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Newer News: July 2015

June 2015 Intelligence News

• Joint Statement by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on the Resumption of Bulk Telephony Collection Under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, news release, June 30. "Yesterday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) issued an opinion and primary order approving the government's application to renew the Section 215 bulk telephony program. The USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 banned bulk collection under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, but provided a new mechanism to allow the government to obtain data held by the providers."
• How the NSA Started Investigating the New York Times Original Warrantless Wiretapping Story by Cora Currier, The Intercept, June 26. "Three days after the New York Times revealed that the U.S. government was secretly monitoring the calls and emails of people inside the United States without court-approved warrants, the National Security Agency issued a top-secret assessment of the damage done to intelligence efforts by the story."
• IT tools can help declassification backlog, but is there funding? by Adam Mazmanian, Federal Computer Week, June 25. "The federal government is facing a mounting pile of electronic documents and other material that are due to be reviewed for declassification. But there just aren't enough people and enough budget to meet the statutory deadlines."
• Department of State 2015 Fiscal Transparency Report, Federal Register, June 25. "This report describes the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency, reviews those governments that were identified as anticipated recipients of foreign assistance funds in the FY 2014 Fiscal Transparency Report, assesses those that did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements, and indicates whether governments that did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements made significant progress towards meeting the requirements during the review period of January 17-December 31, 2014."
• Obama has issued 19 secret directives by Gregory Korte, USA Today, June 24. "A one-digit correction to President Obama's directive on hostage policy Wednesday had the effect of disclosing the existence of a previously unknown -- and still-secret -- Obama order on national security."
• Scientific Advances to Continuous Insider Threat Evaluation (SCITE) Program, IARPA Broad Agency Announcement, June 18. "The SCITE Program seeks to develop and test methods to detect insider threats through two separate research thrusts."
• Text of Proposed Agreement on Nuclear Cooperation Between the US and the Republic of Korea, transmitted by the President, June 16. "In my judgment, it meets all applicable statutory requirements and will advance the nonproliferation and other foreign policy interests of the United States."
• Statement of Administration Policy on FY2016 Intelligence Authorization Act (HR 4526), The White House, June 15. "If this bill were presented to the President, the President's senior advisors would recommend to the President that he veto it."
• CIA torture appears to have broken spy agency rule on human experimentation by Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian, June 15. "The Central Intelligence Agency had explicit guidelines for 'human experimentation' before, during and after its post-9/11 torture of terrorism detainees, the Guardian has learned, which raise new questions about the limits on internal oversight over the agency's in-house and contracted medical research."
• Releasing Osama Bin Laden's Porn Stash: The Public's Heroic Battle with the CIA Continues by Jason Leopold, VICE News, June 10. "The CIA won't release bin Laden's stash of porn, which Navy Seals apparently seized during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan four years ago. That's because, unbelievably, it's located in an 'operational file,' which is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)."
• Senators lead bipartisan push to write ban on torture into US law by Sabrina Siddiqui, The Guardian, June 10. "Six months after the Senate released a report detailing some of the gruesome interrogation tactics employed by the CIA after 9/11, a bipartisan pair of senators is seeking to permanently outlaw torture."
• Congressional action on NSA is a milestone in the post-9/11 world by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, June 2. "The USA Freedom Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, marks the first piece of legislation to rein in surveillance powers in the wake of disclosures two years ago by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and the national debate he catalyzed."
• Congress turns away from post-9/11 law, retooling U.S. surveillance powers by Mike DeBonis, Washington Post, June 2. "Congress on Tuesday rejected some of the sweeping intelligence-gathering powers it granted national security officials after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with the Senate voting to end the government's bulk collection of private telephone records and to reform other surveillance policies."