-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- "Sam Bassett" writes:
According to "The Codebreakers" (if memory serves me), in about 1943 the U.S. and the U.K. negotiated a BRITUS treaty, the details of which were very secret. I think that this was the original agreement to share the British Enigma cryptography results, and possibly the U.S. nuclear results. Further, I suspect that one of the provisions of the BRITUS treaty was that all of the crypto stuff be treated as if British Law (i.e. the Official Secrets Act) ruled -- everything was secret unless and until the Government said it wasn't any more.
James Bamford mentions the BRUSA/UKUSA agreements in _The Puzzle Palace_ (p. 393ff. in mine). It doesn't say anything about nuclear secrets, but the discussion does touch on cryptanalysis, COMINT and other technology (radar, DF, etc.). From Bamford's description, it sounds as if each country just agreed to be bound by the other's security regulations insofar as how they handled material. This isn't uncommon. (Of course, that means that stuff the Brits provided the US wasn't subject to the usual classification review. . .)
This was mildly unconstitutional at the time, but could be gotten past the courts on the excuse that the Constitution defines treaties as "The Highest Law of the Land". It has certainly led to a lot of abuses since, but the bureaucrats love it -- "born classified", indeed!
As far as Constitutional abuses, there were much worse ones on the horizon (e.g., the internment of Japanese-Americans). War hysteria provides fertile ground to sow the seeds of FUD. (Gee, maybe that explains the "war on drugs," the "war on crime," the "war on pornography". . .) Scott -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQB1AwUBMb9z0evEnOI8TfM9AQEFjQMAmrxE+tnlIfow4RZ80M2gnIdMsjHeJN6V u3cQDVTohHYebmQ6UTWFh7gG+CPDEVe65ATTprHknp+yvOTetGTuzPDKAmi4Zme7 CfB9e+pcq9A9N6tqV+Gt6YbRuikT/KBQ =dYHf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----