CRS on Terrorist Financing, Army Officer Shortage
A new Congressional Research Service report provides a resume of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program that was recently described in news stories.
See “Treasury’s Terrorist Finance Program’s Access to Information Held by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)” (pdf), July 7, 2006.
News reports on the program elicited furious criticism of the New York Times and other publications from those who believed classified information had been improperly and damagingly disclosed.
But “closely similar” accounts were publicly presented years ago in open congressional hearings, the Washington Post reported today.
See “Watching Finances Of Terror Suspects Discussed in 2002” by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, July 14.
Another new CRS report describes the erosion of the U.S. Army officer corps.
“The Army currently projects an officer shortage of nearly 3,000 in FY2007, with the most acute shortfalls in ‘senior’ captains and majors with 11 to 17 years of experience.”
See “Army Officer Shortages: Background and Issues for Congress” (pdf), July 5, 2006.
Rather than get caught up in the buzzword flavor of the month, the policymaking ecosystem should study what’s actually working.
The U.S. does not lack ideas for improving its transportation system. What it needs is a research ecosystem capable of turning those ideas into deployed solutions.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is excited to announce that Kumar Garg and Matt Lira are joining the organization’s Board of Directors.
A cohesive strategy to achieve two goals: (1) deploy the clean energy and grid upgrades necessary to make energy affordable and combat climate change and (2) create governments that tangibly improve peoples’ lives.