Bill Leonard, the esteemed former director of the Information Security Oversight Office and the principal overseer of the government secrecy system, now has his own blog where readers may look for his views and his insights on secrecy policy as the process of classification reform gets underway in earnest.
The House Judiciary Committee rebuffed a Republican proposal for a “resolution of inquiry” to require the Administration to produce documents concerning the use of Miranda warnings given to detainees captured in Afghanistan. The Committee’s adverse report, dated June 26, is available here.
The Defense Department has issued a newly updated policy statement (pdf) on reporting “questionable” intelligence activities. “It is DoD policy that senior leaders and policymakers within the Government be made aware of events that may erode the public trust in the conduct of DoD intelligence operations,” the June 17, 2009 memorandum states. Some such questionable activities are to be reported to the Intelligence Oversight Board, a component of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. However, the efficacy of any such reporting is limited by the fact that that Board currently has no sitting members. (“White House Intel Advisory Board Has No Members,” Secrecy News, June 15, 2009).
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
FAS has partnered with ICLEI USA to launch the CRI Local Advisory Council.
We sat down with Dr. Max Moritz and Chief Rob Hazard to discuss how communities use time, money, and data to reduce the risk that wildfires pose.