U.S. MAY QUIT SCIENCE INSTITUTE WITH SOVIET TIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500052-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2010
• Sequence Number: 52
• Publication Date: March 29, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/09: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500052-8
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THE WASHINGTON POST
29 March 1982
j ".'Reagan, in a letter sent this week to Austrian
U. S. I U ti u i t Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, said he opposed con-
tinued U.S. involvement in the facility. Kreisky, a
Science Institute. strong backer of East-West cooperation, had.
With Soviet Ties
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Foreign Sert'x'e
LAXENBURG, Austria-Roger
Wets, an American, and Yuri Er-
urged-Reagan to show political understanding for
the scientific institute's work.
A Reagan administration official involved in
drafting the president's position said this week:
."The reason UASA is now the subject of contro-
versy is that it was set up not for good scientific
reasons but for political ones. There's a group of
the Sc tnrougn in a institute, could plug into
extensive U.S. data banks-in particular, a corn
puler hookup to the Lockheed Corp.'s file of un-
classified bibliographical information. i
This enabled Soviet scientists to obtain easily f
all references in U.S. Publications to such special-!
ized areas as remote sensing by satellites of agri-:
cultural crops.
Institute officials, acknowledging that the flow
of computer information between Eastern and.
Western 'members is unbalanced, argued that the
Lockheed information is freely available to anyone
who pays for the service But the institute has
now discontinued the Lockheed link.
U.S. security concerns grew last year after al-
legations. in the European press that the insti-!
tute's secretary,- Arkady Belozerov, was a contact F
tr cvac "' acauy ?aruc UL S ":QJb-YT I, utlUbtr-
anand w, a Soviet, spend hours sitting . building aspect, but that's the point on which the
and walking together in this village administration can and does disagree."
on the outskirts of Vienna. They are -A number of top U.S. scientists have rallied to
mathematicians, developing comput- the institute's defense. The National Academy of
er codes designed to help solve the Sciences, which holds the U.S. membership in the
'
world
s food, energy and environ- institute, passed a resolution last month saying it
mental problems. iyants to stay in,the program.
Free of the tensions of their cold- But these are difficult times for supporters of
i
t
: th
i
t
warr
ng governmen
s,
ese
-
wo sc
entists-and colleagues working in
similar fields-say that nowhere else
in the world could they meet as they']
for a Norwegian double agent, passing information
A.- at_ 7)rrn It _ n._
Belozerov, the highest-ranking Soviet in the!
East-West- contacts, and the institute, a child' of institute at the time, resigned shortly after they
detente, stands to lose not only its U.S. parent but story broke and 'institute officials.--stressing that:
its Soviet one too if the administration has its wav. nothing secretive or classified is Anna there_haye
iititi i 1966h Ld Jhlld f R Lih
naven wenynononson caeorogereven, te institute's director at the
But the Reagan - administration the creation of an East-West institute to work on time and now director of systems analysis at
wants to bring the Americans home.., problems common to industrialized. nations. Six Xerox, said in a phone interview that the Soviets
Crying spies, data leakage and years later, during the heyday of detente, it was i were "stupid" for using the institute as a cover.
one-way benefits for the Soviets, the opened in a handsomely renovated Hapsburg "But I'm convinced," he said, "there's no nation-
administration wants to withdraw hunting lodge here.
al security threat from RASA. In fact, its the
the United States from ;a"unique,; Today, the institute has 17 members, mostly other way around. The national security interests
10-year-old detente-era= institute.- : NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, with the Unit- of the world demand that the United States re-
here where 100 scientists from East ea States and the Soviet Union contributing the main a member."
and West cooperate to seek solutions-. major portions of the operating budget. Institute officials say the center serves Western:
to problems that plague mankind.. , .t .The_ institute collects data and builds models interests by exposing the Soviets to broader sci-
The center, known officially as the designed- to help governments make complicated' entific. influences and encouraging them to adopt`
International Institute for Applied decisions on projects affecting their economies and a more rational-and thus more predictable-i
Systems Analysis, is said by the peo-., environments. Systems analysis- being an intan-. approach to major decisions..:. -
pie here to be the only full-time m-- gible craft, the scientists here concede that it is C.S.: "Buzz" Rolling, a Canadian- ecologist and
ternational interdisciplinary, scien hard to point to concrete products of their efforts. the .institute's current director, accused Reagan
tific facility in the world. The value of the institute, its defenders say, is administration officials of showing "abysmal igno-
One million dollars in U.S. funds the benefit of working at close quarters', with the, rance" about the nature. of the institute's work.
is at stake-roughly the "cost of half other side.., "I see them taking 'an essentially ideological
a' new Ml tank, as those'-being de-"We're not trying so much for. breakthroughs as point of view and -criticizing specific one-way
.Hied the money like to. point out. 1 for. better understanding, said -institute-. spokes-: transfers without considering the multiplicity of
-.But it is not just the money, say ad- :; man Peter Schlifke, explaining that a major aim is the whole effort," he said. "If they are going to
ministration officials,: who find reaching international agreement on a more factual attack things'like that, they're attacking the heart!
themselves embroiled in' an. interna-,, means for decision-making in such fields as energy, and essence of scientific inquiry." - tional controversy over the - insti- pollution and ecology. "It's certainly not only the The controversy takes place against the back-1 future ,; .4vf;; .' 'research that's important. It's personal contact and drop of big reductions in the overall U.S. science
It is also.reaction to events in Po= learning what makes the other side tick."` ` - budget. Money for the National Science Founds-
land and Afghanistan and what U.S. -Reagan administration officials- have not been tipn, which in turn funds the National Academy!
officials contend would be the inap-' impressed with the concept of the institute or the of Sciences and, through it, the institute here, was
propriateness now of maintaining -quality of its work: In a letter this week to Frank cut 40 percent last year.
financial support for the institute. Press, president of the National Academy of Sci- To maintain some U.S. presence here, the aead-'
enees, Reagan's science adviser, George Keyworth, emy has asked for at least $1 million, down frorn~
affirmed the administration's opposition to. future. $2.3- million in. years-past. II.S., businesses also
participation in the institute, Charging- Soviet contribute about $300,000:
abuse" and a "lack of reciprocity" in its, programs. Backing on Capitol Hill for the institute is~Wa?
Keyworth added, "It would be=particularly m- vering in view, of the-security concerns raised by
appropriate to continue our involvement in IIASA_ the administration: The House Committee on Sci-
in light of other actions we have taken to show our- ence. and'= Technology..: this- week approved an
displeasure about martial law in Poland. " : :amendment' that' would- deny funds if, the presi=
One of the things that irked Washington is that' dent determines "that nswtirlnat;nn in the .ingtij
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/09: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100500052-8