Pending legislation to reform the use of the state secrets privilege received a wave of support last week from numerous public interest, professional and civil liberties organizations. While the bill is opposed by the Attorney General, it received strong endorsements from the American Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Brennan Center for Justice, […]
Prosecutors in the case of two former AIPAC lobbyists who are charged with unlawful transmission of classified information last week asked a court to prevent the former director of the Information Security Oversight Office, J. William Leonard, from testifying for the defendants. Mr. Leonard, who was the government’s senior classification policy authority for the past […]
The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo on interrogation of enemy combatants that was declassified this week “exemplifies the political abuse of classification authority,” Secrecy News suggested yesterday. J. William Leonard, the nation’s top classification oversight official from 2002-2007, concurred. “The disappointment I feel with respect to the abuse of the classification system in […]
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey this week expressed strong Bush Administration opposition (pdf) to pending legislation that would regulate the use of the state secrets privilege in civil litigation. The proposed “State Secrets Protection Act” (S.2533), the Attorney General wrote in a detailed seven-page letter, “would needlessly and improperly interfere with the appropriate constitutional role […]
Noteworthy new publications from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf). “The War Powers Resolution: After Thirty-Four Years,” updated March 10, 2008. “The Federal Grand Jury,” updated January 22, 2008. “Federalism, State Sovereignty and the Constitution: Basis and Limits of Congressional Power,” updated […]
A new “Information Sharing Strategy” (pdf) from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence warns that traditional security practices that restrict disclosure of information have become counterproductive. “The Intelligence Community’s ‘need to know’ culture, a necessity during the Cold War, is now a handicap that threatens our ability to uncover, respond, and protect against […]
A 2003 memo from the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel that appears to authorize abusive interrogation of suspected unlawful combatants outside the United States was declassified this week. The memo (pdf) concludes that criminal statutes that would preclude torture and other forms of physical abuse “do not apply to properly-authorized interrogations of enemy combatants.” […]
The Open Society Institute, a philanthropic foundation founded by George Soros that works to promote democratic governance, is seeking to hire a program director for its work on transparency in the U.S. (Secrecy News has received funding from OSI.) The OSI transparency program “will use a combination of grantmaking strategies and programmatic initiatives to ensure […]
Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service which have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf). “The REAL ID Act of 2005: Legal, Regulatory, and Implementation Issues,” April 1, 2008. “The Social Security Number: Legal Developments Affecting Its Collection, Disclosure, and Confidentiality,” updated February 21, 2008. “Congressional Authority […]
For the first time in six years, the Government Accountability Office has been asked by a congressional intelligence committee to perform an intelligence oversight-related function. On March 11, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), an intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, called upon the GAO to review security […]
FAS just launched an online compilation of more than 500 documents on the US ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Archive (/blog/cw) includes a timeline of CWC negotiations, a history of its signing and ratification, and current news and commentary on the CWC. In addition to the documents, Cheryl Vos, FAS Biology Research […]
The likely responses of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey to Iranian acquisition of a nuclear weapon were considered in a new staff report (pdf) from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “How are these three countries responding today to the Iranian nuclear program? How would Riyadh, Cairo, and Ankara respond if Tehran were to cross the […]