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Last month the House Committee on Homeland Security published a report of its task force on combating terrorist and foreign fighter travel. In a footnote, the Committee cited a related report from the Congressional Research Service and, unexpectedly, provided a link to the report on the FAS website (footnote 23).
This was incongruous because Congress has gone out of its way to resist online public distribution of CRS reports, and the cited report was obtained and posted by Secrecy News without authorization. But having an online source for such CRS reports evidently proves useful to Congress nonetheless.
This zone of incongruity is the natural habitat of Secrecy News. It is where declared policies go unmatched by actual practices, and where official promises of transparency are unrealized in fact.
Sometimes we can help to reduce the distance between rhetoric and reality, and to nudge the process along, with measurable results. Thanks in part to a recurring government-wide review of classification guidance that was conceived by FAS in 2009 (and which we advocated at the time as “the single most productive secrecy reform action that could now be undertaken”), the annual number of new national security secrets created last year was the smallest on record, and amounted to just 13% of what it had been a decade earlier.
Anyway, you know best whether this work is of value to you or not. If it is, and if your circumstances permit, we could use your help to carry on.
Tax-deductible contributions to the Federation of American Scientists can be made online here (direct your donation to “Government Secrecy”).
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While it seems that the current political climate may not incentivize the use of evidence-based data sources for decision making, those of us who are passionate about ensuring results for the American people will continue to firmly stand on the belief that learning agendas are a crucial component to successfully navigate a changing future.
In recent months, we’ve seen much of these decades’ worth of progress erased. Contracts for evaluations of government programs were canceled, FFRDCs have been forced to lay off staff, and federal advisory committees have been disbanded.
This report outlines a framework relying on “Cooperative Technical Means” for effective arms control verification based on remote sensing, avoiding on-site inspections but maintaining a level of transparency that allows for immediate detection of changes in nuclear posture or a significant build-up above agreed limits.
At a recent workshop, we explored the nature of trust in specific government functions, the risk and implications of breaking trust in those systems, and how we’d known we were getting close to specific trust breaking points.