On October 7, the first I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence was awarded to John Walcott, now of McClatchy Newspapers. As the Washington bureau chief for Knight Ridder, Mr. Walcott led a team of reporters including Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel who distinguished themselves for thoughtful, critical and skeptical news coverage of the lead-up to […]
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf). U.S. Nuclear Cooperation With India: Issues for Congress, updated October 2, 2008. Iraq’s Debt Relief: Procedure and Potential Implications for International Debt Relief, updated October 2, 2008. NATO Enlargement: Albania, Croatia, and […]
A new U.S. Air Force Instruction (pdf) establishes a safety program for directed energy weapons (DEW) in view of the fact that “DEW systems create unique hazards that are different from conventional and nuclear weapons.” “Potential DEW systems covered by this instruction include, but are not limited to, high-energy lasers, weaponized microwave and millimeter wave […]
Another new U.S. Air Force Instruction (pdf) describes the Air Force role in joint DoD-DOE nuclear weapons development, production, refurbishment, and retirement activities. “Although the DoD and DOE co-manage nuclear weapons through all system life cycle phases, each has specific responsibilities,” the Instruction explains. “The DOE through the NNSA is responsible for designing, developing, building, […]
A newly revised Pentagon instruction (pdf) updates Freedom of Information Act policy regarding requests submitted to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “A classified document containing unclassified information may not be denied in total under exemption 1 [of the Freedom of Information Act, which exempts properly classified information] […]
A newly reissued Department of Defense directive (pdf) explicitly prohibits several of the more controversial interrogation techniques that have previously been practiced against suspected enemy combatants. So, for example, the new directive states that “Use of SERE [Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape] techniques against a person in the custody or effective control of the Department […]
At first glance, several provisions in a newly reissued Defense Department Instruction seem to offer a surprisingly forthcoming public disclosure policy to curb the steadily increasing secrecy of recent years. But on closer inspection, that is probably not the case. “Declassification of information shall receive equal attention with classification so that information remains classified only […]
DNA samples of thousands of suspected terrorists from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have been collected and preserved in a little-known U.S. government database that is intended for forensic intelligence and counterterrorism purposes. As of 2005, seven thousand detainee samples had been processed into the Joint Federal Agencies Antiterrorism DNA Database. Ten thousand more were “inbound” […]
Kidnapping and other forms of terrorist violence have developed into a significant form of asymmetric conflict, according to a new U.S. Army manual (pdf) that describes the theory and practice of kidnapping with numerous case studies from recent years. “This document promotes an improved understanding of terrorist objectives, motivation, and behaviors in the conduct of […]
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence today released a series of policy documents governing security clearances and access to classified information for intelligence community employees. Intelligence Community Directive 704 (pdf) and five accompanying policy guidance documents set forth policy on security clearance background investigations, adjudicative guidelines, clearance revocation and appeal processes, reciprocal acceptance […]
Kutztown University, midway between Reading and Allentown, Pennsylvania, has never looked so good. Or at least not like this. The University campus was featured in the first publicly released half-meter, color satellite image produced by the GeoEye-1 satellite, launched on September 6. “We do find the initial target selection amusing,” the author of the intelligence […]
A new policy seeks to promote sharing of terrorism-related information throughout the government by making information sharing an explicit factor in employee performance appraisals. “We have taken a critical step toward ensuring that information sharing becomes ingrained in the way the federal government operates,” said Amb. Thomas McNamara, the ODNI Information Security Environment program manager, […]