New products from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. Legislation to Facilitate Cybersecurity Information Sharing: Economic Analysis, December 11, 2014 FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act: Selected Military Personnel Issues, December 11, 2014 Analysis of H.R. 5781, California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014, December 11, 2014 […]
The release of the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation program is, among other things, an epic act of record preservation. Numerous CIA records that might not have been disclosed for decades, or ever, were rescued from oblivion by the Senate report and are now indelibly cited and quoted, […]
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. Federal Inspectors General: History, Characteristics, and Recent Congressional Actions, December 8, 2014 Attorney General Nominations Since the Reagan Administration, CRS Insights, December 4, 2014 Army Active Component (AC)/Reserve Component (RC) Force Mix: Considerations and Options for […]
For the next two years, Congress wants to receive quarterly reports from the Department of Defense on how the Pentagon is responding to leaks of classified information. The reporting requirement was included in the pending National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2015 (Sec. 1052). “Compromises of classified information cause indiscriminate and long-lasting damage to United […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. Fact Sheet: Selected Highlights of H.R. 3979, the Carl Levin and Howard “Buck” McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for FY2015, December 3, 2014 FY2015 Budget Requests to Counter Ebola and the Islamic State (IS), December […]
New books sent to Secrecy News for review (thanks!) but not yet read include these: Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon by Kim Zetter (reviewed in WaPo, WSJ) Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution by Richard Whittle (reviewed in WaPo, WSJ) National Security Affect from […]
By Hans M. Kristensen For the next week I’ll be in Vienna for the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. This is the third in a series of conferences organized and attended by a growing number of countries and humanitarian organizations to discuss the unique risks nuclear weapons pose to humanity and life […]
Updated below The Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG) received a tip last year that the Intelligence Community might have assembled a database containing US person data in violation of law and policy. “A civilian employee with the Army Intelligence and Security Command made an IC IG Hotline complaint alleging an interagency data repository, believed […]
The National Declassification Center at the National Archives yesterday announced the availability of 240 sets of records that have recently undergone declassification processing. Many of the record collections are listed in such banal or generic terms that it is hard to imagine they would attract any interest at all. (“Bureau of Naval Personnel Activity File, […]
New products from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. Iran: Interim Nuclear Agreement and Talks on a Comprehensive Accord, November 26, 2014 U.S. International Corporate Taxation: Basic Concepts and Policy Issues, December 2, 2014 Taxation of Internet Sales and Access: Legal Issues, December 1, 2014 The […]
On October 27, 1977, Dr. Gerald F. Ross filed a patent application for a new invention he had devised to defeat the jamming of electromagnetic transmissions at specified frequencies. But it was not until June 17, 2014 — nearly 37 years later — that his patent was finally granted (Anti-jam apparatus for baseband radar systems, […]
Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. A Guide to U.S. Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom, November 20, 2014 Iran: U.S. Economic Sanctions and the Authority to Lift Restrictions, November […]