Unfortunately, as with earlier decontrol actions involving advanced personal computers and wire-bonders, the decision to decontrol polysilicon technology was predicated on flawed Commerce Department assessments of the "foreign availability" of such technology to the Soviet Union.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Why Does The US Want Moscow To Have A State-Of-The-Art Microelectronics Industry?

The Commerce Department's assessment of the foreign availability of the types of personal computers affected was simply wrong both with respect to its judgment of the quality and the quantity of such computers the Soviet Union could acquire elsewhere.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

More troubling still, it is now evident that despite his commitment to have decontrol decisions made on a strategic basis rather than on an "ad hoc" one Kloske apparently has no intention of imposing such discipline on the Commerce Department or the foreign availability process it runs.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Why Does The US Want Moscow To Have A State-Of-The-Art Microelectronics Industry?

More troubling still, it is now evident that -- despite his commitment to have decontrol decisions made on a strategic basis rather than on an "ad hoc" one -- Kloske apparently has no intention of imposing such discipline on the Commerce Department or the foreign availability process it runs.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Properly modest in scope, the legislation simply authorizes to Commerce Department to produce a report that documents the importance of foreign investment, identifies home-grown impediments to such investment, and recommends policy changes that would make the United States a more attractive investment destination.

FORBES: America Needs Policy Reform to Better Compete for Foreign Investment

In a case governing advanced personal computers last summer and the recent decision to decontrol virtually all wire-bonders, the Commerce Department is allowing the most flimsy of evidence to serve as grounds for a finding of foreign availability even where the evidence is contested by the Defense Department and the intelligence community.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | Submitted Testimony by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. on The Application Of National Security Export Controls To The East Bloc