New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has opted not to make directly available to the public include the following. U.S.-South Korea Relations, February 5, 2013 Government Assistance for AIG: Summary and Cost, February 7, 2013 Prospects for Coal in Electric Power and Industry, February 4, 2013 Role of Home State […]
By Hans M. Kristensen With the ink barely dry on the New START Treaty, Jeff Smith at the Center for Public Integrity reports that the Obama administration has determined that the United States can meet its national and international security requirements with 1,000-1,100 deployed strategic nuclear warheads – 450-550 warheads less than planned under the […]
The unauthorized disclosure last week of a Justice Department White Paper on the legality of targeted killing of senior al Qaida operatives who are Americans had the collateral effect of strengthening congressional oversight of intelligence. The leak not only fulfilled a stalemated congressional effort to provide information to the public, but it also catalyzed the […]
Updated below Late Friday afternoon, the Department of Justice released an official copy of its White Paper on lethal targeting of Americans to Freedom of Information Act requesters, including FAS and Truthout.org, several days after it had been leaked to the press. The official version appears to be identical to the document posted by NBC […]
A sobering compilation of statistics on injuries sustained by U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan was updated this week by the Congressional Research Service based in part on data that CRS gathered from the Pentagon. “This report includes statistics on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), amputations, evacuations, and the demographics of […]
The procedures for establishing, managing and overseeing special access programs (SAPs) in the Department of Defense are spelled out in an updated DoD Instruction that was issued yesterday. See “Management, Administration, and Oversight of DoD Special Access Programs,” DoD Instruction 5205.11, February 6, 2013. A special access program is a classified program that employs security […]
Among the questions submitted to DCIA-nominee John Brennan by the Senate Intelligence Committee in advance of his much-anticipated confirmation hearing this afternoon was one about classification policy. A recent report to the President from the Public Interest Declassification Board termed the national security classification system “outdated,” the Committee noted. Does Mr. Brennan agree? “I would […]
Newly updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following. Argentina’s Defaulted Sovereign Debt: Dealing with the “Holdouts”, February 6, 2013 Honduras-U.S. Relations, February 5, 2013 Veterans and Homelessness, February 4, 2013 VA Housing: Guaranteed Loans, Direct Loans, and Specially Adapted Housing Grants, February […]
Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts has appointed Judge Reggie B. Walton of the D.C. District Court to serve as Presiding Judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, effective February 22, 2013. Judge Walton, who has been a member of the FIS Court since May 2007, will replace Presiding Judge John D. Bates, […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following. Mental Disorders Among OEF/OIF Veterans Using VA Health Care: Facts and Figures, February 4, 2013 Evaluating the “Past Performance” of Federal Contractors: Legal Requirements and Issues, February 4, 2013 Increasing the Social Security […]
When government information is classified or otherwise withheld from release, the possibility of government accountability to the public is undermined. But when the executive branch withholds crucial information from Congress, that may pose an even more fundamental challenge to democratic governance. “The administration has refused to share Presidential Policy Directive 11 (PPD 11) with the […]
The Central Intelligence Agency has published a series of essays on intelligence and the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, to coincide with a symposium on the subject held last week at the Nixon Presidential Library. The publication itself (“President Nixon and the Role of Intelligence in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War”) is a welcome addition to the literature. […]