New Congressional Research Service reports obtained by Secrecy News that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf): “Federal Efforts to Address the Threat of Bioterrorism: Selected Issues for Congress,” March 18, 2010. “Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress,” March 30, 2010. “Deforestation and Climate Change,” […]
by Ivanka Barzashka According to a recent article by the New York Times, Western intelligence agencies and international inspectors now “suspect that Tehran is preparing to build more [enrichment] sites”. This revelation, according to the newspaper, comes at a “crucial moment in the White House’s attempts to impose tough new sanctions against Iran.” However, these […]
Four months past a “deadline” imposed by the expiration of the old START treaty and amid much fanfare, President Obama announced that he and Russian President Medvedev had agreed on a new arms control treaty. I am not as excited as most are about the treaty and much of the following might be interpreted as […]
An important new treaty reduces the limit for deployed strategic warheads but not the number. By Hans M. Kristensen The White House has announced that it has reached agreement with Russia on the New START Treaty. Although some of the documents still have to be finished, a White House fact sheet describes that the treaty […]
“I believe that there is a discrepancy between what most Americans believe is legal and what the government is actually doing under the Patriot Act,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) in a statement last week on the Senate floor regarding reform of the Patriot Act. “In my view, any discrepancy of this sort is intolerable […]
As of last week, there is now a U.S. Government national security agency called the Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA). It supersedes a Biometrics Task Force that was established in 2000. Though nominally a component of the Army, the biometrics agency has Defense Department-wide responsibilities. “The Biometrics Identity Management Agency leads Department of Defense activities […]
A new White House report to Congress (pdf) defines “strategic communication” as “the synchronization of our words and deeds as well as deliberate efforts to communicate and engage with intended audiences.” “This understanding of strategic communication is driven by a recognition that what we do is often more important than what we say because actions […]
WikiLeaks.org, which publishes confidential documents online, says that it is being harassed by U.S. military and intelligence agencies because of its disclosures of restricted information, including the forthcoming release of a classified U.S. military video of an air strike in Afghanistan that produced civilian casualties. But those claims are disputed and can hardly be taken […]
Although the state secrets privilege is not much in the news at the moment, it continues to percolate in the law review literature. The privilege, narrowly conceived, is a way for the government to block the introduction in court of specific pieces of evidence that it deems too sensitive for disclosure. But in recent years, […]
Most criticism of the Freedom of Information Act centers on agency refusals to disclose requested records in a timely manner. But a federal appeals court said this week that a Defense Department agency was “arbitrary and capricious” in its decision to release documents to a Freedom of Information Act requester. The ruling comes shortly after […]
The Department of State must begin producing new volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series at a rate of a dozen volumes per year if it is going to fulfill its statutory mandate to document the history of U.S. foreign policy not later than 30 years after the fact, the State […]
by Ivanka Barzashka and Ivan Oelrich The latest IAEA report on Iran has been widely touted as containing new evidence of Iranian weapons work and as a sign of the Agency’s new hard-line attitude toward the Islamic Republic under its new Director General Yukiya Amano. We believe the document has been seriously misrepresented in the […]