As I said earlier, I do understand why the US Treasury Department's = Office of Foreign Asset Control is going off on copyediting for the = world's bad guys. Some time ago, I wrote the following in response to a post from someone = else, which appeared on techwr-l. =3D=3D=3DBegin Edited Except=3D=3D=3D EExcerpt 1 from Original Poster: I am told that years ago an unnamed = executive determined that our documents were "too good" and decided to = remedy this situation by firing the entire tech pubs department. Since = that time the engineers have been doing all their own writing (with the = expected result - incredibly bad documentation). Response 1 from Me (edited for brevity by me): With any commercial = high-tech company, this would be ludicrous indeed. However, we're = talking about General Dynamics here. More specifically, we're talking = about a division that develops avionics systems... As such, the issue = of knowing the reader audience is more than a little critical. The contention that the documentation is "too good" may in fact be = extremely valid... Documentation that is truly too good can be a = temptation for someone to copy it and give said copies to a foreign = power. Even though the Cold War has been over for awhile, there are = still those countries... who would love to learn how some of our more = sophisticated technologies work. Why? So that those countries can = develop effective electronic countermeasures systems... to nullify our = current strategic and tactical advantages... Operations and maintenance manuals for those systems would decidedly be = a top priority for foreign intelligence services to acquire by any means necessary, including blackmail, extortion, graft, and even murder by = assassination... Remember, technical writers have a unique access to the = technical information database being drawn upon to author the manuals. Getting a = technical writer working for a defense contractor to provide schematics = of a JDAM's guidance system would be a MAJOR technical information coup... How major? Try on the scale of the Walker-Whitworth spy scandal of the = 1980s, when war-winning significant information (our military message encryption codes, and their upgrades for over 20 years!) was leaked to = the Russians... =3D=3D=3DEnd Edited Excerpt=3D=3D=3D With respect to how this could apply to copyediting foreign works = submitted to the IEEE and the American Chemical Society, consider the = following scenario: * Both chemistry and electronics, especially digital electronics, tend = to be complex subjects that very few people, practitioners aside, truly = understand. While editing a paper on a chemical process can seem = initially harmless on the surface, the question of how that chemical = process might be incorporated into a larger process -- explosives = manufacturing, for example -- could have the unintended result of the = development of a new type of ordnance.=20 This ordnance may be either tactical, chemical, or biological, being = created by sophisticated terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaeda, that = could escape detection by technical means, such as being able to make a = suitcase out of the explosive material itself. By developing a new type = of polymer coating, for example, that could be applied to the explosive = material, having such a weapon escape X-ray based imaging detection = systems at airports would have some fatally interesting results once an = airliner takes off. A digital thermistor embedded in the handle of such = a suitcase could detonate it in flight, once the proper temperature was = present. I believe that cargo compartments of airliners are not = insulated for passenger comfort, because passengers aren't seated in = cargo compartments. Implausible? Perhaps. Then again, perhaps not. But if the original = technical content remains unedited -- and therefore, maybe technically = erroneous -- then maybe the process doesn't work. In that light, editing = for clarity and accuracy of the technical content is the last thing = anyone would want. After all, why make life easier for people bent on = killing other people? just a thought. George Mena Sr. Technical Writer ESS Technology, Inc. 48401 Fremont Blvd. Fremont, CA USA 94538 510-492-1763 e-mail: George.Mena@xxxxxxxxxxx "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our = country." -- President George W. Bush, State of the Union address, = January 20, 2004 "Terrorism must be fought resolutely wherever it appears. ...no just = cause can be advanced by terror." -- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, = September 11, 2001 ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************