New START aggregate numbers have been published by the United States and Russia. . By Hans M. Kristensen The latest New START treaty aggregate numbers of strategic arms, which was quietly released by the State Department earlier last week, shows modest reductions and important changes in U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces. Most surprisingly, the […]
During fiscal year 2011, there were 143 new secrecy orders imposed on patent applications under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reported this week. This represents an increase of 66% over the year before, and it is the highest number of new secrecy orders in a single year since […]
“The United States is the world’s largest candy consumer,” reported an article yesterday in the online Christian Post (“Halloween Treats Can Be Tricky for Parents,” October 19). And that may well be true. But the article went on to state that the U.S. spent “more than $8.8 billion on various sweets in 2009, according to […]
“I would be remiss if I did not express my concern over this Administration’s inexplicable failure to fully appoint and staff the privacy oversight board that we created as part of our 2004 act [on intelligence reform],” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) at a hearing last week. She was referring to the Privacy and Civil […]
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) hired 600 to 700 new employees each year between 2005 and 2008, newly released budget documents indicate. Still, “the coming wave of retirement… presents significant risks that the program will lose valuable institutional knowledge and critical skills and capability.” These observations were presented in NGA’s annual budget justification materials for […]
U.S. intelligence agencies are anticipating budget reductions of billions of dollars, said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper yesterday. He said he had just submitted a draft budget to OMB (presumably for FY 2013) that involved “double digit” cuts to the intelligence budget over ten years. See “U.S. Spies Facing Tens of Billions in Budget […]
By Matt Schroeder As the trial against alleged arms dealer Viktor Bout gets underway, we thought the following documents from the case might be of interest: (1) Handwritten notes that Bout reportedly took during the meeting in Thailand. The notes include short-hand references to various weapons, including “AA” or anti-aircraft (believed to be a reference […]
Updated below A court ruling that interpreted the term “national defense information” expansively to include unclassified, non-governmental information could open the door to a new series of anti-leak prosecutions under the Espionage Act, warned a petition that was filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week. There is no statute that outlaws the mishandling of […]
The DNI Open Source Center produced a report this month profiling Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., China’s largest telecommunications company. See “Huawei Annual Report Details Directors, Supervisory Board for First Time,” October 5, 2011. The report is based primarily on Huawei’s own website, which released new details earlier this year about the company’s management team. “The release of […]
FAS joined 48 organizations in signing a letter to United States Representatives asking them to cosign Representative Markey’s letter to members of the Super Committee. Markey’s letter urges Super Committee members to increase U.S. security by reducing spending on outdated and unaffordable nuclear weapons programs. Additionally, this support letter offers specific suggestions to Congress on […]
Last Friday, White House officials made at least two public references to Presidential Policy Directives (PPDs). PPD 1 was cited in a new executive order on computer security and PPD 8 was cited in a White House blog posting on disaster preparedness. Each Directive is a significant expression of national policy. Neither one is classified. […]
Inevitably and predictably, the U.S. Government has moved to systematically increase the monitoring of classified computer networks and to tighten the safeguarding of classified information in response to the indiscriminate publication of classified records by WikiLeaks. An executive order issued on October 7 does not define the new security policies. Instead, it establishes new mechanisms […]