“I believe that there is a discrepancy between what most Americans believe is legal and what the government is actually doing under the Patriot Act,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) in a statement last week on the Senate floor regarding reform of the Patriot Act. “In my view, any discrepancy of this sort is intolerable […]
As of last week, there is now a U.S. Government national security agency called the Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA). It supersedes a Biometrics Task Force that was established in 2000. Though nominally a component of the Army, the biometrics agency has Defense Department-wide responsibilities. “The Biometrics Identity Management Agency leads Department of Defense activities […]
A new White House report to Congress (pdf) defines “strategic communication” as “the synchronization of our words and deeds as well as deliberate efforts to communicate and engage with intended audiences.” “This understanding of strategic communication is driven by a recognition that what we do is often more important than what we say because actions […]
WikiLeaks.org, which publishes confidential documents online, says that it is being harassed by U.S. military and intelligence agencies because of its disclosures of restricted information, including the forthcoming release of a classified U.S. military video of an air strike in Afghanistan that produced civilian casualties. But those claims are disputed and can hardly be taken […]
Although the state secrets privilege is not much in the news at the moment, it continues to percolate in the law review literature. The privilege, narrowly conceived, is a way for the government to block the introduction in court of specific pieces of evidence that it deems too sensitive for disclosure. But in recent years, […]
Most criticism of the Freedom of Information Act centers on agency refusals to disclose requested records in a timely manner. But a federal appeals court said this week that a Defense Department agency was “arbitrary and capricious” in its decision to release documents to a Freedom of Information Act requester. The ruling comes shortly after […]
The Department of State must begin producing new volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series at a rate of a dozen volumes per year if it is going to fulfill its statutory mandate to document the history of U.S. foreign policy not later than 30 years after the fact, the State […]
by Ivanka Barzashka and Ivan Oelrich The latest IAEA report on Iran has been widely touted as containing new evidence of Iranian weapons work and as a sign of the Agency’s new hard-line attitude toward the Islamic Republic under its new Director General Yukiya Amano. We believe the document has been seriously misrepresented in the […]
Leaking classified information to an unauthorized person may be the right thing to do in certain circumstances, suggested Judge T.S. Ellis, III of the Eastern District of Virginia in a newly released hearing transcript from last year. In particular, he said, leaking may be an acceptable move if the leaker accepts full responsibility for his […]
It might be pleasant for writers and publishers to suppose that First Amendment principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press are absolute and will prevail in every circumstance. But that is clearly not the case. For one thing, the Supreme Court has specifically excluded obscenity, child pornography, and certain other forms of […]
An extensive compilation of official documents, policy advocacy statements, and assorted commentary on the U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 is presented in “The Iraq Papers,” a new book from Oxford University Press. Since it seems that there will be no new official reckoning of the Iraq war or other Bush […]
An updated description of the intelligence function of the Department of Homeland Security was produced last week by the Congressional Research Service. See “The Department of Homeland Security Intelligence Enterprise: Operational Overview and Oversight Challenges for Congress” (pdf), March 19, 2010. “Homeland Security Intelligence: Its Relevance and Limitations” was the topic of a March 18, […]