RE: Government Control of Ada

[pb@PIPE.WISC.EDU.UUCP]

>>   A couple of questions:  1) How can the government control nonclassified
>> information?  2) What exactly is meant by Ada-related technology?  Can I
>> teach Ada to foreign graduate students, for example?  Exactly what is going
>> on here....
	
>Sitting on my desk is a copy of the final report for CAMP (Common Ada
>Missile Packages).
	
>On its cover page is the following:
	
>   WARNING: This document contains technical data whose export is
>   restricted by the Arms Export Control Act (Title 22, U.S.C. 2751 et
>   seq) or Executive Order 12470. Violation of these export-control laws
>   is subject to severe criminal penalities. Dissemination of this
>   document is controlled under DoD directive 5230.25
	    
>It also says "Distribution Limited to DoD and DoD Contractors Only".
	
>IT IS TOTALLY UNCLASSIFIED.
	
>Now, just glancing through this document, I can see nothing that merits
>this warning. Nothing that would make it classified, or anything that would
>really help an enemy (other than helping them to write better Ada code).
>I'm sure the authors were forced by the government to include this notice.
	
>I've noticed this trend for sometime now (marking documents with unneeded
>restrictions), and find it quite upsetting [just try finding an
>unrestricted VHSIC related document].
	
>This kind of stuff is just causes wasted time (and research dollars)!
	
	
>	-- Mike Linnig

Unfortunately, this is a trend that's been going on for some time.  Do
you remember the case of the U.S. Government's (first ever) prior
restraint order against The Progressive, preventing them from distributing
an issue in which they published material on the H-bomb, ALL of which
was gotten by their reporter from unclassified materials, in libraries
open to the public?  (This was in 1979 or 1980, I think.)  It's hard to
understand what "national interest" such behavior furthers; cynics (who
are not necessarily therefore wrong) suspect that it's part of an
attempt to present numerous topics that should be subject to civilian
control as overly technical (and, therefore, secret) for any but military
or high government official knowledge and decision.

--pb schechter