Newly updated reports of the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following. Armed Conflict in Syria: U.S. and International Response, July 12, 2012 Afghanistan Casualties: Military Forces and Civilians, July 12, 2012 Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers, July 11, 2012 Burma’s Political Prisoners and U.S. Sanctions, […]
The Due Process Guarantee Act (S. 2003) is a bill that was introduced last year by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and colleagues to explicitly prohibit the indefinite detention without trial of United States citizens who are apprehended within the United States on suspicion of terrorism. The bill was crafted due to a residual ambiguity in last […]
“Language and cultural competency” is the theme of the latest edition of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin. Topics addressed include cultural relativism, ethnography, “patron-client relations,” the stand-up of AFRICOM (US Africa Command) from an African perspective, and “operational culture training for the French military in Africa.” The Army does not make the Military […]
Last May, J. William Leonard, the former director of the Information Security Oversight Office, asked a federal court for permission to disclose and discuss declassified National Security Agency documents that had been cited in the prosecution of former NSA official Thomas Drake. The documents represented a particularly “egregious” and “willful” case of overclassification, Mr. Leonard […]
“I’ve had it up to my keister with these leaks,” President Reagan complained in 1983 after a series of unauthorized disclosures. “Keister is slang for buttocks,” the Associated Press helpfully explained at that time. One of President Reagan’s responses to the flood of leaks was to direct the use of polygraph examinations in leak investigations. […]
The executive branch has just completed a two-year review of its classification guidance that was ordered by President Obama as a way to combat overclassification of government information. The Review was intended “to ensure the guidance reflects current circumstances and to identify classified information that no longer requires protection and can be declassified” (as per […]
The Congressional Research Service has just produced a second report concerning “Article V Conventions” by which state legislatures can try to initiate amendments to the U.S. Constitution. “The Article V Convention for proposing amendments was the subject of considerable debate and forethought at the Constitutional Convention [in 1787],” the new report says. “The founders clearly […]
Iran continues to develop its military capabilities, including ballistic missiles, nuclear weapons-related technologies, and unconventional forces, according to a new Department of Defense report to Congress. The Pentagon assessment was first reported yesterday in “Iran’s Ballistic Missiles Improving, Pentagon Finds” by Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News. The report itself appears to stress that while developing offensive […]
Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the Eastern District of New York was appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on July 2 by the Chief Justice of the United States. The 11-member FIS Court rules on applications for domestic intelligence surveillance and physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Judge Dearie replaces Judge Malcolm […]
Article V of the U.S. Constitution prescribes two ways by which the Constitution can be amended: Either Congress may propose amendments for ratification by the states, or else a majority of state legislatures may ask Congress to call a convention for considering amendments. A new report by the Congressional Research Service examines the possibility of […]
The Director of National Intelligence issued a new directive that is intended to improve foreign language skills throughout the U.S. intelligence community. “Foreign language capabilities are essential to the performance of intelligence missions and operations,” the May 2012 directive notes. Foreign language competence for intelligence purposes extends well beyond mastery of a common vocabulary or […]
Questions of law and policy regarding unauthorized disclosures of classified information, whistleblower rights and the adequacy of oversight have been discussed lately in several law review articles, including these. Whistleblowers and the Obama Presidency: The National Security Dilemma by Richard Moberly, Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, Volume 16, 2012 Free Speech Aboard the Leaky […]