Foerstel's Surveillance in the Stacks (1991) was a science
librarian's response to the FBI's "Library Awareness Program," in
which the feds asked for records of "suspicious" foreign nationals
consulting technical reference books. Here, the author (Engineering
and Physical Sciences Library/University of Maryland) expands his
scope to examine the broader issue of governmental control of
scientific research and publication in a free society. While
government interest in the military applications of scientific
research has a long history, Foerstel concentrates on the cold war
period, in which national security became the justification for
unprecedented control over research and publication. Measures
originally put in place during WW II (to keep the atomic bomb out
of Nazi hands) gained a new lease with the emergence of the Soviets
as the perceived threat to world peace. In practical terms, this
meant that any scientist with a leftist past was a fair target for
the security apparatus: J. Robert Oppenheimer is only the best
known of the scientists victimized by the shift in political winds.
Foerstel documents the growth of the "Black Budget" - funds for
research so secret that its very existence is kept hidden from
Congress. Another growth area for governmental control is
cryptography, especially the use of computers to generate and read
encoded documents. An especially disturbing area of governmental
encroachment, Foerstel says, is the attempt to control the spread
of unclassified information, with the government arguing that a
hostile power may add together innocent facts to arrive at
dangerous conclusions - the "mosaic theory" of intelligence. Often
dry and pedestrian, but compelling for its detailed and extensively
documented treatment of the damage done to science in the name of
security. Required reading for anyone concerned with continued
abuses of power by the military-industrial complex. (Kirkus
Reviews)
This book is a plea for scientific openness and free access to
information. It demonstrates the futility of scientific secrecy and
the weakness of national arguments against open communication. From
the restriction of technologically advanced exports, to the
classification of research as restricted or secret, to the
monitoring (and censoring) of scientific publications and library
collections, to the pre-emption by the Pentagon of scientific and
technological research, the U.S. federal government has achieved a
state of unprecedented control over American science and
technology. This, despite the end of the Cold War. Foerstel
examines this continuing trend toward the state as chief sponsor,
promoter, and supervisor of scientific research and its unsettling
ramifications.
Foerstel concludes that scientific secrecy is counterproductive
to American interests, particularly in an era when economics has
come to define national security. His controversial analysis will
be of interest to scientists, historians, and students of
government alike.
General
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