By Hans M. Kristensen In a blog and video on the U.S. Navy web site Navy Live, the head of the U.S. submarine force Rear Admiral Richard Breckenridge claims that the United States cannot reduce its fleet of nuclear ballistic missile submarines further. This is the third time in three months that Breckenridge has seen […]
Sometimes it seems that the national security classification system is static, monolithic and hopelessly inert. But in fact it is relentlessly in motion, with new secrets constantly being created as old secrets are gradually released. Two months ago, the fact that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had authorized the bulk collection and transfer of telephone […]
In a new ruling with ominous implications for national security reporting, an appeals court said today that there is no reporter’s privilege that would allow New York Times reporter James Risen to decline to identify the source of classified information that he revealed in his book State of War. Mr. Risen had been subpoenaed to […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has not made publicly available include the following. Hydraulic Fracturing: Selected Legal Issues, July 16, 2013 An Overview of Unconventional Oil and Natural Gas: Resources and Federal Actions, July 15, 2013 Legislative Branch: FY2014 Appropriations, July 16, 2013 The President’s Budget Request: Overview and […]
A national policy on “insider threats” was developed by the Obama Administration in order to protect against actions by government employees who would harm the security of the nation. But under the rubric of insider threats, the policy subsumes the seemingly disparate acts of spies, terrorists, and those who leak classified information. The insider threat […]
A new report from the Congressional Research Service provides a detailed review of the Defense Production Act of 1950, which “confers upon the President a broad set of authorities to influence domestic industry in the interest of national defense.” “The authorities can be used across the federal government to shape the domestic industrial base so […]
In response to an October 2012 presidential directive on “protecting whistleblowers with access to classified information,” the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy have produced their implementing policies. These would generally prohibit retaliation against individuals who make “protected disclosures” of information to an authorized recipient. The intelligence community may be retreating from its […]
If one is looking for a copy of a Presidential Policy Directive issued by President Obama, the last place to turn is the White House website. In most cases, the Obama White House does not disclose presidential directives even when they are unclassified. The Obama Administration has issued more than 20 Presidential Policy Directives (PPDs), […]
It may be easier for litigants to mount a constitutional challenge to intelligence surveillance programs that gather U.S. data such as telephone and internet metadata now that those programs have been documented through leaks of classified records. Or, says a new report from the Congressional Research Service, it may not be. Unlike previous cases, “the […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The U.S. Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) has published its long-awaited update to the Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat report, one of the few remaining public (yet sanitized) U.S. intelligence assessment of the world nuclear (and other) forces. Previous years’ reports have been reviewed and made available […]
A new report from the Congressional Research Service summarizes for Congress what is publicly known about the two National Security Agency surveillance programs that were disclosed by Edward Snowden and reported last month by The Guardian and The Washington Post. “Since these programs were publicly disclosed over the course of two days in June, there […]
The inspector general of each executive branch agency that classifies national security information is required to produce an evaluation of the agency’s classification program by the end of September, pursuant to the Reducing Over-classification Act of 2010. The goal of the reviews is to identify policies and procedures “that may be contributing to persistent misclassification […]