War by Other Means: Economic Espionage in America

Abstract

The hard facts behind an attack on the American economy so deadly as to constitute a time-lapse Pearl Harbor. In 1811 Francis Cabot Lowell visited England and stole a large piece of the industrial revolution, the Cartwright loom, whose plans he had memorized. Today, the town named after him, Lowell, Massachusetts, is an economic wasteland. We have forgotten the lessons of Lowell's success; in fact, the techniques he pioneered are now being used against us. In this action-filled journey through tomorrow's headlines, John Fialka, award-winning investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reveals a secret war that threatens the economic security of the United States and the livelihood of millions of American citizens. The ground rules have changed, and the battlefield is now economic rather than ideological, but espionage in the 1990s springs directly from the ruins of the Cold War spy regimes. Newly configured, the secret operations of America's enemies threaten to hollow out the U.S. economy and siphon away the jobs and technologies we need to remain competitive in the twenty-first century. From the stunning ruse of Operation FarewellRussia's brazen shopping tour for U.S. secretsto technology tunneling (a very subtle form of theft) by the Japanese, to China's clever use of U.S. campuses, companies, and consumers to modernize its military, this book illuminates a loss that is widely felt, but not often seen or understood. The techno-thieves have many tools, but their principal weapon is the openness of our society, and the defenders are hobbled by witnesses too embarrassed to complain and by laws aimed at nineteenth-century threats. This book outlines the hard choices we must make if we are to survive.