PENTAGON EYES GROUP TO SCREEN SCIENTIFIC PAPERS FOR SENSITIVITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200970093-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 93
• Publication Date: September 23, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT-?---?--- - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200970093-1
ARTICLE APPEARED TIE 1nASHIN^TCR POST
ON PAGE A - 23 SEPTET333 1982
7ff'1h _ T1 ' 411 -
en
Scientific Papers'. for ens
By Philip J. Hilts The proposal was triggered by the inci.
wun~o"raocsnrrwnca dent at the meeting of the photo-optical en-
Defense officials are proposing to establish gineers, at which the Pentagon was surprised
a committee to screen scientific papers and to find that even "highly classified informa-
prevent them from falling into the hands of tion" was being presented in papers to the Soviets, according to Steve Bryan, a dep- Soviet scientists would have access. which
uty assistant secretary of defense. -- One of the. a rs discussed in detail tech.
"Bryan will ask secretary-level defense of- nology for satellite-to-submarine communi-
ils later this month to name this group, cation. B
oa
ryan mposed mostly of military officials, to said he is concerned that there
screen the work of scientists working under may be many regular scientific meetings and
Defense contracts ? . . papers which are the source of leaks to the
Stung by what they call a- near-leak of Soviets.
ata on a highly classified topic at a scien- Concerns about such. leaks have been
ific meeting in August, and after halting the raised by government officials with- increas-
publication or presentation of 100 papers at ing frequency for several years.
-that meeting, the. defense officials hope now According to long-standing rules, defense
to establish a- regular panel to review and funded research is supposed to be reviewed
pre-censor "sensitive" papers from scientific by the contracting agency for sensitivity and
meetings around the counts-. the Pentagon notified before publication if
sensitive subjects are involved. But in prac.
Bryan said he hoped such a system would tice the system works only fitfully. avoid such things as the last-minute barrage "Clearly there was a btter
way to do this
of secrecy orders clamped on papers at the [than the way it was handled in San Diego].
August meeting of the Society of Photo-op- The style was not great," Bryan said. But
tical Instrumentation Engineers. still, he added, "We're absolutely convinced
Pre-censorship proposals' like Bryan's, that a good deal of sensitive information was
however, have proved controversial. prevented from being leaked. We feel very
Hakime Sakai, a physicist at the Univer- "
sity of . Massachusetts at Amherst who had- 'good about it in that regard
' Richard Wollensak of Itek Inc., president
.two of his papers squelched at the meeting, - - ?
said "the review process is detrimental to the of the photo=optical society, said the . group
whole scientific effort." Getting information cooperated with the Defense 'Department
to colleagues quickly 1s vital for scientific ~ because it recognizes a. need to protect "sen-
to information. But he said he wants to
progress" and halting the distribution of
work "is in direct conflict" with that grog- make sure alast-minute yanking 'of papers
Tess, he said. never happens again. ?.
Besides, he said, both his papers were in One federal science official said a proposal.
for such a central monitoring committee to
basic atmospheric research, were not sensitive
results had long before been able" provided technology is "not unreason-
and published in preliminary open government publications. ble ided it stuck to. scientific work
object to government review, monitored under der only a Pentagon few contracts and that it
He does not obj
he said, but censorship should be extremely meetings_ and a rela-
tively small number of papers....:
limited, only to papers which are clearly sen- "You can't monitor every conference with
sitive. the word laser in it," the official -said, "but it
There is now no coordinated monitoring would be extremely important to have a
of scientific meetings or papers, and Bryan scanning mechanism like this [proposed
said "we need to do a better job in setting up committee] to avoid the embarrassment with
the standards [for what should be censored] such heavy-handed methods" as those used
and working the system right so we don't gel in San Diego.
surprised."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200970093-1