In a memorandum to agency heads last week, President Obama transmitted formal requirements that agencies must meet in order “to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security.” Along with espionage and acts of violence, the National Insider Threat Policy notably extends to the “unauthorized disclosure of classified […]
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Justice said it had recently completed a review of the Department’s use of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act (FAA), but the report is classified and its findings have not been released. “The OIG examined the number of disseminated […]
The Department of Defense issued a new Directive last week establishing DoD policy for the development and use of autonomous weapons systems. An autonomous weapon system is defined as “a weapon system that, once activated, can select and engage targets without further intervention by a human operator.” The new DoD Directive Number 3000.09, dated November […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following. India-U.S. Security Relations: Current Engagement, November 13, 2012 A Guide to China’s Upcoming Leadership Transitions, October 16, 2012 U.S. Trade and Investment Relations with sub-Saharan Africa and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, […]
Over the objections of its authors, the Department of Homeland Security classified a 2007 report from the National Academy of Sciences on the potential vulnerability of the U.S. electric power system until most of it was finally released yesterday. The report generally concluded, as other reports have, that the electric grid is lacking in resilience […]
New or newly updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following. Privacy: An Abbreviated Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping, October 9, 2012 Privacy: An Overview of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping, October 9, 2012 Privacy: An Overview […]
During a recent visit to Germany I did an interview with the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk magazine FAKT on the status of the B61 nuclear bomb modernization. . By Hans M. Kristensen Last week, I was in Berlin to testify before the Disarmament Subcommittee of the German Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on the future of the U.S. […]
President Obama’s declared goal of making his “the most transparent Administration in history” generated successive waves of enthusiasm, perplexity, frustration, and mockery as public expectations of increased openness and accountability were lifted sky high and then — often, not always — thwarted. Every Administration including this one presides over the release of more government information […]
Selected reports from the Congressional Research Service on veterans’ affairs which Congress has not made readily available to the public include the following. “Who is a Veteran?” — Basic Eligibility for Veterans’ Benefits, January 23, 2012 Employment for Veterans: Trends and Programs, October 23, 2012 GI Bills Enacted Prior to 2008 and Related Veterans’ Educational […]
In a new case of alleged mishandling of classified materials, a Navy contract linguist who served in Bahrain until earlier this year was charged with unlawful retention of national defense information after several classified documents were found in his possession. But although James F. Hitselberger, an experienced Arabic translator, was charged under an Espionage Act […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has not made available to the public include the following. Natural Gas in the U.S. Economy: Opportunities for Growth, November 6, 2012 The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Title VII, Derivatives, November 6, 2012 Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues, November 5, 2012 […]
The Department of Defense Inspector General (IG) announced that it will begin to review the Department’s classification practices, as required by the 2010 Reducing Over-Classification Act. The review will evaluate the policies and procedures “that may be contributing to persistent misclassification of material.” It will also address “efforts by the Department to decrease over-classification,” wrote […]