Key Lawmakers Applauded For Opposing Commerce Department Decision To Aid Soviet Military’s Acquisition Of Computers

(Washington, D.C.): The Center for Security Policy today commended Senators Sam Nunn and John Glenn and Congressman Les Aspin for expressing in televised interviews Sunday concerns about the proposed decontrol of powerful computers to the Soviet Union and its allies. These influential legislators indicated that they shared Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney’s view that this action, taken last week by the Commerce Department, was contrary to U.S. national security interests. In a paperA Formula for Disaster: Computers for the Soviet Military, the Center describes the compelling reasons for these concerns and recommends specific actions to be taken by the executive and legislative branches before possibly irreparable harm results. released today entitled

"We at the Center for Security Policy are very pleased that security-minded Democratic leaders of the Congress have seconded Dick Cheney’s forceful disagreement with the Commerce Department’s decision to decontrol a class of enormously capable personal computers," the Center’s Director, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., said today. "We urge them to use the opportunity afforded by the simultaneous consideration this week of the Defense authorization bill in both the House and the Senate to reverse this misbegotten action."

The Center also noted that Secretary Cheney in a separate interview this weekend underscored several of the key points made by A Formula for Disaster:

• The types of computers the Soviets could acquire freely as a result of this decontrol action are more capable than are comparable ones now being used — or planned for acquisition — by the U.S. Defense Department.

 

• The Commerce Department’s assessment of the foreign availability of the types of personal computers affected was simply wrong both with respect to its judgment of the quality and the quantity of such computers the Soviet Union could acquire elsewhere.

 

• The process by which the Commerce Department’s decision was made without adequate participation by the Defense Department must be rectified so as to prevent a repetition of this sort of hasty and ill-considered action.

This decontrol action takes on all the greater significance in light of the recent revelations about Soviet penetration of the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls, COCOM, the organization responsible for safeguarding Western militarily critical technologies from the Soviet bloc. Felix S. Bloch, who is suspected of spying for the Soviet Union, actively participated in the Administration’s decision earlier this year to relax U.S. policy on technology transfers.

Significantly, discovery of this possible compromise of a vital Western security mechanism comes on the heels of a similar espionage scandal that wracked COCOM last year. Michel Leger, a key member of France’s delegation to COCOM responsible for technology decontrol matters, was arrested by French authorities and charged with acting as a Soviet spy. Gaffney added, "Such developments underscore the point that the Soviet Union places high military and intelligence priority on undermining Western technology security; they also should prompt the U.S. government to redouble — not undo — its efforts to protect militarily relevant technology like advanced PCs."

The Center calls for independent reviews by the President’s Science Advisor and the General Accounting Office of the foreign availability of the personal computers affected by this decontrol action. Pending the completion of this review the Soviets should not be permitted access to such powerful machines. The Center also recommends legislation to require the concurrence of the Secretary of Defense on future East-West decontrol actions proposed by the Commerce Department.