The long-dormant Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) announced that it will hold its first public meeting next week and it invited members of the public to provide input to help shape the Board’s near-term agenda. “In anticipation of setting the agenda of issues on which the Board will focus its attention, the Board […]
Newly updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has not made publicly available include the following. Federal Support for Academic Research, October 18, 2012 Unfunded Mandates Reform Act: History, Impact, and Issues, October 22, 2012 Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Foreign Policy Issues for Congress, October 19, 2012 Managing the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Policy […]
This morning former CIA officer John Kiriakou pleaded guilty to one count of disclosure of information identifying a covert agent, a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. “When KIRIAKOU disclosed the identity of Officer A to Journalist A, KIRIAKOU acted willfully in that defendant knew the disclosure was illegal,” according to a Statement of […]
In the world of security clearances for access to classified information, the term “reciprocity” is used to indicate that one executive branch agency should ordinarily recognize and accept a security clearance that has been granted by another executive branch agency. This is not just a nice, cost-efficient thing to do, it is actually a requirement […]
Newly updated reports from the Congressional Research Service which Congress has not made publicly available include the following. Congressional Oversight, October 17, 2012 Contemporary Developments in Presidential Elections, October 18, 2012 U.S. International Trade: Trends and Forecasts, October 19, 2012 President of the United States: Compensation, October 17, 2012 Peru in Brief: Political and Economic […]
A massive quantity of historical intelligence satellite imagery from the KH-9 HEXAGON program is being declassified and will be made public in a series of releases that are scheduled over the coming year, intelligence community officials say. Declassification of intelligence satellite imagery languished for years after President Clinton ordered the release of product from the […]
We were sad to learn that Professor Anna K. Nelson, a tenacious and effective advocate for improved public access to national security records, passed away last month. For decades, Prof. Nelson argued for improved declassification practices in almost every venue imaginable, from congressional hearings to the most obscure and transient advisory bodies. As a professor […]
At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis blockade, unknown to the United States, the Soviet Union already had short-range nuclear weapons on the island, such as this FKR-1 cruise missile, that would most likely have been used against a U.S. invasion. . By Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris Fifty years ago the […]
The most fundamental purpose of national security policy is not to keep the nation safe from physical attack but to defend the constitutional order. At least, that is what President Reagan wrote in a Top Secret 1986 directive. “The primary objective of U.S. foreign and security policy is to protect the integrity of our democratic […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has not made available to the public include the following. Job Growth During the Recovery, updated October 16, 2012 The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR): Funding Issues After a Decade of Implementation, FY2004-FY2013, October 10, 2012 Statutes of Limitation in Federal Criminal […]
Updated below A court ruled this month that former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who is charged with unauthorized disclosures of classified information to the media, will not be permitted to argue at trial that he intended no harm to the United States, or that his entire career testifies to a deep commitment to national security. […]
A day-long conference on national security secrecy will be held tomorrow, October 16, at Fordham Law School in New York City. The conference brings together a promising mix of former government officials, journalists, litigators, academics and others, including myself. For more information on the conference, which is open to the public, see here.