“In 2012, 46.5 million people were counted as poor in the United States,” according to a newly updated annual report from the Congressional Research Service. “The number, statistically unchanged over the past three years, is the largest recorded in the measure’s 54-year history.” “Poverty in the United States increased markedly from 2007 through 2010, in […]
By Hans M. Kristensen A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report – Options For Reducing the Deficit: 2014-2023 – proposes reducing the Navy’s fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines from the 14 boats today to 8 in 2020. That would save $11 billion in 2015-2023, and another $30 billion during the 2030s from buying four […]
By Hans M. Kristensen China continues to upgrade bases for mobile nuclear medium-range ballistic missiles. The image above shows one of several new launch pads for DF-21 missile launchers constructed at a base near Jianshui in southern China. A new satellite image* on Apple Maps shows the latest part of a two-decade long slow replacement […]
A bill that is intended to strengthen the ability of reporters to protect their confidential sources would encourage damaging leaks of classified information, congressional opponents argue. The Free Flow of Information Act (S. 987) was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 12 by a vote of 13-5. The Committee’s report on the bill, […]
The Department of Defense budget for research and procurement of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drones, is on a distinctly downward slope. The FY 2014 budget request included $2.3 billion for research, development, and procurement of unmanned aerial systems, a decrease of $1.1 billion from the request for the fiscal year 2013. “Annual procurement of […]
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“The increasing pace and adoption of global scientific and technological discovery heighten the risk of strategic or tactical surprise and, over time, reduce the advantages of our intelligence capabilities,” according to a new report on U.S. intelligence research and development programs prepared by a congressionally-mandated Commission. “Foreign countries’ growing expertise and proficiency in a number […]
Department of Defense special access programs (SAPs) will normally remain classified for at least 40 years, according to newly issued DoD SAP marking guidance. SAPs are established to protect particularly sensitive government information by imposing access requirements that exceed those for other classified information. “SAP documents, dated prior to January 1, 1982, shall be declassified […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. The FY2014 Government Shutdown: Economic Effects, November 1, 2013 Legislative Actions to Repeal, Defund, or Delay the Affordable Care Act, October 30, 2013 Membership of the 113th Congress: A Profile, October 31, 2013 Salaries of […]
Disclosure of U.S. intelligence surveillance activities in Germany and other allied countries has aroused angry public reaction in those countries, and has prompted discussion of the possibility of negotiating “no spy zones” abroad in which certain types of intelligence collection would be renounced and prohibited. Some have spoken of extending to Germany or other countries […]
“Some of our adversaries will say or do anything to advance their cause; we will not.” That’s what a Top Secret National Security Agency document says, as reported by the New York Times over the weekend (“No Morsel Too Minuscule for NSA” by Scott Shane, November 2). But the list of things that U.S. intelligence […]
In 1973, the Director of Central Intelligence ordered CIA officials to prepare a descriptive account of all CIA activities that were “outside the legislative charter of this Agency,” which is to say unauthorized or illegal. The purpose of the exercise was to identify operations that had “flap potential,” meaning that they could embarrass the Agency […]