IP: U.S. Tightening Rules on Keeping Scientific Secrets

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

U.S. Tightening Rules on Keeping Scientific Secrets
By WILLIAM J. BROAD


http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/politics/17SECR.html

he Bush administration is taking wide measures to tighten scientific 
secrecy in the hope of keeping weapons of mass destruction out of 
unfriendly hands.
Last month, it began quietly withdrawing from public release more than 
6,600 technical documents that deal mainly with the production of germ and 
chemical weapons. It is also drafting a new information security policy, to 
be released in the next few weeks, that officials say will result in more 
documents' being withdrawn. It is asking scientific societies to limit what 
they publish in research reports.
"We're working hard for a set of guidelines so terrorists can't use 
information that this country produces against us," Tom Ridge, the director 
of homeland security, said in an interview. "This will have to be a dynamic 
process." He added that scientists were being closely consulted on any new 
guidelines.
But critics say the most extreme steps proposed could make it impossible 
for scientists to assess and replicate the work of their colleagues, 
eroding the foundations of American science. They fear that government 
officials eager for the protections of secrecy will overlook how open 
research on dangerous substances can produce a wealth of cures, disease 
antidotes and surprise discoveries.
"It comes down to a risk-benefit ratio," said Robert R. Rich, president of 
the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. "I think the 
risk of forgone advances is much greater than the information getting into 
the wrong hands."

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