New reports from the Congressional Research Service on diverse topics of current interest are provided below. Pursuant to congressional policy, CRS is prohibited from making these documents directly available to the public. The Posse Comitatus Act and Related Matters: The Use of the Military to Execute Civilian Law, August 16, 2012 Turkmenistan: Recent Developments and […]
A federal court yesterday dismissed a lawsuit which alleged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had engaged in unlawful surveillance of Muslim residents of southern California. The court granted the Obama Administration’s claim that the state secrets privilege precluded litigation of the case. The plaintiffs in the case contended that the FBI had “conducted an […]
Recent products of the Congressional Research Service that CRS has not been authorized to release to the public include the following. Gun Control Legislation, August 3, 2012 El Salvador: Political, Economic, and Social Conditions and U.S. Relations, August 13, 2012 Honduran-U.S. Relations, July 25, 2012 Cuba: U.S. Restrictions on Travel and Remittances, July 24, 2012 […]
New reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been released to the public include the following. Wiretapping, Tape Recorders, and Legal Ethics: An Overview of Questions Posed by Attorney Involvement in Secretly Recording Conversation, August 9, 2012 The Speech or Debate Clause: Constitutional Background and Recent Developments, August 8, 2012 FY2013 National Defense […]
By Hans M. Kristensen It’s been a busy week with two talks; the first to the U.S. Strategic Command’s Deterrence Symposium on August 9, and the second to the Public Policy and Nuclear Threats “boot camp” workshop at the University of California San Diego on August 10. STRATCOM asked me to talk on the question: […]
A coalition of public interest groups asked the Senate and House Intelligence Committees to preserve an existing requirement for the Intelligence Community to produce an annual report on the number of security clearances. “We believe the annual report on security clearances provides exceptional value to the public and should continue to be published,” the groups […]
Thousands of Americans who have a gross annual income of more than a million dollars have also been collecting unemployment benefits, according to IRS data compiled in a new report from the Congressional Research Service. That description fits only a tiny fraction of a percent of those receiving unemployment benefits, and is obviously not typical […]
Ordinarily, critics of government secrecy focus their ire — and their strategy — on executive branch agencies that refuse to release certain national security-related information to the public. But to an extent that is not widely recognized or understood, it is Congress that has erected barriers to greater openness and has blocked efforts to improve […]
The Department of Justice told Congress recently that it would not disclose the number of state secrets cases involving alleged government misconduct, if any, that have been referred to an Inspector General for investigation. Under a revised state secrets policy that was announced by Attorney General Holder in 2009, the Department committed to referring credible […]
The number of polygraph examinations performed by the Department of Defense more than doubled over the past decade to over 43,000 tests in a one-year period, according to a study performed last year for the Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence). The large majority of the tests were for pre-employment or periodic reinvestigation employee screening purposes. […]
In a floor statement yesterday, Sen. John McCain reiterated his criticism of the Obama White House for allegedly leaking classified information that endangered national security, and he repeated his call for appointment of a special counsel to independently investigate the claims. Sen. McCain cited a particular incident in 2009 described by David Sanger of the […]
The Congressional Research Service has not been authorized to publicly release the following new and updated reports. China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities — Background and Issues for Congress, July 31, 2012 Organization of American States: Background and Issues for Congress, July 31, 2012 Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress, […]