Wiley added in the statement that student organizations deciding to "act outside of our established parameters for protest" would have to accept the responsibility of their actions.

Stop The War! representative Chris Dols said the organization had no intention of breaking any university policy, and did not believe it had done so.

Before the protest, Stop The War! representatives held a press conference where they criticized Wiley and UW for not upholding the university's anti-discrimination policy.

One goal of the press conference and protest was to get UW to prohibit the U.S. Marines from recruiting on campus "just as it [would] the mafia," a Stop The War! representative said.

"Chancellor Wiley admitted that the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy of the military violates [UW's] anti-discrimination policy," Dols said. "But, the campus and university administration refused to uphold the policy against themselves specifically because they are afraid of losing federal funding."

Dols continued to criticize Wiley for sitting on an FBI counter-intelligence panel, which Dols referred to as "the American KGB," and demanded Wiley step down.

Additionally, Dols accused the counterintelligence panel and the Pentagon of "monitoring nonviolent, constitutionally defended dissent."

However, UW political science professor Donald Downs said it was a "good thing" Wiley was sitting on the panel.

Downs said he believed there is a mutual benefit for the government to know what is happening on college campuses and for a university to be aware of government actions.

"The government has certain concerns about things going on," Downs said. "Wiley knows how the university works and can better inform the government."

However, Downs said he supported Wiley sitting on the panel as long as the government and panel actions are "reasonable and legal."

The laws regarding government monitoring of student and national organizations have not been "adequately decided," Downs added.

And furthermore, some courts have upheld the controversial practice, while others have not, Downs said.

"The larger question is if this is a good thing," Downs said. "I don't like the government [monitoring] unless there's evidence people are doing crimes."

As for the Stop The War! protest, Downs said Wiley's statement is "right in principle," as long as the existing rules do not prevent organizations from "making their points."

UW College Republicans said they supported the anti-war group's right to protest, but disagreed with its claims.

"I think their claims are completely overblown and quite laughable," UWCR Chair Jordan Smith said. "They make everything out to be a conspiracy theory against them."

Smith added it was "far-fetched" to compare the FBI to the KGB.