REVIEW AND REPORT ON DECONTROL OF CERTAIN PERSONAL COMPUTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92M00732R001100010018-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 8, 2014
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: August 8, 1989
• Content Type: MEMO

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/04/08: CIA-RDP92M00732R001100010018-6
8 August 1989
OCA 2790-89
MEMORANDUM FOR: C/Technology Transfer Assessment Center/OSWR/DDI
FROM:
Legislation Division
Office of Congressional Affairs
STAT
SUBJECT: Review and Report on Decontrol of Certain Personal
Computers
Attached for your information is a copy of the 1 August 1989
Congressional Record, wherein the Senate approved an amendment to
the DOD Authorization Bill pertaining to decontrol of certain
personal computers. As you will note, the amendment requires the
Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Director of Central
Intelligence, to conduct a review of the report issued by the
Secretary of Commerce concerning the foreign availability of certain
personal computers.
Attachment
OCA/LEG,
STAT
8 Aug 89) STAT
Distribution:
Original - Addressee (w/att)
1 - OCA Records (w/att)
1 - D/OCA (w/att)
1 - OCA/LEG/Subject File: Technology Transfer (w/att)
1 - Signer (w/o att)
1 - OCARead Library
STAT
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August 1,1.989 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
Senator from Arizona reserves the
right to object.
Mr. McCAIN. I withdraw the objec-
tion.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. With-
out. objection, it is so ordered.
AMENDMENT NO. 633
(Purpose: To require the Secretary of De-
fense to review and report on the report
of the Secretary of Commerce regarding
the decontrol of certain computers)
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I send
an amendment to the desk on behalf
of the senior Senator from Wyoming
and ask for its immediate consider-
ation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
clerk will report the amendment.
The assistant legislative clerk read
as follows:
The Senator from Virginia [Mr. WARNER],
for Mr. WALLOP, proposes an amendment
numbered 633.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, / ask
unanimous consent that reading of the
amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. With-
out objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:
On page 293, between lines 13 and 14,
insert the following new section:
SEC.. REVIEW AND REPORT ON DECONTROL OF
CERTAIN PERSONAL COMPUTERS.
(a) REVIEW.?The Secretary of Defense. in
consultation with the Director of Central
Intelligence and the Science Advisor to the
President, shall conduct a review of the
report made by the Secretary of Commerce
on the foreign availability of certain person-,
al- computers entitled "Foreign Availability
Assessment: AT-Compatable Microcomput-
ers." In conducting such review, the Secre-
tary of Defense shall, at a minimum?
(1) determine the availability of micro-
computers referred to in such report from
sources other than members nations of the
Coordinating Committee ?for Multilateral
Export Controls or other nations that con-
trol the export of such computers; and
(2) assess the military significance of such
computers for the Soviet ,Union and its
Warsaw Pact allies.
(b) Repoirr.?The Secretary of Defense
shall submit to the Committee on Banking.
Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate
and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of
the House of Representatives a report con-
taining the results of the Secretary's review.
The Secretary shall include in such report
such recommendations for legislative
changes as the Secretary considers appro-
priate to protect the national security of the
United States.
(C) DEADLINE FOR REPORT.?The report re-
quired by subsection (b) shall be submitted
not later than January 1, 1990.
Mr. WALLOP. Mr. President, the
amendment which I intend to offer to
the Department of Defense authoriza-
tion bill deals with the recent decision
to ease export control restrictions on
certain advanced personal computers
to the Soviet Union and other Warsaw
pact countries. First of all, Mr. Presi-
dent, I want to make very clear that it
is not my intention to permanently
prevent such sales of personal compute .
ers. However, I am extremely con-
cerned from what I have seen in the
press and from. briefings by adniinis-
tration officials that U.S. national se-
curity interests may have not been
fully taken into account.
In particular, Mr. President, I am
appalled at the apparent disregard by
the Department of Commerce for the
Department of Defense's objection to
the easing of these restrictions.
Having just completed the wrangle
over the FSX through which I was
persuaded?as was the President?that
the Department of Commerce needed
to take another look at this issue, I am
surprised that Commerce seems to be
denying its sister agencies an opportu-
nity to play a comparable role in fash-
ioning a sensible approach to East-
West technology flows.
As I understand the Export Adminis-
tration Act, a study must be conducted
which concludes that an item is found
in a controlled country "in sufficient
quantity and of comparable quality
sufficient to meet the military needs
of proscribed destinations" thus estab-
lishing that export controls on such
Items are ineffective.
Mr. President, I have serious reser-
vations regarding the integrity and
extent of Commerce's foreign avail-
ability study. First, the Commerce De-
partment's assessment of the foreign
availability of these more powerful
desktop computers depends in large
part on circumstantial evidence such
as advertisements and occasional eye-
witness sightings. Second, Mr. Presi-
dent, Commerce's conclusions provide
us with precious little hard data?espe-
cially given the fact that their decon-
trol initiative would seek to loosen
controls by more than 10 thnes in
some categories. Although separate
components may be sold in the world
marketplace at these levels?meaning
components would have to be mixed
and matched?the study does not show
how many whole machines are avail-
able to Warsaw Pact countries. In fact,
Mr. President; I am hard pressed to
find very many hard numbers from
Commerce's foreign availability study.
The severity of this issue can be un-
derstood in light of the following sce-
nario: If the United States were to
follow the Department of Commerce's
decontrol initiative, we effectively
would be putting at the disposal of
Soviet military PC's that surpass those
of our own Armed Forces.
Of the 19 countries the Commerce
study said could provide these comput-
ers to the Soviets, only 2 were either
not already members of Cocom, par-
ties to existing agreements designed to
limit technology flows to the U.S.S.R.,
or parties with whom we are currently
negotiating to follow Cocom regula-
tions. These two countries are Czecho-
slovakia and Hungary. Although these
two countries may have some indige-
nous capabilities, they depend very
heavily on key components from the
West. Moreover, Mr. President, there
Is no evidence that either has the abil-
ity to produce computers up to the
standard or in sufficient quantity to
meet Soviet military requirements.
S 9291
Although Commerce has asserted
that decontrolling certain _advanced
desktop computers will result in sub-
stantial commercial benefits for Amer-
ican computer manufacturers, they
are overly optimistic. While the poten-
tial Soviet market may be huge,
people who are unable to obtain basic
commodities like milk and sugar are
unlikely consumers of advanced tech-
nology computers. The latter -point
serves to reemphasize Secretary Che-
ney's observation: The most signifi-
cant end-users for the new, more pow-
erful PC's will be Soviet military and
intelligence organizations.
Mr. President, I regret that action at
this time cannot change the decision
Secretary Mosbacher pushed through
without regard to Defense Depart-
ment concerns. However, I do think it
is important for the Senate to go on
record -against an unbalanced, and I
believe misguided, approach to mahag-
ing East-West technology flows.
My amendment, if accepted, would
require the Secretary of Defense, in
consultation with the Director of Cen-
tral Intelligence and the President's
science advisor, to conduct a review of
the foreign availability assessment
conducted by the Department of Com-
merce. The Secretary of Defense shall
then submit a report, no later than
January 1, 1990, on the findings of
this review to the Committees on
Armed Services of the Senate and the
House along with recommendations
for legislative changes as the Secre-
tary Considers appropriate.
With this measure, Mr. President,
both Armed Services Committees can
determine whether or not Commerce's
original study was indeed inconclusive.
If such a determination is made, Mr.
President, I would hope that Senators
on both sides of the aisle would agree
that legislation regarding potentially
dangerous technology flows should be
more comprehensively considered in
the future.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous con-
sent to print in the RECORD various
items pertaining to this matter.
There being no objection, the mate-
rial was ordered to be printed* in the
RECORD, as follows:
(From the Washington Post, Apr. 28, 1989]
Sow= SATELLITES' RADIATION DISTORTs
SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS
(By Philip J. Hilts)
Some sky-watching satellites have been
blinded as much as half the time by radi-
ation leaking from nuclear reactors that
power Soviet satellites, a fact U.S. officials
knew for eight years but concealed from
much of the scientific community, according
to the authors of five reports in today's
issue of the journal Science.- ? . ? .
As a result, large amounts of data that sci-
entists thought were telling them some-
thing about the universe must be weeded
out and discarded. Moreover, the continuing
radiation problem may threaten informa-
tion to be collected by some of the biggest
space science projects planned for the near
future, according to Joel R. Primack of the
University of California at Santa CMS.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/04/08: CIA-RDP92M00732R001100010018-6
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S9292
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? SENATE August 009
author.of one of five papers .in Science de-
tailing the astronomical disaster.
The threatened projects include the
$500,000 Gamma Ray Observatory and the
$1 billion Hubble Space Telescope, the most
expensive piece of equipment ever put in
space and the first optical telescope to see'
to the edgrof the universe, Prithack said.
The problem is caused by the Radar'
Ocean Reconnaissance ? Satellites- Used by ??
the Soviets to observe U.S. naval operations.
The problem could be made even worse, sci-
entists say, by the U.S. Department of
Energy, which plans to develop more reac-
tors for space, and by similar reactors
planned.forthe Strategic DefensaInitlative. ?
Some scientists -are now arguing for ban-'
ning reactors in orbit, a 'step that would re- ?
quire the' agreement of the Sciviets and
force the Bush administration publicly to
abandon SDI plans as they are now drawn..
The Soviet Union has put up an estimated
35,spy satellites powered by nuclear reactors
in the past two decades, and the United
States has launched one. The reactors being
designed by the Energy Department for the.
SDI are 25 times more powerful than the
eatlier TJ.S.'' device and would . create far
more contamination.
A number of astronomical instruments on
satellites and high-altitude balloons look
out into the universe specifically. to see ?
gamma rays coming from celestial objects.
They are- the highest-energy "light" that
can be seen, and are the best Way to observe
the most mysterious of objects in the uni-,
verse such as black holes, neutron stars, and
quasars.
But the gamma rays coming from the re-
actors in orbit are 50 times brighter than? ?
those from sources in the sky, Prirnack said..
So whenever -a gamma ray instrument
pens to. look in the direction of one of the.
reactors, or ,whenever -other' instruments'',
pass through the cloud Of Charted particles
left behind by reactors, ? their detectors'
crackle madly with signals from the reactor',
that have been interpreted as sigrit of Mys-
terious phenomena in space.
Astronomers at the University. of .New ? .
Hampshire who operated the 'instrument on
a satellite called Solar Max first noticed
something amiss in 1980 when they enconnr:
teted about five iinexPlained.huists of data
per month: The researchers were not told,
about the problem until 1981, when one was
given a security clearance.
Then he- and his group' were. told not to
discuss the matter, according to documents
obtained from the Defense Intelligence"
Agency by a Loa Angeles' group that moni-
tors nuclear activity it space, called the
? Committee to Bridge the Gap.
By 1987 'and 1988, the number and Power
of reactors in orbit had increased and the'
? bursts contaminating data-had grown to five
? a day, each lasting from less than a second
to 20 minutes.-
[From the New York Times, Dec. 27, 19883
:: ?
SPACE POLLUTION FORCES NASA To CHANGE
PLANS FOR KEY PROJECTS
(By William J. Broad) .
,? ?
Upset and angry, scientists are being
forced to modify plans and equipment for
space missions in a last-ditch attempt to
protect billions of dollars worth of tele-
scopes and spacecraft from the growing haz- ?
ards of pollution in the heavens.
Hundred of thousands of large and small
objects left from past- launchings are zip-
ping through space at speeds up to 25 miles
a second. Sky watchers now track more than
7,000 objects- the size of a baseball or larger
in orbit "around the Earth.
'Moreover, a recently revealed peril, radi-
ation from distant nuclear-reactors in space;
is already causing false readings in orbiting
scientific sensors and may threaten the suc-
cess of a new generation of observatories
that are more sensitive to radiation.,
Spacecraft designers and scientists are
trying to cope with this celestial pollution
by adding shielding to satellites, modifying
equipment, reprogramming computers, and
exploring ways to dodge debris. In several
Instances, however, the spacecraft are large-
ly built, limiting the extent and .effectiva
ness of such precautions.
Designers are considering heavy shielding
and maneuvering capability for the pro-
posed space station, which the space agency
Wants to loft by the late 1990's; computer
software changes and minor shielding for
the Gamma Ray Observatory, which is,
nearly finished; and software changes for
the Hubble Space Telescope, which is al-
ready built and would be-enormously expen-
sive to modify extensively.
More immediately, new plans are already
in place to help space shuttle crews dodge
debris: Scientists on the-ground are Calculat-
ing the orbits of space junk that might col-
lide with the shuttle, damaging or destroy-
ing the winged spaceship.
But space scientists are clearly upset with
the need for such efforts.
"There's frustration and disgust that
what ought to be a clean environment-is a
mess and seems to be getting. worse," said
Dr. James M: Ryan, an astrophysicist at the
University of New Hampshire.
Telescopes on Earth, he noted, already
suffer earthly interference such as "light
pollution" from cities. ?
Now, ironically, orbiting telescopes that
were meant to get above those problems and
the obscuring effect of the Earth's atmos-
phere are facing a host of man-made im-
pediments to Such 'efforts to observe the
universe. .
Planners especially worry - that space
debris ?-might hit a manned spacecraft.. A
small piece of debris hit the shuttle on -one
flight and planners consider it luck that a
severe collision has not yettaken.place.:
To protect the space telescope, the
-Gamins Ray ObSerVatorY and the space
station -from celestial ? pollution, scientists
-are taking a variety of steps: - ? . ? ?
? Hubble Space Telescope. Now scheduled
for launching late next year,. the $1 billion
observatory is to search for bizarre objects
at the end of the universe, its sensors prob-
ing the visible -universe more deeply than
any Earth-based telescope. . .
Precautions. against space pollution have
been minimal, designers say, because the
telescope was started in 1976 and finished
long before the severity of the problem was
realized.
Jean Olivier, a manager for the project at
the Marshall .Space Flight Center in Hunts-
ville, Ala., said that some changes have been
made in the software for "star trackers" so
that they would not be misled by reflections
from orbiting debris.
The trackers fix on a star, helping the
telescope's jets keep the platform Stable in
relation to the stars. The danger ? is- that
- floating debris could be mistaken for a star.
sending the telescope into wild gyrations. .
It is too late, he added, to try to redesign
.the -telescope to be better shielded from the
direct impact of speeding debris. "It's im-
practical to try to change the hardware." he
said.
He noted that the telescope, as originally
designed, had only a 5 percent chance of
suffering "serious degradation" during two
years of operation because of the impact of
' orbiting debris:
But now, he said, with the steady rise over
the years in space junk orbiting the Earth,
that figure has increased to 15 pertent. ? ?
'a
"When it was designed, no one Was Wor-
ried about debris." he said. "But now we
have a problem." , ? " ? .
Gamma Ray Observatory. TO be.lofted -In-
1990, the $500 million Gamma Ray Obseiva
tory is to probe the highly energetic, 'MILO- ??
ble radiations spewed 'by the hottest, most
violent stars and galaxies. ? ,.. ?
It also aims to study such mysteries as.
gamma-ray bursters, points in space that?oc- -
casionally emit explosive packets of gamma-
ray energy. These bursts have yet to be
linked with any known object-. in the uni-
verse. -
A new threat to its operatiOnwas recently
revealed by- its designer,-the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration,
Orbiting nuclear reactors, the agency said,
emit radiation and charged ? particles that
can streak across hundreds of miles of space
to hit orbiting gamma ray telestiMes and ?
sensors on spacecraft, producing a host of ?
false 'readings.
In November, scientists revealed that radi-
ation from Soviet nuclear reactors in 'space'
has already hampered the operation Of an ? .
American satellite designed to' measure
gamma rays from the'Sun: -
The danger will be greater with the
Gamma Ray Observatory. Which is far more'
sensitive than the current' gamine' ray in--
struments in space. -,?? - ? -' ?
Dr. Ryan, the- astrophysicist.- at the Uni-
versity of New Hampshireand a scientist on
the observatory project,- said two; protective ? ?
steps were being weighed, both involving -
wchaanreges in the craft's on-board control soft-
.The first would try-16 pre-dict when the
craft would encounter reactor radiation arid .
ttien turn off its Instruments, in effect
"turning a blind eye, to the problem.'! he.
said. The Second Vatild try to. lee 'lithe -
? craft's onboard conmutets- can 'discriminate
between real and artificial readings, and--
filter out the false ones before, they are ?ra-
dioed to Earth. . ?
The other threat tO. the Garnina.Ray Ob-
servatioy is a collision with -orbiting debris.',
EVen. minor impacts could virtually' Wipe?
out its capability by damaging darriaging eoVeringi.on,..
Its sensors, allowing the instruments-to be
blinded by the Sun. , _ ? ? t- ,
To try to -prevent Such problems, design-
ers are increasing the thickness of coverings ?
over sensors to better shield them. - . ? ? .
The Space Station. The $28 ?billion NASA ?
manned space station is to be launched in
the .mid-1990's. At 508 feet long, it is ?a large
target.'So too, the consequences of collision -
are seen as great Since its crew compart- ?
ments can carry up to eight, astronauts..
Debris the size of a marble, traveling a few
miles per second, can pack the explosive-
power of a hand grenade. .
Sherman L. Avans, lead engineer for. the .
Space Structures and Dynamics Lab at the
Marshall Center, said a gas gun installation
there had fired small projectiles at simulat-
ed space-station" walla some 700 times. to
study the danger. As a result, the station .
will be fitted with double-walled structures
and "bumper shields," adding at least 2,000 ?
pounds of shielding to each of the six mod-
ules occupied astronauts.
Mr. Avans noted that the station also,. ,
might have the capacity to,.be_ actively.
moved out of harm's way: 'With "a feu -
hours of advance Wain:Mg." he siad,'sthO.11
jets might push the station to safety. Warn- ?
ings for such "collision avoidance" might be
provided by ground controllers or .by on:=. ?
board radar orinfrared telescopes; he said,
For -unmanned 'spacecraft; such precau-
tions are too, costly. The ?nestrit.. said...Dr. -.?
Ryan, is that "there's a real. tive.possibility
' that a significant chunk Of .niaterial is even;
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2014/04/08: CIA-RDP92M00732R001100010018-6