The U.S. Army has published an updated training manual on military mountaineering (large pdf). “Mountains exist in almost every country in the world and almost every war has included some type of mountain operations,” the manual states. “This pattern will not change; therefore, Soldiers will fight in mountainous terrain in future conflicts. Although mountain operations […]
New reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has not made readily available to the public include these. The Executive Budget Process: An Overview, July 27, 2012 “Amazon” Laws and Taxation of Internet Sales: Constitutional Analysis, July 26, 2012 The Obama Administration’s Proposal to Establish a National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, July 25, 2012 […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The disclosure during yesterday’s Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing that the cost of the B61 Life Extension Program (LEP) is significantly greater that even the most recent cost overruns calls into question the ability of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to manage the program and should call into question the B61 […]
The Senate Intelligence Committee’s markup of the 2013 intelligence authorization bill includes 12 provisions that are intended to combat unauthorized disclosures of classified information. The proposed steps, which are of varying weight and severity, include: a requirement to notify Congress when intelligence information is disclosed to the public (outside of the FOIA or the regular […]
In apparent violation of an arms embargo on Somalia that it helped to impose 20 years ago, the United States is providing clandestine military support to Somali security services without notifying United Nations monitors as required by the embargo. That is among the findings of the UN Somalia Eritrea Monitoring Group, as reported by Eli […]
“The Government has invoked the state secrets privilege sparingly and appropriately,” the Department of Justice said in a 2011 report to Congress that was released this week. The 8 page report describes the features of the internal process for determining whether to assert the state secrets privilege in a particular case, including the standards and […]
The House of Representatives roused itself yesterday to name a post office in upstate New York after CIA officer Gregg Wenzel, who died in a car accident in Ethiopia in 2003 while under cover. “When a man has given his life, as Gregg David Wenzel did, to protect our American liberties, honoring him through the […]
“The Soviet Union has developed a doctrine of ‘maskirovka’ which calls for the use of camouflage, concealment and deception (CC&D) in defense-related programs and in the conduct of military operations,” wrote President Ronald Reagan in the recently declassified 1983 National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 108. “Several recent discoveries reveal that the Soviet maskirovka program has […]
The number of people who held security clearances for access to classified information increased last year to a new reported high of more than 4.8 million persons as of October 1, 2011, a new intelligence community report to Congress said. Last year’s annual report, the first official count of security cleared personnel, had indicated that […]
On Friday, the National Security Agency released a declassified email message entitled “What a Wonderful Success” that had been used as the basis for a felony count against former NSA official Thomas Drake in 2010, who was charged with unlawful retention of classified information, including that message. Although all of the felony counts against Mr. […]
Certain types of classified information pertaining to nuclear weapons are going to be downgraded or declassified, the Department of State indicated in a newly disclosed report. “Over the past fiscal year, the Department [of State] has been actively working with the Departments of Energy and of Defense to identify information that had previously been classified […]
After the Department of Defense issued a statement last week saying that it would “monitor all major, national level reporting” for evidence of unauthorized disclosures of classified information, Pentagon reporters wrote to the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to ask whether such monitoring extended to surveillance of the […]