“The Soviet police state tried to control every citizen in the country. The new, more sophisticated Russian [security] system is far more selective than its Soviet-era counterpart; it targets only those individuals who have political ambitions or strong public views.” That’s what Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan discover in “The New Nobility,” their impressive new […]
The Department of Defense last week increased its efforts to require that Department contacts with the media be monitored and approved by DoD public affairs officials. “I am asking the heads of the Military Services, the Joint Staff and the Combatant Commands to reinforce to all of their employees to work closely and effectively with […]
Last year, the number of “original classification decisions” — or new national security secrets — actually declined by almost ten percent from the year before. This and other empirical measures of government secrecy were compiled in a new Secrecy Report Card (pdf) that was issued today by Openthegovernment.org, a coalition of public interest advocacy organizations. […]
Updated below The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has proposed new rules to comply with the provisions of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The Court reviews government applications for intelligence surveillance and physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The proposed FISA Court rules (pdf) provide new procedures by which telecommunications companies can […]
The continuing controversy over whether the Government Accountability Office will be permitted to participate in intelligence oversight, as some in Congress wish, or whether cleared GAO auditors and investigators will be excluded from intelligence oversight tasks, as the Obama Administration prefers, was discussed in the Washington Post’s Top Secret America blog yesterday. I participated in […]
The question of whether or not to disclose the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal “goes to the very heart of our democratic system of government,” said Senator Brien McMahon (D-CT) in a newly rediscovered 1949 speech (pdf) on secrecy in nuclear weapons policy. “Do we possess five bombs, or fifty bombs, or […]
The Obama Administration continued its pursuit of individuals who leak classified information to the press with another indictment of a suspected leaker. The Department of Justice announced last week that Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department contractor, had been indicted (pdf) under the Espionage Act for the unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and for […]
Technologies to modify the Earth’s climate are at least conceivable and, in the absence of a comprehensive national and international climate change policy, may soon emerge as practical alternatives, a new survey of the subject from the Congressional Research Service suggests. “The term ‘geoengineering’ describes this array of technologies that aim, through large-scale and deliberate […]
Intelligence personnel who are trying to elicit information from a prisoner or a detainee can effectively do so in a non-coercive manner, according to the Intelligence Science Board (ISB), an official advisory group to the Director of National Intelligence. “The United States and other democracies can benefit from exploring and learning more in the area […]
Rare earth elements — of which there are 17, including the 15 lanthanides plus yttrium and scandium — are needed in many industrial and national security applications, from flat panel displays to jet fighter engines. Yet there are foreseeable stresses on the national and global supply of these materials. “The United States was once self-reliant […]
In “The Twilight of the Bombs,” the fourth and final volume of his epic history of the nuclear era, author Richard Rhodes examines “how the dangerous post-Cold War transition was managed, who its heroes were, what we learned from it, and where it carried us.” Covering the years 1990-2010, from the collapse of the Soviet […]
The Obama Administration plans to increase the frequency, rigor and realism of emergency planning exercises involving senior government officials and emergency responders in an effort to improve the nation’s emergency preparedness. “This administration understands and believes in the importance of exercising [for national emergencies] and requires that the most senior levels of government are involved […]