One of the minor offenses of the Obama White House is its inexplicable failure to publish presidential directives — now dubbed Presidential Policy Directives — even when they are unclassified. But presidential directives from prior administrations continue to enter the public domain following repeated declassification reviews. Several National Security Decision Directives (NSDDs) issued by President […]
“The Secret Sentry” by Matthew Aid is a comprehensive new history of the National Security Agency, from its origins in World War II through its Cold War successes, failures and scandals up until the present. Aid, an independent historian who is also a visiting fellow at the National Security Archive, has synthesized a tremendous amount […]
The NASIC report dispels many web-rumors. By Hans M. Kristensen The Air Force Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) has published an update to its Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat. The document, which I obtained from NASIC, is sobering reading. The latest update continues the previous user-friendly format and describes a number of important assessments […]
An Inspector General review (pdf) of the State Department Office of the Historian (HO) last month confirmed that there were serious management defects in the Office and recommended reassignment of its Director as well as other changes. The Office of the Historian is responsible for production of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) […]
The Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence mission is to collect, analyze and disseminate intelligence to reduce the threat of domestic terrorism. The somewhat complex structure of DHS intelligence, at DHS headquarters and in six operational components, is illuminated in a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service. The new report usefully examines how DHS […]
The leading presidential candidates in Afghanistan’s upcoming August 20 election are briefly profiled in a chart prepared by the DNI Open Source Center. See “Afghan Presidential Election: Potential Candidates and Powerbrokers” (pdf), May 4, 2009. Further background on elections in the region may be found in “Middle East Elections 2009: Lebanon, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq” […]
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following (all pdf). “Mexico’s Drug-Related Violence,” May 27, 2009. “The 2009 Influenza A(H1N1) ‘Swine Flu’ Outbreak: U.S. Responses to Global Human Cases,” May 26, 2009. “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” updated May […]
Employment disputes are all too common inside and outside of government, including at the CIA. In one pending lawsuit, a former CIA employee claimed that the Agency improperly terminated his employment and communicated negative information about him to another prospective employer, thereby violating his rights. In this case, however, the name of the aggrieved employee […]
An innovative White House attempt to engage the interested public in the development of government policy on openness and transparency is moving briskly and, so far, productively. An initial online brainstorming session attracted over 98,000 visits and generated some 2,450 “ideas” for increasing public access to government information, over 11,000 comments on those ideas, and […]
There is “an astonishing number of groups and activities concurrently pursuing the subject” of information sharing, according to a newly disclosed 2004 report (pdf) of the Intelligence Science Board (ISB). But those activities are not well coordinated. “In effect, we aren’t even sharing information about information sharing.” The ISB is a little-known advisory panel that […]
The Congressional Research Service has prepared a new account of the state secrets privilege, which is used by the government to bar disclosure of certain national security information in the course of civil litigation. While the CRS report contains nothing new, it is a detailed, dispassionate and fairly comprehensive account of the subject. A copy […]
An article in USNI, which carries this photo of USS Hartford (SSN-768) damaged in a recent collision, discusses China’s ballistic missile submarines. By Hans M. Kristensen The magazine U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings has an interesting article about China’s nuclear ballistic missile submarines written by Andrew S. Erickson and Michael Chase from the U.S. Naval War […]