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Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 22:46:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@polaris.mindport.net> Subject: Re: economic espionage (@#$%^&*)
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.
All out espionage should, idealy at least, only take place if there is evidence that a nations indipendance is directly involved. By this I mean active methods versus passive eavesdropping. It is one thing to send aloft satellites to record cellular traffic between cars and quite another to actively insert agents provocateur.
'Intelligence officials in the United States estimate that at least twenty foreign nations are currently engaged in intelligence activities "detrimental to our economic interests...."'
I had hoped they were better investigators than this, only 20? Or perhaps this is a truer indication of our national paranoia.
'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.'
What are its estimates on what US business gains with its present industrial espionage infrastructure? Without these numbers the quoted above are useless. Jim