The Trump administration has denied a request from the Federation of American Scientists to disclose the size of the US nuclear weapons stockpile and the number of dismantled warheads. The denial was made by the Department of Defense Formerly Restricted Data Declassification Working Group (FDR DWG) in response to a…
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Key Highlights News websites publishing stories on a pause in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine trials hosted malware files. At the center of the network was the Spanish-language Sputnik News link mundo.sputniknews.com. The news of a possible adverse reaction to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine resulted in a spike of social media activity. The…
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October 22, 2020 [updated] In their effort to paint the New START treaty as insufficient and a bad deal for the United States and its allies, Trump administration official have recently made statements suggesting the treaty limits the US nuclear arsenal more than it limits the Russian arsenal. New START…
Read moreIn a bureaucratic bombshell, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has asked the White House to rescind a ten-year-old executive order that required a uniform policy for marking and handling “controlled unclassified information” (CUI). CUI refers to information that while unclassified is nevertheless restricted by law or policy from… Read More
The procedural steps leading up to inauguration of the next President on January 20, 2021 are described in a recent Congressional Research Service publication. See The Electoral College: A 2020 Presidential Election Timeline, CRS In Focus, October 22, 2020. An updated CRS report describes the joint… Read More
Through link-shortening services such as bit.ly, a third-party has disseminated vaccine-related malware across Latin America. Read More
Having survived a Pentagon attempt to terminate it, the JASON panel that performs independent technical assessments for government agencies now seems set for a period of relative stability. Last year Mike Griffin, then-Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering), abruptly refused to renew his Office’s sponsorship of… Read More
After failing to publicly disclose its proposed legislative agenda, the Department of Defense will soon be required to do so. Each year DoD generates proposals for legislative actions that it would like to see incorporated in the coming year’s national defense authorization act. These may include tweaks to existing statutes,… Read More
Classified records that turn 25 years old this year will be automatically declassified on December 31 — despite requests from agencies to extend the deadline due to the pandemic — unless the records are reviewed and specifically found to be subject to an authorized exemption. Mark A. Bradley, the director… Read More
On November 8 Donald J. Trump Jr., the President’s oldest son, tweeted: “DECLASSIFY EVERYTHING!!!” adding “We can’t let the bad actors get away with it.” This was not an actual policy proposal and it was not seriously intended for classification officials or even for Trump’s… Read More
Noteworthy new publications from the Congressional Research Service include the following. Presidential Transition Act: Provisions and Funding, November 13, 2020 Federal Scientific Integrity Policies: A Primer, November 20, 2020 The Digital… Read More