U.S. TO TRY TO BAR ALIENS FROM SUPERCOMPUTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030072-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 72
• Publication Date: July 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030072-8
ARTICLE APpPEEqq NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE ___ 30 July 1985
U.S. to Try to Bar Aliens
From Supercomputers
The Defense Department said yes- My DAVID E. SANG ER
terday that it would try to keep Soviet. A j M-189a n project
bloc students and scholars from virtu- But late to
onal
February, ally all the superoomputets in the Science Foundation saiit would tspend
United States, including four major SM million to create
centers now being set up at universities Purer
by the National Science Foundation. , centers to help academics solve a wide range of basic research problems.
the equipment most sought by the
Soviet bloc, and officials say they as-
sume many of the foreigners involved
in academic exchanges are spies.
The move has
from officials at three oI the universi
ties involved in the science founda-
tion's project on the ground that the re-
strictions could violate academic free.
dom. In the past two weeks those three,
Cornell University, Princeton Univer-
sity and the University of Dlinois, have
each refused to endorse a provision in
their Government contracts that would
restrict the access of some foreign na-
tionals to the facilities.
Direetlve Is Being Dratted
But Government officials said yes- ,I
terday that the universities might have i
to yield if President Reagan signed a
national security directive now being
drafted by a group of officials of the De.
tense Department, the State Depart.
mein and the National Security Age&
cy, among other agencies.
Dr. Stephen D. Bryan, a deputy
assistant secretary of defence, saala
telephone interview yesterday that Soviet access to such machines would
pose a "serious threat" to the United
States. Dr. Bryan, who directs the Pen-
tagon's efforts to regulate the flow of
strategically important high-tech-
nology products, added, "If you are not
willing to sell the computers but give
them access to the machines an your
own soil, you have lost the whole ex-
port-control battle in one swoop.-
Supercomputers, than 10 millon eah, awhich cost more
re most ad-
vanced computer systems currently
manufactured, and there are fewer
than 150 of them installed around the
world. Because of their tremendous
processing speed, they can solve in a
day complex mathematical problems
that take the largest conventional com-
puters months or years.
Experts generally agree that the
Soviet Union has no supercomputers.
Until recently, neither have most aca-
demic or industrial researchers.
me umversruse awarded the centers
would control access to the machines,
which are act intended for any classi-
fied Government work.
Allen J. Sinisgall3, ' director of re-
search and
Princeton, said officials
Very, very surprised" by the actual
contact. The document, be said, stipu-
lated that the consortium of universi-
ties naming the Princeton center would
deny access to foreign nationals from
the Soviet bloc, China or other coun-
ties that fell under the high-technology
export control laws.
"We feel it is a tremendous infringe.
meat on academic freedom," said Mr.
Sinisgaili, who negotiated for the con-
sortium, which includes the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, Harvard
Univerity, the University of Pemsyl.
vania and Rutgers, among others.
"Foreign scholars are in the country
for legitimate purposes," Mr. Sinis-
galli said. "To restrict them would be
to deny their rights. And for the first
time, we are seeing the Government
try to impose controls on a facility
work where going re is on.a" bsolutely no classified
In the and, Mr. Sinisgaili said, com-
promise language was reached ac-
knowleging that a "national policy" on
access to drafted and that ~ter would abide
by that policy. But officials at Prince.
too and Cornell said yesterday that if
the national policy infringed on aca-
demic
withdraw from theepproj have to
ect.
Among the four universities direct-
ing the computer centers, only the Uni-
the forma at San Diego ac-
cepted
wording suggested to the
science foundation by the Defense De-
partment, according to foundation offi-
cials. Administrators at the university
could not be reached for comment yes.
terday, but National Science Founda-
tion officials said the San Diego con-
tract was negotiated by a private com-
pany that will operate the facility for
the university.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030072-8