TECHNOLOGY PROTECTION STIRS INTER-AGENCY WAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100060019-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: March 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100060019-8
(~.~ ~'"> `? '.''`~''r ~~ l WASHINGTON I IMtS
~~~~- 27 March 1985
Technology protection
stirs inter-agency war
By Ted Agres -
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
As the Soviet Union attempts to
steal high-technology from the.
United States, the government pro-
tectors of America's most precious
technological secrets are at war
with each other.
The opposing sides are the nor-
mally staid Commerce Department
pitted against the brassy Pentagon
and its ally, the no-nonsense Cus-
toms Service.
Each department charges the
other with headline-seeking, mis-
management and with tolerating
~ massive leaks of highly sensitive
information to the Soviets.
And each department is battling
i for turf in the high-tech export
I review and enforcement process.
I For starters, here are some of the
I verbal salvos:
i "The Commerce Department -
seems recently to have decided to
become newspaper writers:' -Wit-
liam von Raab, U.S. Customs Service
commissioner.
"For the United States Customs
Service to make that assertion ... is
. really, at least a candidate for Chutz-
pah of the Year Award. There is a PR
machine over there (in Customs]. -
William Archey, assistant secretary
of commerce.- ' "r ;; _
"They're trying to'; grind'' dow2i
some propaganda from the Com-
merce Department which just is not
reflected in reality. It's outrageous:'
- Stephen Bryen, deputy. assistant
:'?? secretary of.defense.;'~;;;.._:;"`` ~,~::?:
"We've had results.::: ~thaf are
'~ extraordinary. But it's not as sexy as
Steve Bryen (throwing rocks] on us:'
missiles and lasers can make nifty
weapons, the Pentagon wants to
review every export license request
Commerce gets.
And the American businessman is
caught in between. Uncle Sam
encourages the businessman to sell
abroad. When he tries to do so, how-
ever, he often gets mangled in a
licensing process that critics say
grinds slowly and not very finely.
Many observers of the battle
between Commerce, Customs and
Defense point to November 1983 as
the start of the latest offensive.
It was then that Customs agents
with their West German counter-
parts narrowly prevented a multi-
million-dollar Digital Equipment
Corp. computer from being illegally
I~'" shipped to Moscow.
Commerce had made the mistake
of approving the computer to be sold
to a firm of questionable reputation.
The company, Microelectronics
Research Institute, was head-
quartered in South Africa and con-
trolled by a Richard Mueller, a
German national and fugitive from
justice. Microelectronics already
was suspected of diverting other
US. technology.
Were it not for good gum-shoe tac-
tics, this prized booty likely would
have wound up with other U.S. com-
puters being programmed in the
Kremlin.
In December 1983, with the con-
fiscated computer as backdrop,
then-Treasury Secretary Donald
Reagan (Customs is part of 'Irea-
sury)and Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger told a large press con-
ference that the Digital VAX 11/782
could have allowed the Soviets to
"produce vastly more accurate ...
and more destructive weapons:'
~ -- William Archey..: .
licensing process when a U.S: `irm
wishes to export sensitive products,
wants to hold on to every bit of its
turf, including its enforcement arm.
But Congress, whose patience has
worn thin on the matter, seems bent
on giving a good chunk of it to Cus-
toms.
Because computers can launch
a~a auici ul~.uVU FJl CVCllLCLL Wilal
could have been an espionage coup
by the Soviets," the officials
asserted.
Afterwards, on background, a
senior Defense official trashed Com-
merce. "The law requires that DOD
be contacted in these cases. But
Commerce persistently has refused
to do that," he charged. He said that
the Pentagon would ask the Ares-
ident to give it full control over all
military and technology license
applications.
The Commerce Department has
been hitting back.
In the latest round of the turf wai;
someone "made available" to the
Washington Post last month a copy
of an internal Commerce Depart-
ment analysis blaming Customs for
allowing the illegal shipment of
some 87 Hughes helicopters to
North Korea.
The Commerce analysis report-
edlytermed the operation "probably
the largest illegal diversion of U.S.-
manufactured aircraft:' It charged
that Customs had known about the
helicopter diversion for 16 months
and had done nothing to prevent it.
The report stated that the Com-
merce Department learned about
the matter independently and
stepped in to halt further shipments.
This has irked Customs and
Defense.
An angry Customs official said
Customs told Commerce, "Look,
nobody's skirts are clean on this
thing. It's no good to go around
pointing fingers. The helicopter
issue had been brewing for several
months prior to the document com-
ing out:'
Charged Customs chief von Raab:
"They [Commerce] seem recently to
have decided to become newspaper
writers. I find it confusing. I don't
know what purpose it serves."
I The Commerce Department's Mr.
Archey bristled in response. "That I
find remarkable. There is a PR
machine over there [in Customs]."
The Pentagon's Stephen Bryen
said the Commerce leak was politi-
cally motivated and was an attempt
to influence legislation in Congress.
Both Mr. Bryen and Mr. von Raab
charged that Commerce released
classified information when it
leaked the report - a charge which
Mr. Archey denied.
The Commerce Department also
launched round two in the recent
turf battle.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige, in a letter to Defense Sec-
retary Weinberger and others that
was leaked to the press, charged that
! Defense, in particular, was "tolerat-
'~ ing a massive giveaway program" of
', sensitive, strategic information to
the Soviet Union by releasing it
through the National Technical
Information Service.
The NTIS is. a government service
which provides to the public scienti-
fic and technical documents pro-
duced by federal agencies or
contractors. NTIS is a division of
Commerce, but it has no say over
. what material is released through it.
-
Lv1~......v1
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 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100060019-8
Mr. Baldrige charged that anyone
could obtain full reports of tens of
thousands of unclassified and, pre-
viously classified documents for the
asking. The material included
Defense Department analyses of
space weapons, chemical warfare,
nuclear weapons, computer security,
electronics, high-speed computers
and much, much more.
Commerce's Mr. Archey said this
continues to be a problem.
"Listen to this;' Mr. Archey said,
quoting a 1983 NTIS catalog. " 'Army
Materiel and Readiness Command.:.
Texture Strengthening of Armor
Materials:... Jeez:'
"The strengthening of armored
plates doesn't sound like something
we'd like to broadcast to the world;'
he continued. "When the Defense
Department made the big stink
about the Dresser Drill bits thing in
'77, of armor-piercing projectiles,
... we might as well throw the whole
thing at 'em. I don't know"
i
Back at the Pentagon Stephen
I! Bryen was adamant."No. DOD is not
giving away secrets. That's another
Commerce Department operation:'
': Mr. Bryen maintained that most
of the studies Commerce cited pre-
date 1981, when the Pentagon began
~ looking closely at the NTIS problem.
In a way it's a compliment to us, ~
~~ because most of the stuff predates
~ our effort. It undoes their story;' he
said.
Round three in the turf war, as Mr.
Bryen told it, happened a couple of
weeks ago.
The Commerce Department pub-
fished proposed regulations on what
is called "foreign availability." This
provision has been a standard one in
the export licensing process for
j years. It simply allows a U.S. firm
greater opportunity to win an export
license to the Eastern bloc if it can
show that a similar product already
is being sold by a firm in another
country.
But for such sensitive items as
computers and lasers, approval is
~ needed of allied nations in the
Coordinating Committee for Multi-
lateral Export Control. The adminis-
~. tration has been pushing COCOM
i members to restrict such sales to the
Soviet bloc.
The inter-agency round three
developed not over the regulations
themselves, but a press release
Commerce put out about the reg-
ulations. Mr. Bryen charged that the
press release characterized the reg-
ularions as an easing of sensitive
trade with the Soviets. He said that
this was just another example of
Commerce improperly trying to
shape foreign policy on its own.
Back at Commerce, Mr. Archey
clearly was upset. "Where is that ',
press release?" he shouted to an aide ',
as he shuffled papers on his desk. He
j went to the door and demanded that
another aide get some documents.
His assistants scurried about.
"Oh, so [Steve Bryen] did
acknowledge" that the regulations
themselves were acceptable? "Good.
OK, because that's not what he told
another newspaper. 'Ibld them he
had never seen them. And we got
their approval at the deputy director
of his office level.
i "We not only sent the comments
over to him at my personal direction,
but I personally orchestrated and
~, mandated a meeting to go through it
LINE ... BY ...LINE. Precisely for
the reason you are asserting;' Mr.
Archey declared. .
All in all, Mr. Archey thought
Commerce was getting a bum rap.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/03/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100060019-8