Friday, 8 April 1988
1.
FROM WHOM ARE SECRETS KEPT?
In 1985, a Navy intelligence
analyst, S.M. Morrison, was convicted of espionage for leaking
satellite photographs of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier under
construction in the Soviet Union. The Soviets surely knew what
their carrier looked like, nor could it have come as a surprise
to them that we are watching. They too are watching. Although a
federal appeals court upheld Morrison's conviction this week,
technology is rapidly overtaking the law. In a symposium at the
March meeting of the APS in New Orleans, Mark Brender of ABC News
described "Mediasat," a proposal to market high-resolution
imagery to the world press. He predicted that it would become as
essential to a free society as the hand-held news camera. The
Pentagon, however, bitterly opposes Mediasat--and they control
the licensing of such systems under the Landsat Act of 1984.
Mediasat could, of course, simply choose to go abroad. The French
and the Soviets are already selling high-resolution satellite
photographs. General J.E. Thomas, of the Office of the Secretary
of Defense, wistfully recalled the responsible journalists of
World War II, who reported what they were told to report.
2
. IT'S SPRING AGAIN, AND THE DOD IS DECLASSIFYING SDI STUDIES
again. Exactly one year ago the APS study on directed energy
weapons was finally cleared for release by the DOD. Now, after
nine months of classification review, the Office of Technology
Assessment's report, "SDI: Technology, Survivability and
Software," has apparently been cleared. The OTA report, which
was delivered to members of the Appropriations and Armed Services
Committees last August in classified form, should be public in a
couple of weeks. It is not expected to help SDI appropriations.
3. ACRONYM UPDATE: "SDS" REFERS TO THE "STRATEGIC DEFENSE
SYSTEM"
the Phase I missile defense the DOD proposes to deploy in
the next decade. SDS is not to be confused with the "peace
shield" proposed by President Reagan. It is a space-based
interceptor system whose purpose is not population defense, but
protection of nuclear retaliatory capacity. The only talk of a
"peace shield" these days is at the Pentagon Meditation Club,
which has launched a "spiritual defense initiative." The private
club meets weekly in the Pentagon, and even offers a $65 "peace
shield gauge" to measure the strength of the peaceful aura.
4. THE PRESIDENT PRAISED BASIC SCIENCE
in his weekly radio
address to the nation on Saturday. Speaking from El Rancho del
Cielo, Reagan devoted his 5 minute talk to an eloquent plea in
support of his science program, including the Supercollider, the
space station and the NSF Science and Technology Centers. The
official transcript of the talk, supplied by the White House,
failed to edit out Reagan's classic misreading of the script. In
support of the supercollider, he spoke of "particle accelerators
that have spent (pause) meant so much to our economic growth."
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