On Wednesday, the FBI thwarted an alleged terrorist plot to shoot down a military cargo plane with a Stinger missile. According to a criminal complaint obtained by the New York Times, four men were arrested on charges of conspiring to use “a surface-to-air missile system to destroy military aircraft at the New York Air National […]
“We are launching a review of current policies by all of those agencies responsible for the classification of documents to determine where reforms are possible,” announced President Obama in a speech at the National Archives today. While the President has spoken broadly before of the need for greater transparency, this is the new Administration’s first […]
The White House today solicited public recommendations for greater openness in government. “Members of the public are invited to participate in the process of developing recommendations [by] offering comments, ideas, and proposals about possible initiatives and about how to increase openness and transparency in government,” according to a notice published in the Federal Register today. […]
Noteworthy new congressional hearing records on intelligence, national security or secrecy that have been published in the last month or two include the following. “Congressional Oversight of Intelligence Activities,” hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, November 13, 2007. “Implementation of the Office of Government Information Services,” hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government […]
The Open Source Center of the U.S. Intelligence Community has prepared a descriptive catalog of websites (pdf) concerning the defense and security of Chile. “The Chilean defense establishment consists of military and civilian institutions, many of which have their own websites featuring institutional services, news, and academic reports,” the OSC report explains. “Many academic contributions […]
The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has appointed two new judges to the eleven-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a spokesman for the Court said today. Judge Thomas F. Hogan of the D.C. District Court and Judge Susan Webber Wright of the Eastern District of Arkansas were each appointed to seven-year terms on the […]
During calendar year 2008, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,083 applications for authority to conduct electronic surveillance and physical search of suspected foreign intelligence and terrorist targets under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to a new annual report to Congress (pdf) from the Justice Department. The Court made substantive modifications to two applications […]
The late Kenneth C. Bass, who helped draft the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and who was the first Counsel for Intelligence Policy at the Justice Department, later became a critic of its implementation and a proponent of remedial measures. In a 1994 congressional hearing, he urged lawmakers to introduce elements of an adversarial […]
Although the Department of Energy is not one of the agencies that performs intelligence surveillance or physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it does occasionally play a role in providing analytical support to other agencies such as the FBI that do conduct FISA surveillance. A recent DOE Inspector General report (pdf) noted four […]
The development of Bush Administration policies on the treatment of suspected terrorist detainees was probed yesterday at a Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing, which also led to the release of two primary source documents reflecting internal Bush Administration deliberations. Former State Department Counselor Philip Zelikow described his efforts in 2005-6 to advance a standard that […]
A new Air Force instruction (pdf) describes the use of unvouchered “intelligence contingency funds” which may be spent by the Secretary of the Air Force “for any purpose” in support of the Air Force intelligence mission. Such funds may be expended, for example, to pay for “plaques, mementos, etc.” to be presented “as gifts or […]
The leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is portrayed in a new chart (pdf) prepared by the DNI Open Source Center (OSC). The chart includes the names, photographs and titles of dozens of senior North Korean officials, and also presents an illustrated family tree of supreme leader Kim Jong Il. Like most other […]