Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 14:30:49 -0700
From: eug...@nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Scientists cry foul over NASA security raid at Ames
Markets * High Tech * Economy
San Jose Mercury News, Saturday, August 15, 1992
Business section, Pages 9E and 14E
Scientists cry foul over NASA security raid at Ames
By Michelle Levander, Mercury News Staff Writer
A security raid that one scientist likened to a "KGB attack" at NASA/Ames
Research Center two weeks ago has pitted scientists who depend on the free
international exchange of ideas against government bureaucrats afraid of losing
economically valuable technology.
On the weekend of July 31, a security force from NASA headquarters in
Washington, D.C., descended on research facilities at Ames in Mountain View,
changing locks, sending scientists home without explanations, searching through
papers on desks and reading people's electronic mail and computer files. The
security team, sent by NASA's new administrator, Daniel Goldin, then
interrogated some of the most distinguished experts in the country in
aeronautics research and temporarily denied about 10 researchers access to
offices and computer files.
Harvey Lomax, chief of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch at NASA/Ames,
said the search -- conducted by men without badges who sent people home or
interrogated them without any explanation -- violated the university-like
atmosphere he tries to create among his staff. Lomax said he understood the
need need to protect security, but, he said, in his 48 years at Ames, "I have
never seen an instance of such insulting contempt."
The NASA search was aimed at reviewing the center's handling of classified
material and to "review our safeguarding of technologies that are important to
national competitiveness," NASA/ Ames director Dale Compton said in a letter to
employees this week. Compton apologized in an open letter to NASA scientists
for an event that "disrupted" a work culture that "promotes an open exchange of
scientific information."
A center spokesman said he knew of no specific incident or security breach that
prompted the search but said it was legal for the government to search
employees' desks and files.
Now that fears of Cold War enemies have died down, government officials are try
to prevent information-sharing between government scientists and their
colleagues in other countries that compete with ours. But some critics say
such policies could isolate the U.S. scientific community and stymie basic
scientific research normally conducted in the international community. [...]
NASA/Ames scientists said they have also recently face increasingly tight
restrictions on what information they can share with others and often have to
submit work to a government official in Washington for approval. Scientists
agree that some research shouldn't be shared but complain that Washington
bureaucrats can't tell the difference between basic research and a sensitive
technology transfer.
In a meeting with staff this week, Compton said top NASA officials were
concerned that ideas on fluid dynamics or other topics could end up in the
hands of aerospace or auto companies abroad rather than U.S. firms. "He said
we are funded by the United States and one of our missions is to do basic
research for industry and not give a competitive edge to others," said one
scientist at a meeting held by Compton on the raid.
One irony apparently unnoticed by search team investigators, however, was that
while they were taking action against staffers who sent computer transmissions
of information abroad, scientists from Germany, France, Spain, Israel and Japan
were working on Ames computers and sharing research ideas with their U.S.
counterparts as the invited guests of the research center.
The theoretical research done at Ames often involves international
collaboration. In fact a good deal of the center's research is published in a
British journal.
The research units apparently targeted by the search use supercomputers to
solve complex equations governing how a fluid moves, which scientists said is
far removed from immediate practical applications. In such theoretical
research, involving a single equation can take as much as 500 hours of
supercomputer time.
[The article also notes allegations of racism from the Asian-American
Pacific Islander Advisory Group at Ames, and strong denials from Ames. PGN]
Newsgroups: sci.space,talk.politics.space,sci.aeronautics,alt.censorship,
comp.org.eff.talk,comp.sys.super
Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!data.nas.nasa.gov!wilbur!eugene
From: eug...@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: SJ Merc article
Followup-To: talk.politics.space
Sender: n...@nas.nasa.gov (News Administrator)
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 22:44:08 GMT
Message-ID: <1992Aug21.224408.19592@nas.nasa.gov>
Lines: 217
Well, here goes.
Some people HERE have requested the following article from the SJ Mercury
be posted. A similar article has appeared in Av. Week & Space Tech.
If you have specific inquiries, you are to talk to a public information
officer. The following is on going.
Follow ups to talk.politics.space.
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eug...@orville.nas.nasa.gov
Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
{uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
Second Favorite email message: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 3 days
A Ref: Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, vol. 1, G. Polya
Reproduced without permission
Saturday
August 15, 1992
San Jose Mercury News
Business
----------
Markets * High Tech * Economy
Pages 9E and 14E
Scientists cry foul over NASA security raid at Ames
By Michelle Levander
Mercury News Staff Writer
A security raid that one scien-
tist likened to a "KGB attack" at
NASA/Ames Research Center
two weeks ago has pitted scien-
tists who depend on the free in-
ternational exchange of ideas
against government bureaucrats
afraid of losing economically
valuable technology.
On the weekend of July 31, a
security force from NASA head-
quarters in Washington, D.C., de-
scended on research facilities at
Ames in Mountain View, chang-
ing locks, sending scientists home
without explanations, searching
through papers on desks and
reading people's electronic mail
and computer files. The security
team, sent by NASA's new admin-
istrator, Daniel Goldin, then inter-
rogated some of the most disting-
uished experts in the country in
aeronautics research and temp-
orarily denied about 10 research-
ers access to offices and comput-
er files.
Harvey Lomax, chief of the
Computational Fluid Dynamics
Branch at NASA/Ames, said the
search -- conducted by men
without badges who sent people
home or interrogated them with-
out any explanation -- violated
the university-like atmosphere he
tries to create among his staff.
Lomax said he understood the need
need to protect security, but, he
said, in his 48 years at Ames, "I
have never seen an instance of
such insulting contempt."
The NASA search was aimed at
reviewing the center's handling
of classified material and to "re-
view our safeguarding of technol-
ogies that are important to na-
<photo: NASA/Ames director Compton apologizes to scientists>
tional competitiveness," NASA/
Ames director Dale Compton said
in a letter to employees this week.
Compton apologized in an open
letter to NASA scientists for an
event that "disrupted" a work
culture that "promotes an open
exchange of scientific informa-
tion."
A center spokesman said he
knew of no specific incident or
security breach that prompted
the search but said it was legal
for the government to search em-
ployees' desks and files.
Now that fears of Cold War
enemies have died down, govern-
ment officials are try to pre-
vent information-sharing be-
tween government scientists and
their colleagues in other countries
that compete with ours. But some
critics say such policies could iso-
late the U.S. scientific community
and stymie basic scientific re-
search normally conducted in the
international community.
"With the end of the Cold War,
the whole issue of security should
be evaluated," said Parviz Moin,
director of the joint Stanford Uni-
versity and Nasa/Ames Center
for Turbulence Research. "It is
my hope that we are not turning
all of this energy into meaning-
less scrutiny of basic research.
"We don't have a monopoly on
good ideas, especially in basic re-
search," he said. "If we start cut-
ting off communications with oth-
er scientists and we leave the rest
of the world to communicate
among themselves, we will begin
falling behind."
NASA/Ames scientists said
they have also recently face in-
creasingly tight restrictions on
what information they can share
with others and often have to
submit work to a government of-
ficial in Washington for approval.
Scientists agree that some re-
search shouldn't be shared but
complain that Washington bu-
reaucrats can't tell the difference
between basic research and a sen-
sitive technology transfer.
In a meeting with staff this
week, Compton said top NASA
officials were concerned that ide-
as on fluid dynamics or other top-
ics could end up in the hands of
aerospace or auto companies
abroad rather than U.S. firms.
"He said we are funded by the
United States and one of our mis-
sions is to do basic research for
industry and not give a competi-
tive edge to others," said one sci-
entist at a meeting held by Comp-
ton on the raid.
One irony apparently unno-
ticed by search team investiga-
tors, however, was that while
they were taking action against
staffers who sent computer trans-
missions of information abroad,
scientists from Germany, France,
Spain, Israel and Japan were
working on Ames computers and
sharing research ideas with their
U.S. counterparts as the invited
guests of the research center.
The theoretical research done
at Ames often involves interna-
tional collaboration. In fact a
good deal of the center's research
is published in a British journal.
The research units apparently
targeted by the search use super-
computers to solve complex equa-
tions governing how a fluid
moves, which scientists said is
far removed from immediate
practical applications. In such
theoretical research, involving a
single equation can take as much
as 500 hours of supercomputer
time.
The raid also prompted allega-
tions of racism. The Asian-Ameri-
can Pacific Islander Advisory
Group at Ames has charged that
a disproportionate number of
Asian-Americans were investigat-
ed and locked out of their offices.
At a meeting held to review scien-
tific papers, one highly respected
Asian-American scientist angrily
compared the treatment of
Asians during the search to the
internment of the Japanese dur-
ing World War II.
NASA Ames spokesman Del
Harding said he was aware of the
allegations but that the chief of
the search team told him Asian
were "absolutely not" the target
of the investigation.