Hello:
I have one short, short question regarding this item. I really hope that you know the anwswer and have the time to answer it.
1- International document: any idea who else had signed it?
[re COCOM trade agreements] All COCOM countries most likely. That said Australia does not seem to be actively enforcing this relic of the cold war. However around 8 years ago, I recall that the NSA found out about a telephone encrypting device developed here in Australia, and preassured the Australian government to forbid export of the device, under COCOM provisions until it was weakened. At the moment it is politically untenable to enforce COCOM export provisions over cryptographic software in this country. The COCOM treaty is seen, quite rightly, as a U.S barrow which COCOM countries had to sign in order to avoid U.S trade sanctions and tarrifs, but not something that needs to be enforced for smaller concerns (arms shipments are bigger concerns). COCOM is being replaced with new controls, according to the PARI DAILY. (anyone have better details?) PARI DAILY FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1996 BULGARIA IGNORED AT POST-COCOM TALKS Bulgaria did not take part in the first plenary session of the member-countries of the Wassenaar Arrangement, also known as the New Forum, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr.Pantelei Karasimeonov told a briefing yesterday. Of all the 28 participants in the session, it was only USA that opposed Bulgaria's participation in the arrangement, a control regime which is to succeed the Cold War's COCOM export controls of technology and equipment usable for military purposes, too, it was revealed at the briefing. Bulgaria has stated many times, and at different levels, its willingness to join the new control regime, the Foreign Ministry spokesman emphasised. In a statement, disseminated by BTA, Bulgarian News Agency, Foreign Ministry pointed out that obviously some of the participants in the Wassenaar Arrangement talks are still under the rather depressing impressions of the suitable conditions created in the country for wide-ranging scot-free ruin and lack of ownership, which apply also to the military-industrial complex and foreign trade in spesial-purpose production. Mr. Karasimeonov said that these impressions have sprung from the period of radical economic and political reforms in the country; he voiced his hopes that the founder-states of the Wassenaar Arrangement would soon change these views of theirs and would put their trust in Bulgaria's export control abilities. Trade Ministry officials said that bilateral talks are due to be held between Bulgaria and each of the New Forum member-countries, which are expected to result in Bulgaria's joining the arrangement. An expert group is to visit USA from April 29 till May 3 aiming to acquaint American high officials with the measures Bulgaria has taken to control trade in spesial-purpose production, Mr.Vladimir Velichkov, head of Internationally Controlled Trade Department at Trade Ministry, said in a recent interview for the PARI Daily. By June an expert group of the Wassenaar Arrangement is due to visit Bulgaria to lead discussions about our participation in the New Forum. -- "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis, _God in the Dock_ +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+ |Julian Assange RSO | PO Box 2031 BARKER | Secret Analytic Guy Union | |proff@suburbia.net | VIC 3122 AUSTRALIA | finger for PGP key hash ID = | |proff@gnu.ai.mit.edu | FAX +61-3-98199066 | 0619737CCC143F6DEA73E27378933690 | +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+