Updated below The report of a White House advisory group on intelligence surveillance said that reducing undue secrecy was one of its main objectives. “A central goal of our recommendations is to increase transparency and to decrease unnecessary secrecy, in order to enhance both accountability and public trust,” the report of the President’s Review Group […]
Because the Intelligence Community utilizes commercial products including those that may be manufactured abroad, it could be vulnerable to threat or compromise through its supply chain. Intelligence Community Directive 731 issued by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on December 7 establishes IC policy on “Supply Chain Risk Management.” “Many IC mission-critical products, materials, and […]
Newly updated reports from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following. China’s Economic Rise: History, Trends, Challenges, and Implications for the United States, December 17, 2013 Iraq: Politics, Governance, and Human Rights, December 17, 2013 Child Support: An Overview of Census Bureau Data on Recipients, December 16, 2013 Nanotechnology: A Policy […]
DC District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle yesterday ordered the Obama Administration to release a copy of an unclassified presidential directive, and she said the attempt to withhold it represented an improper exercise of “secret law.” The Obama White House has a “limitless” view of its authority to withhold presidential communications from the public, she wrote, […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have been withheld by Congress from online public distribution include the following. Defense: FY2014 Authorization and Appropriations, December 16, 2013 Rare Earth Elements: The Global Supply Chain, December 16, 2013 China-U.S. Trade Issues, December 16, 2013 Samantar v. Yousef: The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and […]
In order to restore public trust, the U.S. intelligence community ought to be “aggressive” about reducing classification, former intelligence officials said last week. Secrecy “is an enormous problem,” said Michael Leiter, who directed the National Counterterrorism Center from 2007 to 2011. “I hope the DNI is very aggressive about moving towards less classification and more […]
In a slight but welcome incremental reform, reports to Congress from the Department of Defense are to be posted online, according to a provision in the pending FY 2014 defense authorization act. Up to now, such reports were to be made available to the public “upon request” (10 USC 122a). But under section 181 of […]
The latest edition of U.S. joint military doctrine on counterinsurgency states that while working to defeat and contain insurgency, efforts should also be made to “address its root causes.” Newly added doctrinal language “articulates that US counterinsurgency efforts should provide incentives to the host-nation government to undertake reforms that address the root causes of the […]
Foreign investment in the United States “dropped sharply in 2012,” according to a newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service, and in 2013 it could fall by another 10%. See Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: An Economic Analysis, December 11, 2013. Other new and updated CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News include […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. Child Labor in America: History, Policy, and Legislative Issues, November 18, 2013 Internet Domain Names: Background and Policy Issues, December 5, 2013 Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2013, December 5, 2013 The Corporation for Public […]
The National Reconnaissance Office, which builds and operates U.S. intelligence satellites, has just released the unclassified portions of its FY 2014 Congressional Budget Justification, a detailed account of its budget request for the current year. Although more than 90% of the 534-page document (dated April 2013) was withheld from public release under the Freedom of […]
U.S. military doctrine extends to religious aspects of combat operations and the role of chaplains as spiritual advisers. A new update to that doctrine “clarifies the chaplain’s advisement role in the targeting process to ensure the focus is on the ethical, moral, and religious dimensions.” As noncombatants and “ministers of religion,” chaplains have protected status […]