Re: AT&T, Clipper, & Saudi Arabia

[Jim McCoy <mccoy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>]

paul@poboy.b17c.ingr.com (Paul Robichaux) writes:

> > Can we please confine paranoia to reasonable areas -- like AT&T's sales
> > of secure phones to the government?  The U.S. government has a very long
> > record of pushing American products against foreign competitors, such as
> > Boeing versus Airbus.
> 
> I have great respect for you, Steve, but in this case I must humbly
> disagree with you. The US government does have a very long record of
> promoting US products for foreign sales, but it is certainly rare for
> the President himself to get involved so publically.

No it is not.  This is the second time Clinton has lobbied the Saudi's in
favor of US companies (the first was when he helped McDonnel-Douglass and
Boeing get a $6B contract for jet transports.)  The other companies
competing for the contract were Northern Telecom (Canadian), Siemens AG
(Germany), Alcatel NV (France), and Telecom AB L.M Ericsson/NEC (joint
Swedish and Japanese venture).  As long as the U.S. still has points in the
region it seems reasonable for us to use them in favor of US companies,
doesn't it?

For a full article on the matter check out page B4, col 4 of today's WSJ
(which has the PGP article in it so you might want it anyway :) 

jim