“The CIA requires all current and former Agency employees and contractors, and others who are obligated by CIA secrecy agreement, to submit for prepublication review to the CIA’s Publications Review Board (PRB) all intelligence-related materials intended for publication or public dissemination,” according to a 2007 regulation (pdf) on the subject.
The scope of the requirement, according to CIA, is expansive. It “includes, but is not limited to, works of fiction; books; newspaper columns; academic journal articles; magazine articles;… letters to the editor;… scripts; screenplays; internet blogs, emails, or other writings;” and so forth.
A redacted version of the latest version of the CIA regulation was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the James Madison Project, a non-profit advocacy organization. The Project’s director, attorney Mark S. Zaid, frequently litigates pre-publication review disputes against the CIA.
The text of the regulation, “Agency Prepublication Review of Certain Material Prepared for Public Dissemination,” 30 May 2007, is here.
Related background on CIA prepublication review policy, including a (redacted) handbook for agency reviewers (pdf), can be found on this page.
The human cost is measured in deaths. The financial cost is measured in the $52 billion taxpayers pay annually end stage renal disease – double NASA’s budget.
Gilman Louie, Longest Serving Board Chair of the Federation of American Scientists, Named Chair Emeritus
The proposed Office will resurrect the long-closed Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the archive of which has been maintained by FAS for decades at https://ota.fas.org/.
If Congress needs help understanding the risks and rewards of a piece of technology, they shouldn’t have to rely solely on the sparknotes from a salesman. The rub is much simpler: Congress needs nerds.