Gus W. Weiss
Gus W. Weiss was a former White House policy adviser on technology, intelligence and economic affair. He served as adviser to four presidents on top secret policies. He worked primarily on national security, intelligence and concerns on technology transfer to communist countries. He is from Nashville. [1]
Education
Gus Weiss graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, did his masters in business in Harvard University and his doctorate in economics in New York University. [1]
Career
- Under presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, Mr. Weiss served as a foreign affairs officer and in the National Security Council. [1]
- Under president Carter, he was an assistant to the secretary of defense for space policy, member of the Pentagon Defense Science Board and the US Intelligence Board. He was also an executive director of the White House Council on International Economic Policy. [1]
- He was a guest lecturer at George Washington University. [1]
USSR & Computer Technology
In 1973, under president Nixon, Mr. Weiss was in charge of analyzing which computers and associated production technology might be sold to communist countries. Under this project data processing was the most important product that required review. The study concluded that the USSR was lacking computer technology and the means to acquire it. The study also concluded that the export potential for the US was lower and the security risks were greater if more powerful computers were sold to the USSR. President Nixon approved the recommendations and more powerful computers were excluded from sale to the USSR. However, the soviets were using espionage to collect computer technology from the west. [2]
The Farewell Dossier
Mr. Weiss was also one of the important persons that worked on the Farewell Dossier. The USSR collected western computer & scientific technology through espionage and used it on its national defense. One of the KGB defectors, Vetrov submitted documents collected by the KGB and the potential targets to the French. The French president Mitterrand shared them with the US president Reagan. The CIA used the potential targets to turn tables on the KGB to start economic warfare. Mr. Weiss suggested that the US export whatever is on the potential targets list to the USSR, but the "modified products" (sourced from the CIA, the defense department and FBI) - meaning that the products look genuine, but fail once the USSR started operating them. Contrived computer chips and flawed turbines were exported to the USSR. The program was a great success. [2]
Awards
- He received CIA's medal for Merit and National Security Agency's Cipher Medal. [1]
- He also received French Legion of Honor in 1975. [1]
Death & Suspicions
On Nov 25, 2003, at age 72, he fell from the Watergate East residential building and died. Even though the DC medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, there are some controversies surronding it. [1]