The anonymous post of the White House's National Security Science and Technology Strategy recalls debate on this policy underlying reports on CIA economic espionage: Clinton instructs CIA to focus on trade espionage - report Los Angeles, Jul 23 (Reuter) - President Clinton has ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to make economic espionage a top priority, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. The report quotes American intelligence sources who say the CIA was instrumental in providing U.S. trade negotiators information during heated auto trade talks with Japan this spring, and has helped uncover bribes by rival nations competing with U.S. firms for government contracts. The sources say Clinton has issued a classified set of intelligence priorities for the post Cold-War era, and that the CIA is providing case officers with new training on economic matters to meet the new challenge. The recent trade talks with Japan were viewed as a success of the new policy, according to the Times report. It said U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor was pleased with the CIA's ability to report on the bargaining positions of American rivals. But the agency has reportedly been less willing to spy on individual companies. In one recent success in that area the CIA discovered that the French were offering bribes to Brazilian officials to help telecommunications giant Thompson win a government contract. The report says intelligence information helped U.S.-based Raytheon Co. elbow out Thompson of France to win the work. But the problem in such work, say intelligence sources, is determining which multinational corporations based in the United States should be considered "American" firms deserving assistance. Because of this confusion, CIA officials argue they should be kept out of spy work targeting individual foreign business at the behest of U.S. corporations. Even so, the Times report says the intelligence community has told Congress it can claim credit for uncovering bribes affecting $30 billion in foregin contracts over the past few years. -----