In a news story today about the imminent arrival of the federal government’s debt limit (“Debt Ceiling Has Some Give, Until Roof Falls In” by Binyamin Appelbaum), the New York Times cited a Congressional Research Service report that was performed “in February” concerning the impact of the debt limit. But that report has been updated […]
The rise in national security secrecy in the first year of the Obama Administration was matched by a sharp increase in the financial costs of the classification system, according to a new report to the President (pdf). The estimated costs of the national security classification system grew by 15% last year to reach $10.17 billion, […]
U.S. Special Operations Forces continue to experience rapid post-9/11 growth, with swelling ranks, rising budgets and a new set of missions. Special operations forces were reportedly involved along with CIA personnel in the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 1. “Special operations” are defined (pdf) as military operations that are “conducted in […]
A grand jury has been empaneled in the Eastern District of Virginia to investigate a possible violation of the Espionage Act involving the computer-based acquisition of protected government information concerning national defense or foreign relations. In other words, the Grand Jury seems to be investigating WikiLeaks. Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com reported that a summons to […]
The ongoing release of another large collection of classified documents by WikiLeaks concerning Guatanamo detainees creates a new set of challenges and opportunities for the detainees’ attorneys. But the government says the attorneys cannot discuss those matters in the public domain, even though anyone else can. Attorney David Remes petitioned a court yesterday to release […]
Restrictions on the use of published WikiLeaks material remain in effect in much of the government, the New York Times reported yesterday, causing considerable confusion and frustration. See “Detainees’ Lawyers Can’t Click on Leaked Documents” by Scott Shane, April 27. “Add me to the list of grumblers,” said a respected national security analyst at the […]
As of March 2011, Congress had approved a total of more than $1.2 trillion dollars for costs associated with the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other post-9/11 “war on terror” operations, the Congressional Research Service said in its most recent update on the subject. See “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on […]
Most executive branch agencies failed to meet a December 2010 deadline set by President Obama to issue implementing regulations for his December 2009 executive order on national security classification policy, dealing a setback to the Administration’s classification reform agenda. Despite last year’s presidential deadline, “As of March 15, 2011, only 19 of 41 agencies have […]
In Freedom of Information Act litigation, courts will almost always defer to a government agency when it asserts that national security requires that certain information remain classified. Judges say they are reluctant to “second guess” agency national security experts, and there is a substantial body of case law that discourages them from doing so. But […]
We were sad to learn, belatedly, of the recent deaths of two familiar figures in the rather small world of government secrecy policy. Jeanne Schauble, the longtime director of declassification at the National Archives, died last October. She helped oversee and implement the declassification of more than a billion pages of historical records since 1995. […]
New reports from the Congressional Research Service on various topics include these (all pdf): “Non-Governmental Organizations’ Activities in North Korea,” March 25, 2011. “Turkey-U.S. Defense Cooperation: Prospects and Challenges,” April 8, 2011. “FY2011 Appropriations in Budgetary Context,” April 14, 2011. “Judicial Discipline Process: An Overview,” April 7, 2011. “Effects of Radiation from Fukushima Daiichi on […]
The Central Intelligence Agency announced yesterday that it had declassified six World War I-era documents describing the use of “invisible ink” to convey secret messages. The CIA presented the new disclosure as an indication that the declassification process was functioning properly, not that it was dysfunctional. “These documents remained classified for nearly a century until […]