Reporting on intelligence can be a challenge even for an experienced national security reporter, observed Dana Priest in her book “Top Secret America” (co-authored with William Arkin). “Having traveled the world with the military, I just didn’t understand why I was failing to progress with [reporting on] the CIA,” she wrote (p. 19). “Maybe I […]
Mahmoud M. Hegab was a well-regarded budget analyst at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) until last year when his Top Secret/SCI security clearance was abruptly revoked. Among the issues precipitating his loss of clearance were the fact that his newlywed wife had graduated from an Islamic school, that she had participated in an anti-war protest, […]
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who is accused of leaking classified information to reporter James Risen, should not be permitted to argue at trial later this month that he was unfairly singled out for prosecution, government attorneys urged in an October 4 motion. “The Court should bar the defendant [Sterling] from presenting any evidence, argument […]
“The Soldier’s Guide,” which is something like the U.S. Army equivalent of the Boy Scout Handbook, was updated last month. The 436 page Guide is filled with instruction and lore about life in the U.S. Army. It covers Army history, traditions, and professional development. In places the text limps. Thus, “The Army’s core values are […]
The Department of Defense this year cancelled 82 security classification guides as a result of the ongoing Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, a focused effort to combat overclassification of national security information. The cancelled guides can no longer be used to authorize classification of DoD information. The Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, which must be performed by […]
The leading Chinese think tank known as CICIR, or China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, “is affiliated with China’s top intelligence agency,” according to a profile (pdf) prepared by the DNI Open Source Center (OSC), “although this fact is rarely acknowledged in PRC media.” The OSC report presents a detailed description of the structure, leadership […]
Recent moves by Russia to reform its military were assessed by the Congressional Research Service in a new report (pdf). “This report… provides basic information about the [Russian] military’s leadership and structure, the arms industry and efforts to modernize weaponry (including through foreign arms technology transfers), power projection efforts, and the military budget.” The CRS […]
Led by the United States, arms-exporting nations are competing ever more intensely to win lucrative sales contracts in a shrinking global marketplace, according to a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service. “Worldwide weapons sales declined generally in 2010 in response to the constraints created by the tenuous state of the global economy,” the […]
The Brennan Center for Justice will sponsor a panel discussion October 5 at the National Press Club in Washington DC on overclassification and “Curbing Needless Secrecy” to accompany the release of a new report on the subject. Participants include former Rep. Christopher Shays, former ISOO director J. William Leonard, former NRO director and chair of […]
Updated below When the Central Intelligence Agency established a Center on Climate Change and National Security in 2009, it drew fierce opposition from congressional Republicans who disputed the need for an intelligence initiative on this topic. But now there is a different, and possibly better, reason to doubt the value of the Center: It has […]
Reports on secrecy-related topics from the Congressional Research Service that are newly updated (but otherwise not new) include these (all pdf). Criminal Prohibitions on the Publication of Classified Defense Information, September 8, 2011 Protection of Classified Information by Congress: Practices and Proposals, August 31, 2011 The State Secrets Privilege: Preventing the Disclosure of Sensitive National […]
The number of persons who held security clearances for access to classified information last year exceeded 4.2 million — far more than previously estimated — according to a new intelligence community report to Congress (pdf). The report, which was required by the FY2010 intelligence authorization act, provides the first precise tally of clearances held by […]