New low-yield nuclear warheads for cruise missiles on Russia’s submarines?. . By Hans M. Kristensen Two recent news reports have drawn the attention to Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons. Earlier this week, RIA Novosti quoted Vice Admiral Oleg Burtsev, deputy head of the Russian Navy General Staff, saying that the role of tactical nuclear weapons on […]
From Tanguy et Laverdure, Menace sur Mururoa, 1996. By Hans M. Kristensen The news media reports that the French government has decided to “pay compensation to those suffering illnesses linked to radiation” from the French nuclear tests conducted in Northern Africa and the South Pacific between 1960 and 1996. This being the same state that for […]
In a new letter to President Obama, the Public Interest Declassification Board warned that reliable public access to government information, the very foundation of representative democracy, may be in jeopardy. Although “our Board was heartened by your early statements and actions on openness in Government,” wrote Board acting chairman Martin Faga to the President on […]
The National Archives and Records Administration is soliciting public input on new ways to reduce the costs of Presidential libraries while improving public access to the records they hold. “NARA seeks the comments and suggestions of interested organizations and individuals for cost effective ways of modifying the present system for archiving and providing public access […]
The British foreign intelligence service MI-6 and the British domestic security service MI-5 will both mark their 100-year anniversary this year. Their exploits are the subject of the new book “Secret Wars: One Hundred Years of British Intelligence Inside MI5 and MI6” by Gordon Thomas, published this month by St. Martin’s Press.
In a test of the new, more forthcoming Freedom of Information Act guidelines that were announced by Attorney General Eric Holder on March 19, the Federation of American Scientists has asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to reconsider its refusal to disclose the budget total for the National Intelligence Program for […]
SciecneInsider has the details surrounding an Ebola researcher who pricked her finger with a needle during an experiment last week. Virologists around the world are collaborating to try to save their colleagues life. An exposure to Ebola from a needle stick does not often lead to infection with the deadly illness, but a group of […]
The United States Air Force has published a detailed organizational chart of its headquarters (pdf) including the names and telephone numbers of key personnel. What makes this of more than passing interest is that it represents a departure from the post-9/11 Pentagon practice of withholding the names and phone numbers of Pentagon officials from publication […]
Last year the Senate Armed Services Committee held two hearings on the detention and interrogation of suspected enemy combatants held by U.S. forces, probing into the origins of military interrogation policy and documenting some of the key decisions that were made. “Today’s hearing,” said Committee Chair Sen. Carl Levin, “will explore how it came about […]
The organization and management of nuclear weapons research in nine countries — the United States, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United Kingdom — are examined in a new report from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News. See “Nuclear Weapons R&D Organizations in Nine Nations” (pdf), March 16, 2009. […]
Senior military leaders of the Russian Federation were profiled last December by the Russian publication “Rossiyskoye Voyennoye Obozreniye” and the resulting compilation was recently translated by the DNI Open Source Center (OSC). The personal and professional backgrounds of some two dozen military leaders are summarized and accompanied by photographs, some of which are quite striking. […]
Between 1978 and 2004, the annual intelligence authorization bill was the principal vehicle for the congressional intelligence committees to assert their influence and control over U.S. intelligence agencies, by modifying agency statutory authorities and imposing reporting requirements. So the failure of Congress to pass an intelligence authorization bill since December 2004 is a significant handicap […]