The expanding role of women in combat is examined in another new report from the Congressional Research Service. “Laws prohibiting women from serving in combat units were repealed in the early 1990s,” the CRS report noted. “However, since then, it has been U.S. military policy to restrict women from certain units and military occupations, especially ground combat […]
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board that was supposed to provide independent oversight of U.S. counterterrorism policies remains dormant and out of service because its members have still not been named and confirmed. In a report that was newly updated this month, the Congressional Research Service traced the origins of the Board from a […]
The three ongoing prosecutions under the Espionage Act of individuals who allegedly “leaked” classified information to the press are slowly moving forward. Prosecutors will present their opening brief to an appeals court in the case of Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former CIA officer who is accused of leaking classified information to author James Risen, on […]
The U.S. government response to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a brutal paramilitary group in Uganda, is discussed in a new report from the Congressional Research Service. The Obama Administration has provided humanitarian and operational support to Ugandan efforts to counter the LRA. Most recently, the U.S. has authorized the deployment of U.S. military advisers […]
The JASON defense advisory panel held its fall meeting last weekend with briefings on a range of national security topics. A copy of the program from the closed meeting is posted here. The JASONs completed at least seven studies this year for various government agencies with titles such as “Solar EMP” and “Domestic Nuclear Surge […]
U.S. government programs to identify and deport criminal aliens were detailed in an exhaustive report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service. The Department of Homeland Security has four programs that deal with criminal aliens, which are discussed in the report. “While consensus exists on the overarching goal to identify and remove serious criminal aliens, these […]
The eagerly awaited declassification of vast amounts of historical intelligence satellite imagery that was supposed to occur this year did not take place, and it is unknown when or if it might go forward. Earlier this year, government officials had all but promised that the declassification and release of miles of satellite imagery film was […]
The Obama Administration’s uncompromising approach to punishing “leaks” of classified information has been widely noted. But its handling of pre-publication review disputes with former intelligence agency employees who seek to publish their work has been no less combative. Government prosecutors are preparing to confiscate proceeds from the unauthorized publication of “The Human Factor: Inside the […]
The U.S. intelligence community needs an organization that can assess the impacts of climate change on U.S. national security interests in an open and collaborative manner, according to a new report from the Defense Science Board (DSB). The Director of National Intelligence should establish a new intelligence group “to concentrate on the effects of climate […]
There is “little likelihood” that the Central Intelligence Agency will be able to produce any records documenting the CIA’s implementation of the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review that each classifying agency is required to conduct, the Agency said last week. The Fundamental Classification Guidance Review (FCGR) was ordered by President Obama in his December 2009 executive […]
Today, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a critical report that concluded while some of the suspected secret nuclear work by Iran may have peaceful purposes, others are specific to building nuclear weapons.
In the last few weeks, members of Congress have presented radically different estimates of the cost of the U.S. nuclear weapons program. The disparate estimates, which vary by hundreds of billions of dollars, reflect a lack of consensus about how to properly assess the cost of nuclear weapons. “The U.S. will spend an estimated $700 […]