“There is altogether too much discussion about the deliverables that OSINT [open source intelligence] can produce,” said Jennifer Sims, a former State Department intelligence official, at a DNI conference on open source intelligence last week. Open source intelligence refers to intelligence that is derived from unclassified, legally accessible information sources. But the fact that the […]
New legislation would require the Attorney General to report to Congress whenever the Department of Justice issues a legal opinion indicating that the executive branch is not bound by an existing legal statute. The bill, introduced September 16 in the Senate by Senators Russ Feingold and Dianne Feinstein, responds to the Bush Administration’s use of […]
As the Justice Department prepares to issue new guidelines for FBI national security investigations, a more complete version of the current guidelines that were issued in 2003 has recently surfaced (pdf). Although the redacted guidelines released in 2003 are still posted on the Justice Department web site (pdf), some of the redactions in that document […]
At a House Committee on Foreign Affairs meeting 9 September 08 members of Congress discussed what the U.S. response should be to Russia’s aggressive actions in Georgia last month. Most members of the Committee acknowledged that some sort of response was necessary to voice U.S. concerns about the possibility of a more aggressive Russian foreign […]
The next President could achieve a systematic reduction in government secrecy by directing each agency that classifies information to conduct a detailed public review of its classification policies with the objective of reducing secrecy to the essential minimum and declassifying everything that does not meet the standard for classification. Modeled on the Fundamental Classification Policy […]
The Federation of American Scientists Biosecurity Project has the following position available: Job Title: Project Manager for Biosecurity Location: Washington, D.C. Salary: Commensurate with experience, generous benefits Education: Ph.D. or Masters degree considered. Description: FAS is looking for a smart, energetic individual to help direct a major web-based project using innovative video, multimedia and social […]
Stating that “dozens of billions of dollars” had been secretly wasted on misconceived intelligence programs, Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) and other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday called for creation of a new subcommittee on intelligence within the Senate Appropriations Committee that would exercise greater control on intelligence spending. In the absence of a […]
A U.S. government compilation of interviews and other public statements issued by Usama bin Laden between 1994 and 2004 is now publicly available (pdf). The texts were translated by the CIA’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service (which has since been succeeded by the Open Source Center). The 289-page collection has not been approved for public release, […]
The House of Representatives yesterday passed the Overclassification Reduction Act, a bill that is intended to help reduce inappropriate classification of information in government. The bill would require the National Archivist to develop regulations to help combat overclassification. The bill would mandate increased accountability for classification actions, with incentives for challenging improper classification and penalties […]
By almost every available measure, government secrecy continued to increase over the past year, according to report this week from OpenTheGovernment.org, a broad coalition of consumer and open government groups. The report (pdf) describes the mostly unfavorable trends across a range of quantitative indicators, including classification and declassification activity, “black budget” spending, invention secrecy, Freedom […]
The State Department Historian last week released a new electronic volume of Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), the official documentary record of U.S. foreign policy, devoted to events in Eastern Europe from 1973-1976. While every FRUS publication is of interest, the latest E-volume reinforced concerns about diminishing quality control in the venerable series. […]
A newly disclosed U.S. Army memorandum (pdf) from 2001 describes the procedures that the Department of Defense must follow to invoke the state secrets privilege, from identifying the information at issue to preparing the required declarations to support the claim of privilege. “These guidelines are intended to provide an instructive road-map for addressing the common […]