“There is a great deal of over-classification,” admitted Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the nominee to be the next Director of National Intelligence, at his confirmation hearing last week. “Some of it, I think, is done for the wrong reasons, to try to hide things from the light of day. Some of it is because in […]
Secrecy News last week misquoted a line in President Obama’s inaugural speech. He did not say: “And those of us who manage the public’s knowledge will be held to account….” What he said was “And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account….” The erroneous reference to “public knowledge” was […]
. By Hans M. Kristensen A Chinese government defense white paper for the first time describes how China’s nuclear forces would gradually be brought to increased levels of alert during a crisis to deter an adversary and retaliate to nuclear attack. The paper describes a growing portfolio of deterrence and counterattack capabilities with an ambitious […]
In a breathtaking series of statements and executive actions, President Barack Obama yesterday announced “the beginning of a new era of openness in our country.” “For a long time now there’s been too much secrecy in this city,” he told reporters at a January 21 swearing-in ceremony. “The old rules said that if there was […]
“The Bush administration has left in its wake a demoralized national-security press corps, battered by leak investigations, subpoena-happy prosecutors, and a shift in the legal and wider culture away from the previous understanding of journalism’s mission and First Amendment protections,” writes Laura Rozen in the Columbia Journalism Review. See her story “Hung Out to Dry” […]
Updated below President Barack Obama found room in his inaugural address to affirm a commitment to open, accountable government. “And those of us who manage the public’s knowledge dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the […]
The structure and functions of the normally somewhat opaque Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are illuminated in a 238-page briefing book (pdf) that was prepared for the presidential transition. “The FEMA 2009 Presidential Transition Binder… is intended to serve as a reference for FEMA leadership and employees to help orient them to its organizational structure, […]
The outgoing head of the Bush Administration Office of Legal Counsel took the time to issue an opinion (pdf) last week stating that a forty-year-old memorandum issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson limiting use of polygraph tests is not binding on executive branch agencies today. The Johnson memorandum had stated that in order “to prevent […]
When it upheld the constitutionality of warrantless intelligence surveillance under certain very particular circumstances in a ruling (pdf) that was disclosed last week, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review was acting on an incomplete factual record that may have skewed its decision, according to Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI). “It is my view that the […]
The Russian Shkval torpedo was tested for Iranian naval officials in 2004 and the resulting data were described in several newly disclosed Persian-language documents. Iran’s own Hoot torpedo is evidently derived from the Shkval. Both are high-speed, supercavitating anti-ship missiles. Some of the newly disclosed Iranian documents, which include Shkval technical specifications and test performance […]
The President of the United States has broad and essentially unfettered authority to issue pardons for offenses against the United States, a new Congressional Research Service report on the subject explains. “It also appears that a pardon may be revoked at any time prior to acceptance or delivery” of the warrant of pardon, according to […]
The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a component of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, may obtain access to federal databases containing non-terrorism-related information in order to acquire information needed for authorized counterterrorism purposes, pursuant to a recent memorandum of agreement (pdf) between the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General. “NCTC will […]