Twelve year flashback to Admiral Bobby Inman

[gnu (John Gilmore)]

San Jose Mercury, January 8, 1982 (EIGHTY-two), page F-1

	CIA boss assail high-tech leaks

[The Washington Post]

WASHINGTON -- Adm. Bobby R. Inman, deputy director of the CIA,
Thursday predicted a "tidal wave" of public outrage and laws
restricting scientists if scientists do not agree to voluntary
"review" of their work by intelligence agencies.

Scientists had better cooperate in making some of their papers secret
voluntarily, or they will face tough laws restricting them, Inman told
a panel session at the annual meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science.

Scientists should beware that there are congressional investigations
now in progress that will point up the "thoroughly documented" fact
that in the buildup of Soviet defense capability "the bulk of new
technology which they have employed has been acquired from the United
States," Inman said.

When the details of this "hemorrhage of the country's technology" come
out in public, Inman said, there will be a "tidal wave" of public
outrage that will lead to laws restricting the publication of
scientific work that the government might consider "sensitive" on
national security grounds.

"The tides are moving, and moving fast, toward legislated solutions
that in fact are likely to be much more restrictive, not less
restrictive, than the voluntary" censorship system he has suggested,
Inman said.

When he was director of the National Security Agency, the codemaking
and breaking intelligence agency, Inman led an effort to get prominent
private researchers to submit their papers on the mathematical theory
of codes to his agency before publication.

The NSA also briefly put secrecy orders on some of the private code
research in recent years.

But in April 1981, cooperation among the National Science Foundation,
the American Council on Education and the NSA resulted in a voluntary
review system under which scientists can submit their papers to NSA
for review and receive a judgement on whether they possibly contain
information damaging to the national security.

Since then, about 25 papers have been reviewed and none had problems,
according to Daniel Schwartz, until recently chief counsel for the NSA.

"There are other fields where publication of certain information could
affect the national security in a harmful way," Inman said.  These
include the fields of "computer hardware and software, other
electronic gear and techniques, lasers, crop projections and
manufacturing procedures."

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The above news article ran twelve years ago.  His tidal wave of
crypto censorship didn't appear; instead, a wave of support for free
expression ran through the scientific and library community.  About
half of the technical societies amended their by-laws to disallow
closed or censored meetings or conferences.

I wonder if Admiral Inman feels the same way today, as he faces Senate
confirmation hearings as Secretary of Defense.  Will we be seeing the
same sort of proposals?  How does he feel about export controls on
cryptographic software?  What should be done with the Skipjack
program?  If you wonder too, please ask your Senator to ask him about
it.  Seriously.

	John