An unclassified U.S. Army history of military intelligence that was formerly used as a textbook in officer training at the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca is now publicly available online (large pdf). The 1973 volume has been superseded in many or even most respects by subsequent research and publication. But it retains some interest […]
A $60 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia — the largest in U.S. history — is poised to proceed despite questions raised by some members of Congress. In a November 16 letter to Congress (pdf), Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the deal: “This proposed sale will directly support […]
The Supreme Court will decide next year whether corporations are entitled to “personal privacy” and whether they may prevent the release of records under the Freedom of Information Act on that basis. FOIA advocates say that assigning personal privacy rights to corporations could deal a crippling blow to the Act. The case before the Court […]
Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper went a little out of his way to praise the Government Accountability Office at a Senate hearing on security clearance reform on November 16. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize the crucial role that GAO continues to play in keeping the heat on the executive branch for […]
Investment banker Maurice Sonnenberg was appointed this week to the National Commission for the Review of the Research and Development Programs of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The most surprising thing about the appointment was its predictability. If national commissions on intelligence were a TV game show, Maurice Sonnenberg would be Kitty Carlisle or Orson Bean. […]
“Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws 2010” is the latest edition of a classic handbook for Freedom of Information Act litigants. It provides an updated summary of the relevant case law and a discussion of many of the most commonly encountered issues and obstacles a FOIA litigator may face. Any FOIA requester or attorney […]
The use of access control markings such as the Transportation Security Agency’s “Sensitive Security Information” (SSI) to limit disclosure of unclassified records has been criticized from time to time as arbitrary and self-serving. But now, due to a subtle change in the recent executive order on “Controlled Unclassified Information,” SSI and other such markings should […]
In a revealing failure of Administration commitments to transparency, an official history of the U.S. government’s post-war pursuit of (or sometimes accommodation with) Nazi war criminals was obtained by the New York Times after the Department of Justice refused to release an unexpurgated version under the Freedom of Information Act. The secret history was reported […]
The rationale for the New START Treaty between the United States and Russia on reductions in nuclear weapons was addressed at length in an October 1 report from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. On September 16, the Committee recommended ratification of the Treaty, which awaits consideration by the full Senate. The 141-page Committee report (large […]
“Prompt global strike” refers to the possibility of destroying a target anywhere on Earth within minutes or hours using bombers, cruise missiles or ballistic missiles armed with conventional warheads. The prompt global strike mission and its various implications were examined in a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service. Some argue that a conventional […]
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that led to the signing of the SALT I Treaty in 1972 were documented in exhaustive detail in the latest volume of the official State Department publication Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS). The new FRUS volume (pdf), which is more than […]
“More and more prosecutions” under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act may be expected, said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer last month. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is intended to prevent and punish bribery of foreign officials by U.S. firms. “The executive branch appears to have increased oversight of suspected American businesses for alleged violations,” […]