On Thu, 21 Sep 1995, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote:
It was said that Pres. Clinton had given a speech while visiting the CIA HQ in Langley/Virginia. He allegedly said in this speech that obtaining industrial informations has the highest priority and this were the new task for the spies.
ah yes, just like the way Clinton alone came up with the whole Clipper idea as a way to balance the legitimate goals of law enforcement with the right to privacy in society.
Uh, how do you see balancing in the economic intelligence issue? Do you believe espionage is never justified? "Gentlemen don't read each other's mail" almost lost a war.
careful Bill, your strings are showing. and I won't say who is the puppeteer, but he has the initials N.S.A.
You need to write a conspiracy book.
pardon me, but this new "economic espionage" sleazoid-intelligence- agency-justifying bugaboo really annoys me.
You prefered it when they were funding gunrunning and hostage negotiation with drug profits and abbetting smuggling?
I would *die* to see an op-ed in the NYT with the subject: "economic espionage: the new bogeyman decoy after the cold war"
Uh, you've not been looking. Many have criticised the new emphasis as justification in a threatless environment. *** A very interesting note has been published on the subject just recently. Interested parties might want to check out: Augustini, Jeff, "From Goldfinger to Butterfinger: The Legal and Policy Issues Surrounding Proposals to Use the CIA for Economic Espionage," 26 Law & Pol'y Int'l Bus. 2 (Law and Policy in International Business, The International Law Journal of Georgetown University Law Center). While the author misses some key points, goes off on a silly anti-trust tangent which totally misreads the current state of antitrust law, and makes some outright misses on the legal logistics of passing the information through government channels, the work also holds some interesting research about the programs of Japan, France, Germany and Isreal. Some Choice Parts: 'Intelligence officials in the United States estimate that at least twenty foreign nations are currently engaged in intelligence activities "detrimental to our economic interests...."' 'The White House Office on Science and Technology estimates losses to U.S. businesses from foreign economic espionage at nearly one hundred billion dollars per year.' 'Allegations within the French Government accuse U.S. personal, including four diplomats, attempted to steal secret government documents relating to Franco-American trade disputes.' 'A classified CIA report lists two top Japanese intelligence priorities as (1); intelligence regarding access to foreign sources of raw material and (2) "detailed intelligence on technological and scientific developments in the United States and Western Europe."' 'In addition to intelligence operations abroad, the French are notorious for routinely eavesdropping on, and conducting "bag jobs" against, U.S. businessmen visiting France. To conduct these "bag job" operations, the French allegedly maintain an extensive network of part-time or volunteer informants known as "honorary correspondents," whose main tasks are to help the DGSE (French Intelligence) gain entry into hotel rooms, delay or distract targets, and provide an early warning system in cases where targets return early... placing electronic eavesdropping equipment on Air France flights between Paris and New York to listen in on traveling U.S. businessmen, attempting to plant moles in European branches of U.S. corporations, and wiretapping state-owned communications lines used by U.S. companies located in France.' Most interesting for cypherpunks: An ominous footnote #111 indicates that: 'While many American companies employ encryption equipment, under French law they must give the "keys" to the French government. This allows the French Intelligence services to listen to encoded transmissions.' If anyone wants a fuller summary, I'll post it to the list with enough interest. Moral: Even a clueless Law Student comments on intelligence better than "Vlad." --- "In fact, had Bancroft not existed, potestas scientiae in usu est Franklin might have had to invent him." in nihilum nil posse reverti 00B9289C28DC0E55 E16D5378B81E1C96 - Finger for Current Key Information