A Proliferation Of Decontrol Decisions Threatens To Undermine US Technology Security

(Washington, D.C.): The Center for Security Policy today released a critical assessment of on-going Commerce Department efforts to eliminate important restrictions on the transfer of militarily relevant technology to the Soviet bloc. This assessment, entitled Technology Decontrol Proliferation: Reining in an Evaluation Process Gone Amok, reveals that the recent, highly controversial decision by Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher to decontrol a wide array of sophisticated "personal" computers is but the first in a series of such actions.

One particularly dangerous proposed decontrol action will be acted on by the Bush Administration this week. It involves extremely accurate machine tools with particular utility to precision manufacturing associated with advanced weapon systems.

"The proposed Commerce Department decontrol of machine tools would do for the Soviet military’s aerospace industry what Toshiba did for its submarine program," said Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s director. "The quality of machine tools proposed for unlicensed transfer to the USSR is not only vastly in excess of what is now available to the Soviets. It is also superior to the capabilities of virtually all major U.S. and allied defense industries."

Gaffney added, "Unfortunately, this is not the only dubious decontrol action Commerce is trying to push through the United States government. In fact, it is one of some 53 such proposals, many of which will similarly permit the retooling and revitalization of the rapidly obsolescing Soviet military industrial base."

The Center’s paper calls for a moratorium on such decontrol actions pending a thorough review of the assessments of foreign availability on which many are predicated. It recommends that a rigorous interagency process be established to ensure that — unlike the present — the Defense Department and the intelligence community be given an opportunity fully to participate in and coordinate on decontrol decisions.