Last year, 95 secrecy orders barring disclosure of inventions under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951 were imposed on new patent applications while 36 prior secrecy orders were rescinded. Three of the newly releasable inventions have recently received patents, decades after the inventors filed their applications. The three new patents were identified by the U.S. […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have been withheld from broad public distribution include the following. Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2016, November 10, 2015 The Speaker of the House: House Officer, Party Leader, and Representative, November 12, 2015 Fifth Circuit Declines to Lift Injunction Barring Implementation of the Obama Administration’s […]
In a newly disclosed memorandum from 1963, the Director of Central Intelligence advised the Secretary of State that the CIA had “good reproductions” of Soviet satellite imagery. This puzzling remark appears to suggest a previously unrecognized capability of the CIA. The declassified memo summarizes a July 3, 1963 telephone conversation between DCI John McCone and […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have been withheld from broad public distribution include the following. U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues, updated November 3, 2015 The New START Treaty: Central Limits and Key Provisions, updated November 3, 2015 Iran Sanctions, updated November 3, 2015 Tropical Storm? The Supreme […]
By Hans M. Kristensen General James Cartwright, the former commander of U.S. Strategic Command and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed in an interview with PBS Newshour that the increased accuracy of the new guided B61-12 nuclear bomb could make the weapon “more useable” to the president or national-security making process. […]
What are the constitutional limits on police use of force? What remedies are available when those limits are exceeded? And in light of recent episodes of police violence, how might the limits and the remedies be modified? Those questions are addressed in a new report from the Congressional Research Service. “By the very nature of their job, […]
There were 5,579 invention secrecy orders in effect at the end of fiscal year 2015. This was an increase from 5,520 the year before and is the highest number of such secrecy orders in more than a decade. Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, secrecy orders may be imposed on patent applications when a […]
For moral, legal, and tactical reasons, it is U.S. Army policy to protect civilians during military operations, a newly updated Army publication explains. “To the extent possible, civilian populations (including those loyal to the enemy) must be protected from the effects of combat. In addition to humanitarian reasons and the need to comply with the […]
The 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), one of the “open government” laws, generally mandates that federal advisory committee meetings be held openly, except under certain specified circumstances. But over the past ten years, the number of closed meetings has actually increased, a new analysis by the Congressional Research Service found. “FY2014 reported the highest […]
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence yesterday released a transparency implementation plan that establishes guidelines for increasing public disclosure of information by and about U.S. intelligence agencies. Based on a set of principles on transparency that were published earlier this year, the plan prioritizes the objectives of transparency and and describes potential initiatives […]
The DNI Open Source Center has been redesignated the Open Source Enterprise and incorporated in CIA’s new Directorate of Digital Innovation. The Open Source Center, established in 2005, was tasked to collect and analyze open source information of intelligence value across all media – – print, broadcast and online. The OSC was the successor to […]
Procedures for electing a new Speaker of the House of Representatives are outlined in a new report from the Congressional Research Service. See Electing the Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frequently Asked Questions, October 23, 2015. Other new and updated CRS products include the following. Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage: Implications for Religious Objections, October […]