piner@pur-phy.UUCP (Richard Piner) (11/15/85)
Posted: Fri Oct 11, 1985 4:21 PM EDT Msg: CGIF-2089-5346
From: RPARK
To: WHATSNEW
CC: RPark
Subj: What's new
WHAT'S NEW, Friday, October 11, 1985 Washington, D.C.
1. NATIONAL POLICY ON THE TRANSFER OF SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL
AND ENGINEERING INFORMATION (National Security Decision
Directive 189) seeks to control the flow of information
produced under federally funded fundamental research at
colleges, universities and laboratories. Fundamental
research is defined in the Directive as follows:
"Fundamental research" means basic and applied
research in science and engineering, the results of
which ordinarily are published and shared broadly
within the scientific community, as distinguished
from proprietary research and from industrial
development, design, production, and product
utilization, the results of which ordinarily are
restricted for proprietary or national security
reasons.
The policy portion of the Directive was published in What's
New Oct. 4, l985. The policy statement was generally
applauded by the scientific community as marking the end of
attempts to control the dissemination of "sensitive" but
unclassified information. The covering memorandum to agency
heads, however, signed by Robert McFarlane, National Security
Adviser to the President, pointedly reminds the agencies that
the Directive preserves the ability to control unclassified
information using legislated authority. This is presumably a
reference to the Export Administration Act of 1985, signed
into law by the President in July. McFarlane seems to be
telling the agencies that they can proceed as before.
2. THE MILITARIZATION OF NASA has been successfully resisted
since the agency was founded in the aftermath of Sputnik.
Concerns have been raised again with the nomination of
William R. Graham to be Deputy Administrator, replacing Hans
Mark, who resigned to become Chancellor of the University of
Texas system. Mr. Graham, a California Republican with a
Ph D in electrical engineering from Stanford, currently
serves as Chairman of the President's General Advisory
Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament. He is also a
founder and Senior Associate of R & D Associates, a Marina
Del Rey firm closely linked to the Pentagon. He is generally
regarded as a right-wing ideologue, and his nomination has
been greeted with a singular lack of enthusiam in NASA.
Confirmation hearings on Thursday were sparsely attended as a
result of the debt ceiling debate, but Senator Ernest
Hollings (D-SC) sent one of six written questions to Graham,
"Could you please allay any fears I or other members might
have that your appointment represents the militarization of
NASA."
Robert L. Park
American Physical Society THAT'S ALL 10/11/85