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In a tense and adversarial meeting at the State Department yesterday, the chairman of the Department’s Historical Advisory Committee warned that the future of the Department’s “Foreign Relations of the United States” (FRUS) series, which is the official record of U.S. foreign policy, is in jeopardy due to mismanagement by the Office of the Historian. […]
As a matter of policy, the Congressional Research Service does not make its products directly available to the public. Recent reports from CRS on climate change and related topics obtained by Secrecy News include these (all pdf). “Global Climate Change: Three Policy Perspectives,” updated November 26, 2008. “Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Perspectives on the Top 20 […]
“The security classification process … remains a major impediment to interagency information sharing,” a new report from the congressionally mandated supported Project on National Security Reform reaffirmed last week. The 830-page report (pdf) proposes a significant restructuring of the U.S. government national security decision-making apparatus in order to increase integration and operational agility. The report […]
“The notion of secret law has been described in court opinions and law treatises as ‘repugnant’ and ‘an abomination’,” observed Sen. Russ Feingold. “It is a basic tenet of democracy that the people have a right to know the law.” “But the law that applies in this country is determined not only by statutes and […]
The Obama transition team announced last week that it would provide unrestricted online access to information and documents submitted by outside groups and individuals. “Every day, we meet with organizations who present ideas for the Transition and the Administration, both orally and in writing,” wrote transition co-chair John Podesta in a December 5 memo (pdf). […]
The Department of Defense has updated its policy on “humanitarian and civic assistance activities,” which are “conducted in conjunction with authorized military operations” abroad. See DoD Instruction 2205.02 (pdf), December 2, 2008. Medical assistance is a potentially important element of counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, argued a senior military medical officer earlier this year. See “The […]
Despite a million dollar buyback program and hundreds of raids on illicit weapons caches, US and Iraqi forces are still finding surface-to-air missiles in insurgent stockpiles. US military press releases and media reports reveal that, since October 2006, at least 121 such missiles have been recovered, along with 4 additional launchers and various components. These […]
Mystery missile: widely reported as a future sea-launched ballistic missile, is the Shourya launch in November 2008 (right) a land-based mobile missile (left), a silo-based missile, or a hybrid? Images: DRDO . By Hans M. Kristensen A decade after India officially crossed the nuclear threshold and announced its intention to develop a Triad of nuclear […]
In 2004, Congress enacted an ambiguously-worded statute that made it a crime to produce, possess, or use the variola virus (which causes smallpox) or any derivative of it that has more than 85 percent of the variola gene sequence. Scientists were alarmed because the statute could be read to prohibit possession of other viruses that […]
Index on Censorship, the British magazine on freedom of expression, devotes its latest issue to secrecy, surveillance and executive authority in the United States at the end of the Bush Administration. It features articles by Jameel Jaffer, Geoffrey R. Stone, Eric Lichtblau, Patrick Radden Keefe, and myself, among others. Many of the articles can be […]
Noteworthy new Congressional publications on arms control-related topics include the following. “North Korea and Its Nuclear Program — A Reality Check” (pdf), Report to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, October 2008. “International Convention for Suppression of Nuclear Terrorism,” Report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, September 11, 2008. “Technologies to Combat Weapons of […]