The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) rejected several legislative proposals submitted by the Department of Defense that would have increased the Department’s secrecy authority. One proposal would have granted the Defense Intelligence Agency an extension of its “operational files” exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, which expired at the end of 2007. Such an […]
A 2006 Department of Defense directive on Information Operations (pdf), which had previously been withheld as “For Official Use Only,” was released last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists. The directive, issued by the Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence), assigns baseline responsibilities for the conduct […]
The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice has been pondering the peculiar status of the Office of Vice President for decades, and has recently released a collection of more than a dozen OLC opinions regarding the Vice President, dating back to the Eisenhower Administration. “The Vice President, of course, occupies a […]
More than 50 launch pads for nuclear ballistic missiles have been identified scattered across a 2,000 square kilometer (772 square miles) area of central China, according to analysis of satellite images. Click image for full size. Also download GoogleEarth KMZ file. . By Hans M. Kristensen Analysis of new commercial satellite photos has identified an […]
The laboratory director of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), Dr. Patrick Fitch, said yesterday that research at the laboratory will not “create threats in order to study them”. This statement is a welcome change from previous presentations about the lab’s mission. The controversy about the research goals of the NBACC emerged after […]
Nuclear bombs in Asia at the time of the Taiwan Strait crisis are listed (red box) in this Strategic Air Command document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Click on image above to download PDF copy of list. . By Hans M. Kristensen Thanks to the efforts of Bill Burr at the National […]
Iran continues to enrich uranium. Enrichment is the process that makes natural uranium useable in a nuclear reactor or, if carried further, a nuclear bomb. Iran claims that the motivation for its enrichment program is entirely peaceful but almost no one outside of Iran believes this. With the United States shouting from the sidelines, the […]
The White House last week issued a long-awaited policy on “controlled unclassified information” (CUI) to provide a uniform government-wide system for safeguarding unclassified information that is deemed sensitive. The CUI framework is supposed to replace the numerous individual agency control markings — “sensitive but unclassified,” “for official use only,” and over a hundred other designations […]
New limitations and reporting requirements should be imposed on intelligence contractors, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said in its new report on the 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act. “Several provisions of the bill are aimed at reducing the overall use of contractors by the Intelligence Community. The Committee believes these provisions are necessary for financial […]
A recent Senate hearing on the subject of “secret law” drew an appreciative review today from syndicated columnist and first amendment champion Nat Hentoff. “So important was an April 30 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution that it should have been on front pages around the country,” he wrote. “Titled ‘Secret Law […]
In January 2008, the ODNI Open Source Center (OSC) published a report on “Recent Worldwide Research on Animal Pox Viruses” principally authored by Dr. Alfred D. Steinberg of the MITRE Corporation. Secrecy News has been trying unsuccessfully to obtain a releasable copy of the document. A request to ODNI was forwarded to the Central Intelligence […]
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made publicly accessible online include the following (all pdf). “Defense: FY2009 Authorization and Appropriations,” May 5, 2008. “Second FY2008 Supplemental Appropriations for Military Operations, International Affairs, and Other Purposes,” updated May 8, 2008. “Director of National Intelligence Statutory Authorities: Status and Proposals,” updated […]