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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: June 2014

May 2014

• The House committee on intelligence needs oversight of its own by Rep. Rush Holt and Steven Aftergood, MSNBC, May 30. "Who watches the watchmen? For now, the truthful answer is 'nobody.' We can do better."
• Thank you for participating in the annual Intelligence Community Legal Conference, letter from ODNI General Counsel Robert S. Litt, May 30.
• Snowden's Damage: More Trust Than Verify from Gov't by Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg, May 30. "So what damage did the world's most infamous/famous/glamorous cyber geek cause the U.S. military-intelligence establishment?"
• Proposal for Declassification of Size of U.S. Nuclear Stockpile, petition to Department of Energy, May 27. "We request that the Department of Energy (and the Department of Defense) authorize the categorical declassification of the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile and the number of weapons dismantled annually as of the end of each fiscal year."
• US lags in airing its old secrets by Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, May 26. "Four years after President Obama pledged to preside over the most transparent government ever -- a vow that included declassifying as many documents as possible contained in the so-called backlog -- the majority are still secret."
• Microsoft challenged a National Security Letter -- and won by Barry Levine, VentureBeat, May 23. "Has Microsoft been standing up to federal searches more than we've known? That question is appropriate, following news that the tech giant sued the FBI in civil court last year over a National Security Letter (NSL) that sought information from one of its enterprise customers."
• House Passes Curbs On NSA Phone Surveillance by Ken Dilanian, Associated Press, May 22. "The bill was severely weakened to mollify U.S. intelligence agencies, which insisted that the surveillance programs that shocked many Americans are a critical bulwark against terror plots."
• Pentagon report finds Snowden leaks had 'staggering' intelligence impact by Jason Leopold, The Guardian, May 22. "A top-secret Pentagon report to assess the damage to national security from the leak of classified National Security Agency documents by Edward Snowden concluded that 'the scope of the compromised knowledge related to US intelligence capabilities is staggering'."
• Super PACs digging for dirt bombard agencies with records requests by Kevin Bogardus, Greenwire, May 16. "Groups skilled in opposition research and separate from the traditional political parties have bombarded U.S. EPA and other federal agencies with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests."
• Memo Revisits Policy on Citing Leaked Material, to Some Confusion by Charlie Savage, New York Times, May 9. "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent an internal memo to its work force on Friday saying that its new policy on pre-publication review of speeches, books, articles, term papers and other writings permits current and former employees to refer to news articles as long as the officials do not confirm any classified information."
• Intelligence Policy Bans Citation of Leaked Material by Charlie Savage, New York Times, May 8. "The Obama administration is clamping down on a technique that government officials have long used to join in public discussions of well-known but technically still-secret information: citing news reports based on unauthorized disclosures."
• Despite Senate hopes of speedy release, CIA torture report won't be made public for months by Jonathan Landay, McClatchy News, May 7. "The release of the long-awaited Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques -- widely denounced as torture -- is certain to take much longer than the 30 days sought by Senate Democrats."
• Historical Research in the Files of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Federal Register, May 8. "This proposed rule updates and clarifies procedures regarding the review and accessibility to records and information in the custody of the Secretary of Defense and the OSD Components."
• Arms Cache Most Likely Kept in Texas by the C.I.A. by Charlie Savage, New York Times, May 4. "In passing references scattered through once-classified documents and cryptic public comments by former intelligence officials, it is referred to as "Midwest Depot," but the bland code name belies the role it has played in some of the C.I.A.'s most storied operations."

Older News: April 2014

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Updated June 5, 2014