Discrimination against Asian-Americans in the name of national security has been a long-lasting problem, panelists told an audience of 150 at the ARCO Forum last night.

"Throughout our country's history, security agencies have taken actions which, in retrospect, are seen as huge violations of civil rights," said panelist Norm Mineta, who was detained in an internment camp for Japanese residents during the Second World War.

On the panel along with Mineta, a former member of Congress, were L. Ling-Chi Wang, chair of the ethnic studies department at the University of California, Berkeley, and Alan K. Simpson, director of the Institute of Politics and a longtime friend of Mineta.

The event was sponsored by several Asian-American student groups who wanted to discuss racial issues surrounding the case of Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese-American scientist in jail on 59 counts of violating national security procedures.

But Wei Zhou '01, co-president of the Chinese Students Association (CSA), said IOP officials refused to include Lee's name on posters and publicity for the event because they considered the case too controversial.

Students handed out yellow armbands stating "Asian-Americans are not foreigners." About half the audience members wore the armbands.

Both Wang and Mineta mentioned the Lee case, but only at the end of their remarks.

During the panel, Wang traced the history of discrimination against Asian-Americans from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to the present.