Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 14:30:49 -0700
From: eugene@nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.society.privacy
Subject: Scientists cry foul over NASA security raid at Ames
Organization: Computer Privacy Digest
X-Submissions-To: comp-privacy@pica.army.mil
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X-Computer-Privacy-Digest: Volume 1, Issue 075, Message 4 of 5

[Moderator's Note:  This orginally appeared in the RISKS-FORUM Digest 
(08/27/92) Volume 13 : Issue 76.  I thought it might be of interest to
you. _dennis]

Markets * High Tech * Economy
San Jose Mercury News, Saturday, August 15, 1992
Business section, Pages 9E and 14E

Scientists cry foul over NASA security raid at Ames
By Michelle Levander, Mercury News Staff Writer

A security raid that one scientist likened to a "KGB attack" at NASA/Ames
Research Center two weeks ago has pitted scientists who depend on the free
international exchange of ideas against government bureaucrats afraid of losing
economically valuable technology.

On the weekend of July 31, a security force from NASA headquarters in
Washington, D.C., descended on research facilities at Ames in Mountain View,
changing locks, sending scientists home without explanations, searching through
papers on desks and reading people's electronic mail and computer files.  The
security team, sent by NASA's new administrator, Daniel Goldin, then
interrogated some of the most distinguished experts in the country in
aeronautics research and temporarily denied about 10 researchers access to
offices and computer files.

Harvey Lomax, chief of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch at NASA/Ames,
said the search -- conducted by men without badges who sent people home or
interrogated them without any explanation -- violated the university-like
atmosphere he tries to create among his staff.  Lomax said he understood the
need need to protect security, but, he said, in his 48 years at Ames, "I have
never seen an instance of such insulting contempt."

The NASA search was aimed at reviewing the center's handling of classified
material and to "review our safeguarding of technologies that are important to
national competitiveness," NASA/ Ames director Dale Compton said in a letter to
employees this week.  Compton apologized in an open letter to NASA scientists
for an event that "disrupted" a work culture that "promotes an open exchange of
scientific information."

A center spokesman said he knew of no specific incident or security breach that
prompted the search but said it was legal for the government to search
employees' desks and files.

Now that fears of Cold War enemies have died down, government officials are try
to prevent information-sharing between government scientists and their
colleagues in other countries that compete with ours.  But some critics say
such policies could isolate the U.S. scientific community and stymie basic
scientific research normally conducted in the international community.  [...]

NASA/Ames scientists said they have also recently face increasingly tight
restrictions on what information they can share with others and often have to
submit work to a government official in Washington for approval.  Scientists
agree that some research shouldn't be shared but complain that Washington
bureaucrats can't tell the difference between basic research and a sensitive
technology transfer.

In a meeting with staff this week, Compton said top NASA officials were
concerned that ideas on fluid dynamics or other topics could end up in the
hands of aerospace or auto companies abroad rather than U.S. firms.  "He said
we are funded by the United States and one of our missions is to do basic
research for industry and not give a competitive edge to others," said one
scientist at a meeting held by Compton on the raid.

One irony apparently unnoticed by search team investigators, however, was that
while they were taking action against staffers who sent computer transmissions
of information abroad, scientists from Germany, France, Spain, Israel and Japan
were working on Ames computers and sharing research ideas with their U.S.
counterparts as the invited guests of the research center.
 
The theoretical research done at Ames often involves international
collaboration.  In fact a good deal of the center's research is published in a
British journal.

The research units apparently targeted by the search use supercomputers to
solve complex equations governing how a fluid moves, which scientists said is
far removed from immediate practical applications.  In such theoretical
research, involving a single equation can take as much as 500 hours of
supercomputer time.

   [The article also notes allegations of racism from the Asian-American
   Pacific Islander Advisory Group at Ames, and strong denials from Ames.  PGN]

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