By Hans M. Kristensen When the news media reported that a meteor had exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia, the location name sounded familiar: the region is home to some of Russia’s most important nuclear weapons production and storage facilities. Impact sites still have to be found but one reportedly was Chebarkul Lake, some 72 kilometers […]
There are significant barriers to the Army’s use of unmanned aerial systems within the United States, according to a new Army manual, but they are not prohibitive or categorical. “Legal restrictions on the use of unmanned aircraft systems in domestic operations are numerous,” the manual states. The question arises particularly in the context of Defense […]
The Obama Administration issued policy statements this week on critical infrastructure protection and cyber security, including measures to encourage information sharing with the private sector and other steps to improve policy coordination. Curiously, the Administration issued both an Executive order and a Presidential directive devoted to these topics. Executive Order 13636 focuses on “Improving Critical […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News that have not been made readily available to the public include the following. North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons: Technical Issues, February 12, 2013 Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues, February 13, 2013 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments, February 12, 2013 […]
.By Hans M. Kristensen The United States and Russia have some 1,800 nuclear warheads on alert on ballistic missiles that are ready to launch in a few minutes, according to a new study published by UNIDIR. The number of U.S. and Russian alert warheads is greater than the total nuclear weapons inventories of all other […]
By Hans M. Kristensen In early February, I participated in a conference in Warsaw on non-strategic nuclear weapons. The conference was organized by the Polish Institute of International Affairs, the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway and the […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has opted not to make directly available to the public include the following. U.S.-South Korea Relations, February 5, 2013 Government Assistance for AIG: Summary and Cost, February 7, 2013 Prospects for Coal in Electric Power and Industry, February 4, 2013 Role of Home State […]
By Hans M. Kristensen With the ink barely dry on the New START Treaty, Jeff Smith at the Center for Public Integrity reports that the Obama administration has determined that the United States can meet its national and international security requirements with 1,000-1,100 deployed strategic nuclear warheads – 450-550 warheads less than planned under the […]
The unauthorized disclosure last week of a Justice Department White Paper on the legality of targeted killing of senior al Qaida operatives who are Americans had the collateral effect of strengthening congressional oversight of intelligence. The leak not only fulfilled a stalemated congressional effort to provide information to the public, but it also catalyzed the […]
Updated below Late Friday afternoon, the Department of Justice released an official copy of its White Paper on lethal targeting of Americans to Freedom of Information Act requesters, including FAS and Truthout.org, several days after it had been leaked to the press. The official version appears to be identical to the document posted by NBC […]
A sobering compilation of statistics on injuries sustained by U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan was updated this week by the Congressional Research Service based in part on data that CRS gathered from the Pentagon. “This report includes statistics on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), amputations, evacuations, and the demographics of […]
The procedures for establishing, managing and overseeing special access programs (SAPs) in the Department of Defense are spelled out in an updated DoD Instruction that was issued yesterday. See “Management, Administration, and Oversight of DoD Special Access Programs,” DoD Instruction 5205.11, February 6, 2013. A special access program is a classified program that employs security […]