The Chinese military harassment of a U.S. submarine surveillance vessel Sunday occurred only 75 miles from China’s growing naval base near Yulin on Hainan Island. . By Hans M. Kristensen [updated 1:50 P.M., 3/10/09] The incident that unfolded in the South China Sea Sunday, where the U.S. Navy says five Chinese ships harassed the U.S. […]
During a ceremony at the White House today, President Obama signed an Executive Order to overturn President Bush’s 2001 restrictions on using federal funds for research on embryonic stem cells. The Executive Order is focused on stem cell research, but it signals a desire by the Obama Administration to return scientific integrity to its policy […]
Many of the most substantive and significant documents generated by the Obama Administration to date are surprisingly absent from the White House web site. President Obama recently ordered the reorganization of the National Security Council through a Presidential Policy Directive. But the unclassified Directive is not even mentioned on the White House web site, much […]
An ad hoc group of several hundred federal employees and others has convened online to advocate improved “knowledge management” in the federal government. Knowledge management refers generally to the production, preservation and exchange of knowledge in such a way as to maximize the sharing of information and to optimize its use. “Although most federal agencies […]
Audio recordings of ten conversations between President Richard M. Nixon and Director of Central Intelligence Richard M. Helms are now available online. The conversations, which took place in 1971 and 1972, addressed topics including Vietnam, the India-Pakistan War of 1971, the Soviet Union, China, the Bay of Pigs, and more. Several of the recordings are […]
The scale and sophistication of Iranian research in nuclear science and engineering are evident in a newly updated open-source bibliography. Thousands of titles address topics from nuclear physics and nuclear reactor safety to laser isotope separation. The bibliography was prepared by independent researcher Mark Gorwitz. See “Iranian Nuclear Science Bibliography: Open Literature References” (pdf), March […]
Government safety investigators canceled a public briefing about an August 28, 2008 explosion that killed two persons at a chemical plant in Institute, West Virginia after operators of the plant said that public discussion of the accident could jeopardize “sensitive security information.” Bayer CropScience, which runs the plant, told the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that […]
A November 2008 Defense Department study of trends in national and international security was intended “to spark discussions … about the nature of the future security environment.” But the study (pdf), called the Joint Operating Environment 2008 (JOE 2008), has also triggered several unintended international reactions. Last December, South Korean officials complained that JOE 2008 […]
“Evidently $30 million and 10 years wasn’t enough to finish the job of declassifying records on the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies with Nazi and Japanese war criminals,” writes Jeff Stein in CQ Spy Talk. “Congress has just budgeted another $650,000 to finish the job — really, they’re serious this time — of poring through […]
Books sent to Secrecy News recently include these: “Snake Fish: The Chi Mak Spy Ring” by Edward M. Roche. “The Great Cold War: A Journey Through the Hall of Mirrors” by Gordon S. Barrass, Stanford University Press, March 2009. “The Contractor,” a novel by Colin MacKinnon, St. Martin’s Press, February 2009.
Yesterday Interfax news agency reported that experts estimate that over 30 nations have the capability to rapidly deploy biological weapons. The remarks were made by Natalya Kaverina of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Global Economy and International Relations during a presentation for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on March 3. Kaverina suggested […]
In its clearest departure to date from the uncompromising secrecy of the previous administration, the Justice Department yesterday released several controversial and discredited opinions produced by the Bush Administration Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) regarding detention of U.S. citizens, the domestic use of military force, and other topics. Legal conclusions advanced in those opinions “do […]