The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued an order on Friday directing the Department of Justice to respond no later than June 7 to a motion filed on May 23 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The order was signed by Judge Reggie B. Walton, presiding judge of the surveillance court. EFF had asked the Court […]
The Senate passage of Resolution 65 on May 22, 2013, some argue, draws the United States closer to military action against Iran. In October 2012, amid concerns that surprisingly little research addressed the potential broad outcomes of possible U.S.-led actions against Iran, researchers at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) assembled nine renowned subject matter […]
When the Central Intelligence Agency prepared its famous 1973 compilation of dubious and illegal Agency activities known as the “Family Jewels,” it included several instances in which reporters were tracked or monitored in order to identify their sources. While these activities were technically “approved” by senior Agency officials, they also “conflict[ed] with the provisions of […]
William Z. Slany, the former Historian of the Department of State and a champion of efforts to declassify the secret history of U.S. foreign policy, passed away earlier this month. Dr. Slany served in the State Department’s Office of the Historian for 42 years, and was The Historian for the last 18 of those years, […]
The future promises to be far more challenging than the past for international security analysts. The security challenges that we will face will be increasingly complex, transnational, and interrelated. This will make their mitigation all the more difficult. But, the reality of this changing security landscape should not cause us to give pause and adopt […]
A central pillar of international efforts to stem the spread of nuclear weapons is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards system. From the inception of the IAEA, the United States has supported the development and evolution of both the safeguards system itself and devices and systems approaches used by inspectors.
Introduction Rapid growth in the developing world has changed the economic center of gravity towards Asia, especially with regard to the world’s energy economy. World-wide demand for energy, especially energy that can propel automobiles, is increasing. High energy growth is producing two problems. The first, widely recognized, is the increased greenhouse gas concentrations that result […]
To paraphrase Leon Trotsky’s saying about war but applied to extreme events, “You may not be interested in extreme events, but extreme events are interested in you.” The “you” here refers to the general public. I trust that readers of the Public Interest Report have self-selected themselves to be concerned about extreme events such as nuclear war, […]
Digital manufacturing is likely to be one of the key disruptive technologies of the 21st century. Described by The Economist as the foundation of a third industrial revolution, 1 digital manufacturing enables individuals and communities of designers to manufacture products themselves rather than relying on large factories with global supply chains. While digital manufacturing holds […]
In a startling expansion of the Obama Administration’s war on leaks, a federal agent sought and received a warrant in 2010 to search the email account of Fox News correspondent James Rosen on grounds that there was probable cause the reporter had violated the Espionage Act by soliciting classified information from a State Department official. […]
The government seizure of Associated Press telephone records in the course of a leak investigation undermined freedom of the press in the United States, congressional critics said yesterday. “It seems to me the damage done to a free press is substantial,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. Pursuant to […]
The Government Printing Office is blocking public access to some previously released records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, while the records are reviewed to see if they contain export-controlled information. The move follows the controversial disabling and partial restoration of the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) (NASA Technical Report Database Partly Back Online, […]