Number of New Secrets in 2016 At New Low July 20, 2017
Last year executive branch agencies created the fewest new national security secrets ever reported, according to an annual report published today by the Information Security…
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OLC Nominee: Every Member of Congress Can Do Oversight July 20, 2017
The nominee to lead the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel acknowledged that all members of Congress have the authority to conduct oversight of the executive branch, and that agencies…
Read moreUSAF Upgrades Secrecy of Nuclear Weapons Inspections June 19, 2017
The U.S. Air Force has upgraded the classification of information pertaining to nuclear weapons inspections performed by the Inspector General, reducing or eliminating public references to the outcome of such…
Read moreTrump Objects to Legislated Limits on Secrecy May 8, 2017
In the new Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 (section 8009), Congress mandated that no new, highly classified special access programs may be created without 30 day advance…
Read moreCivilian Control of the Military, and More from CRS January 6, 2017
The nomination of Gen. James Mattis to be Secretary of Defense will require a legislative waiver of the prohibition against appointing persons who have been on active duty in the…
Read moreMark Bradley Named To Be New ISOO Director November 28, 2016
In what must be one of the very last national security-related posts to be filled in the Obama Administration, national security lawyer and former CIA officer Mark A. Bradley was…
Read moreAmount of Classification is Highly Uncertain October 11, 2016
One of the more encouraging changes in classification policy over the past decade has been the sharp reduction in the number of decisions to classify information reported each year by…
Read moreCIA Poke at DoD Intelligence Was Not “Substantiated” October 5, 2016
In a dispute that pitted member agencies of the U.S. intelligence community against each other, the Central Intelligence Agency claimed that “a questionable intelligence activity” had been carried out in…
Read moreSorting Through the Snowden Aftermath September 19, 2016
Public discussion of the Edward Snowden case has mostly been a dialog of the deaf, with defenders and critics largely talking past each other at increasing volume. But the disagreements…
Read more2017 Intelligence Bill Would Constrain Privacy Board June 20, 2016
The jurisdiction of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) would be restricted for the second year in a row by the Senate Intelligence Committee version of…
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