Decontrol Freaks
Ledeen, Michael & Bryen, Stephen
Decontrol Freaks The Bush and Clinton administrations' unprecedented giveaway of secret military technology. by Michael Ledeen and Stephen Bryen uring the presidential campaign of 1992, Bill...
...Thus all agreed they would observe the restrictions of the COCOM Control List until a new set of rules could be defined...
...It's hard to imagine that this very same administration, just a few months ago, was sternly warning our French allies to stop trying to steal our advanced technologies...
...T he government measures computers in terms of CTPs (Composite Theoretical Performance), expressed in MTOPS (millions of theoretical operations per second...
...On board each Israeli American-built F-15 was a "look-down, shoot-down" radar pod containing 5,280 semiconductors on more than a dozen circuit boards packed neatly into a slim box barely one Farewell's invaluable assistance lasted barely six months: while preparing to provide new materials, he was arrested and executed by the KGB...
...The money Hillary received was not given directly to her, but was cycled through the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, where she was a partner...
...Following the Farewell revelations, the Pentagon gave new clout to COCOM, and by the mid-eighties it was the true international hub of American-led export controls, involving all foot square...
...and advanced semiconductor-manufacturing technology...
...Worse still, since computers can be expanded rather easily (much as we might add memory chips to our PCs), there would be a magnifier effect on the decontrol...
...The Red Army could neither make the advanced radar and guidance systems that enabled American and allied planes and missiles to cut through the electronic jungle over the modern battlefield, nor could it defend against U.S...
...had somebody able to report to it on the activities at secret Iraqi work stations, it wouldn't have aclue about their operations...
...S o why did Clinton do it...
...In any event, Bush was not moved, and unilaterally raised the CTP decontrol level to 25, to the unconcealed fury of other COCOM members...
...enemies...
...The American Spectator June 1994 23...
...George Bush sold dangerous technology to a criminal who was intent on developing and using lethal weapons," Al Gore intoned...
...The director of NCEE told reporter Lou Dolinar of Newsday that he had intended from the very beginning of the project to have an "implementation phase" after the report was done, and that Hillary was hired for that purpose...
...The second announcement came at the end of March: decontrol through 1000 MTOPS (except for sales to North Korea...
...Whatever the explanation, the NCEE story is one more link in the intimate ties between the Clintons and the computer industry...
...For example, a country like Iraq could design and "test" ballistic or cruise missiles until an actual flying prototype was available, and unless the U.S...
...Clinton backed down to his fallback position, the industry request of 110, but it was only a tactical retreat...
...It is worth noting that this fear was well justified, but a bit late: more than 97 percent of all the computers currently in use worldwide are of U.S...
...by Michael Ledeen and Stephen Bryen uring the presidential campaign of 1992, Bill Clinton and Al Gore D chastised George Bush for having tilted American policy toward Saddam Hussein, thereby tacitly encouraging the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait...
...So now we have the ludicrous spectacle of Clinton issuing stern warnings to North Korea, Iran, and Iraq while destroying the best chance the West has had to keep the most dangerous technology in the world out of murderous hands...
...Sculley, who became a top adviser to Clinton, even lent one of Apple's vice-presidents, David Barram, to the campaign...
...The most likely answer is domestic politics...
...Desperate to obtain the technology, the KGB mounted perhaps the most ambitious espionage operation in history...
...Clinton and Gore were entirely right, but their own policies have made a bitter mockery of their promises...
...Graver still, since they can now buy even the manufacturing technology, it has become virtually impossible for the U.S...
...special grinders...
...Thanks to the Bush team's largesse, the Red Army gained ten years in development and deployment time...
...Every bit of the lethal technology that Saddam Hussein obtained illegally can now be legally purchased by all but a tiny handful of pariah countries, and those bad guys can easily pick them up from third parties...
...The documents—which Francois Mitterrand personally gave to Ronald Reagan—exposed a massive Soviet operation, focusing on semiconductors and computers to be used in upgrading Soviet strategic missiles, spy satellites, and submarines...
...One need not believe that the computer lobby bought influence with the Clintons to be concerned about the warm embrace...
...Embassy in Paris...
...Clinton, Christopher, Aspin, and Perry...
...But there may also be some more personal ties between the Clintons and the computer lobby...
...attacks...
...But Dolinar points out that a Commission report written in April 1990 stated categorically that the Commission had held its "final meeting" on April 18...
...It is hard to imagine that the administration believes its own line...
...Decontrolling this last item alone gave the Soviets the ability to' produce microelectronics more advanced than those deployed by American forces in the Gulf War...
...So successful was the Reagan program that hardly a week went by in the Gorbachev period without a heart-rending appeal from St...
...In- the Gulf War, America's superior computers guided the Stealth aircraft and smart weapons that shattered the technologically inferior defenses that the Soviets had given their Iraqi allies, just as Israeli jet pilots flying American F-15 fighter planes delivered an amazing 82-0 thrashing of the Syrians over Lebanon a decade earlier...
...The Clinton people justify this unprecedented sabotage of our military advantage by claiming it will help business...
...There was no mention of implementation...
...Most strangely, according to internal documents, the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce had finished its work in the spring of 1990, the year before Hillary was hired to provide it with her expert help...
...When Clinton presentednot paid for the considerable work he did on the Commission's behalf...
...origin or derived from U.S...
...learned that Iraq's clandestine program for the design and production of weapons of mass destruction was far more advanced and contained considerably more American technology—some of it obtained illegally, some of it thanks to Bush's decontrol—than was previously believed...
...All this has chilled those few serious souls in the government who still care about such things...
...Their most dramatic evidence for the tilt was the shocking flow of militarily useful technology from the U.S...
...Now they don't have to steal it...
...Within minutes of COCOM's death, Clinton trashed his own promise to abide by the old COCOM rules by unilaterally decontrolling roughly two-thirds of the list, and creating a special category for the People's Republic of China that specifically decontrols the bulk of advanced technology for sale to that country...
...But even with such a cast, no one expected the spectacular show that Clinton unleashed in two acts, the first last September, the second in late March...
...In the meantime, COCOM had quietly expired...
...specialized digital displays for mapping, satellite imagery, and image analysis (with no upper limit on performance...
...Chris Padilla, the government affairs specialist at AT&T, called Clinton's new export policy "a home run . . . we're pinching ourselves...
...The Clinton policy, in fact, sacrifices long-term Michael Ledeen is resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute...
...to get advance warning of enemy intentions and capabilities...
...We require a fresh approach...
...Clinton may have been repaying a political debt to those who helped his presidential campaign...
...The money actually came from a parent organization, the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), headed by none other than John Sculley...
...This would be deplorable—the national interest is supposed to take precedence over political paybacks—but not unique...
...And yet, in one of those wildly misleading announcements that have come to characterize this administration, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration claimed that "current [COCOM] control lists will be retained by the member nations until a successor regime is established...
...Anything from 200 up was considered a "supercomputer...
...Export controls were tightened, new enforcement mechanisms were put in place, and thousands of U.S...
...Some on the Hill suggested that if jobs are going to be created as a result of the decontrol of computer sales, they are more likely to be created in Singapore or Indonesia than in California or North Carolina...
...We shall be paying for it for a very long time, in dollars and in blood...
...The computer companies had asked that the decontrol level be raised to 110, which would have made available to any U.S...
...Nor were these senators impressed with the administration's defense of massive decontrol...
...If it had been successful, the Soviet Union could have closed the American technological lead in computers and semiconductors to a mere year or two...
...to Iraq...
...George Bush does not fit the requirements of the New World Order his own speechwriters once summoned up...
...Mikhail himself or his apostle Shevardnadze, begging the West to abolish the wicked COCOM and trade with the Soviet Union as with any other country...
...And others pointed out that, once American technological secrets have been sold to the rest of the world, we will inevitably lose market share to those who copy the technology and manufacturehis economic program in February 1993, you may remember that Hillary watched intently, flanked by two of the most powerful men in Washington: Alan Greenspan and John Sculley...
...So long as he was a candidate, Clinton was four-square in favor of controlling the proliferation of dangerous-technologies...
...Back in 1991, Hillary Rodham Clinton was paid over $100,000 for work done on behalf of the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a bipartisan, non-profit group that sought to devise policies for more effective training of U.S...
...The American Spectator June 1994 21 better weapons to such clients as Iraq, Libya, and Syria...
...The member countries, although unable to agree on the details, nonetheless agreed it was urgent to control the proliferation of technologies of mass destruction...
...The combination of gratitude for multiple past favors, close personal ties, a mindset that puts short-term job creation ahead of the national security of the United States, and a foreign policy team that seemingly doesn't care about arming the world's thugs produced a foreign policy catastrophe of immense proportions...
...workers...
...His views were generally shared by Lynn Davis, an undersecretary of state...
...they can just buy the stuff...
...No MiG had such a device, although the Soviets had tried desperately to build one...
...The popular 486 personal computer, for example, is 12.5 MTOPS, which was the decontrol level until 1992...
...All of them had denounced the Reagan program of export controls...
...clients will not sell American technology to U.S...
...A year earlier, the Bush administration had asked COCOM to raise the decontrol level to 25, but COCOM had rejected the request, in part because some of the members thought it too dangerous, and in part because others saw it as a move by the U.S...
...These massive decontrols enabled the Soviets not only to leapfrog a decade, but also to send There may also be some more personal ties between the Clintons and the computer lobby...
...There were some oddities about Mrs...
...and diamond turning machines (used to manufacture laser mirrors and small nuclear weapons...
...Barram has since become deputy secretary of commerce, the number-two position in the department that largely determines export control policy...
...and Ashton Carter, the assistant secretary to whom Wallerstein reports...
...NATO countries except Iceland, plus Japan and Australia...
...This means that there is no longer any way to ensure that U.S...
...20 The American Spectator June 1994 profits in favor of quick gains for political allies in the business world...
...His subsequent about-face was clearly foreshadowed in several key appointments: William Perry, originally Les Aspin's deputy at the Pentagon, had long argued that an ambitious program of export controls was fatuous—bad guys could usually find a way to get what they wanted, and since that generally took place outside the United States, others made the profits...
...Bush and his team irresponsibly and knowingly lifted controls on some sensitive technology, yet their actions pale in comparison with the near-total destruction of export controls by Messrs...
...Barram's nomination followed the withdrawal of John Rollwagen, the CEO of supercomputer manufacturer Cray Research and a director of Apple...
...weaponry...
...Bush then held the line against further decontrol...
...Counterproliferation was supposed to have been a centerpiece of Clinton's foreign policy, and Les Aspin originally promised that "hundreds of millions of dollars" would be spent on it...
...in FY93, only $40 million was allocated, and in '94 it was down to $25 22 The American Spectator June 1994 million...
...G iven Clinton's astonishing performance, it is hard to imagine that this administration will be able to forge an effective international program to control or combat the proliferation of deadly technologies...
...What's more, the Bush administration decontrolled advanced digital computers far more powerful than those targeted by the KGB just a few years earlier, including "ruggedized" computers suitable for use on the battlefield and—like most of the technology decontrolled by Bush and later by Clinton—unavailable from non-American sources...
...Bush, Baker, and Scowcroft fell for it, and instructed the Joint Chiefs of Staff to prepare a "core list" of items they would dread seeing out there in the free market—opening other technology to decontrol...
...many years ago, with its licenses to manufacture knock-offs of American inventions like television sets and VCRs...
...For instance, a typical Sun SparcServer 2000 computer has a basic CTP of 96 MTOPS, but it can easily be expanded to 860, and a Silicon Graphics Challenger is classified at 119 MTOPS, but can be expanded to 3300—an awesome machine...
...specialized microprocessors...
...The chiefs wound up recommending decontrol of advanced underwater equipment...
...Ten years later, the F-15 radar system required only 40 semiconductors, and the Soviets were at least ten years away from developing the ability to manufacture them...
...A few companies may make some money out of the wreckage of our technology security program, but it's certainly going to cost the country a lot, whether coping with stronger enemy armies and more dangerous terrorists, or simply with economic competitors who have gratefully accepted our secrets...
...But no single program did so much damage to the Soviet Empire as the one the Reagan administration launched after the arrival of the Farewell documents...
...Some who seem to care are to be found on Capitol Hill, where, according to published reports, the likes of Senators Glenn, Nunn, McCain, Helms, and Bingaman were not happy with Clinton's moves, both because they were concerned about the consequences of the new policy and because they didn't learn about the president's decision until after the White House had announced it...
...In the aftermath of the Gulf War, the U.S...
...enemy highly advanced work stations with CAD/CAM or signal-processing capabilities superior to anything then in use by the American military...
...Our allies were enraged...
...The French government was provided with the secrets of this massive program by one of the most fascinating characters in the pages of modern spycraft: a KGB official who once worked in France for Directorate T. At the very beginning of the Reagan years, this brave man—known to this day only by his codename "Farewell"—provided the French with thousands of pages of KGB analyses and instructions...
...Long unknown to Western intelligence services, a new spy organization—Directorate T—was created by the KGB and charged with the illegal procurement of advanced Western technology...
...Stephen Bryen served in the Reagan administration as deputy undersecretary of defense...
...Clinton's relationship to NCEE and the Commission...
...T he core of this vast international network was COCOM, originally a NATO committee to manage the economic embargo against the Soviet bloc, later a sleepy bureaucratic outpost housed in an annex of the U.S...
...and allied customs agents were put to work to discover, block, or at least track exports of militarily useful technology...
...The money actually came from a parent organization headed by Apple's John Sculley...
...The French asserted that anything over 100 MTOPS would constitute a grave risk for Western security, and not a single other COCOM member approved the American position...
...This, in fact, is precisely the cycle that launched Japan, Inc...
...Computers drive advanced telecommunications, coordinate battlefield strategies, guide super-precise manufacturing techniques, create virtual realities that permit weapons testing inside the computer's universe rather than in the real world, and target Cruise and Patriot missiles...
...Clinton spokesmen said it makes good economic sense, it will preserve and even create American jobs, and in the modern world it's not possible to control technology anyway...
...to capture the market for its own companies...
...but theirs is a myopic vision...
...On each occasion the dimensions of the decontrol were so great that even decontrol lobbyists pronounced themselves flabbergasted...
...The leaders of the computer industry, especially the tycoons of Silicon Valley like Apple's John Sculley and Silicon Graphics' Edward McCracken, were among the first business leaders to endorse candidate Clinton...
...Mitchell Wallerstein, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for counterproliferation...
...Clinton announced his first decontrol last September 29: through 194 MTOPS, nearly twice the industry's request, plus a promise to ask COCOM to raise the level to 500...
...N owhere is the story so clear as in the case of computers...
...CI Every bit of the lethal technology that Saddam Hussein obtained illegally can now be legally purchased by all but a tiny handful of pariah countries, and those bad guys can easily pick them up from third parties...
...Back in 1991, Hillary Rodham Clinton was paid over $100,000 for work done on behalf of the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce...
...In a final blow to the anti-proliferation cause, Clinton has terminated "re-export" controls...
...such friendships inevitably influence policy decisions, even without the kind of high-pressure lobbying that McCracken and his colleagues directed at the Clinton White House to get their computers decontrolled...
...The real story came several paragraphs further down: "all licensing [is] subject to national discretion," which, in Clinton's case, means control over technology transfer is a thing of the past...
...Nothing of the sort has happened...
...Most of the big shots involved in the project donated their time—former Senator Bill Brock, for example, was at lower cost...
...The Clinton administration has enabled America's enemies to substantially reduce the time they need to develop countermeasures to the most modern U.S...
...Once the election had been won, such people had easy access to the White House, and even to the president himself...
Vol. 27 • June 1994 • No. 6
