In a test of the new, more forthcoming Freedom of Information Act guidelines that were announced by Attorney General Eric Holder on March 19, the Federation of American Scientists has asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to reconsider its refusal to disclose the budget total for the National Intelligence Program for […]
SciecneInsider has the details surrounding an Ebola researcher who pricked her finger with a needle during an experiment last week. Virologists around the world are collaborating to try to save their colleagues life. An exposure to Ebola from a needle stick does not often lead to infection with the deadly illness, but a group of […]
The United States Air Force has published a detailed organizational chart of its headquarters (pdf) including the names and telephone numbers of key personnel. What makes this of more than passing interest is that it represents a departure from the post-9/11 Pentagon practice of withholding the names and phone numbers of Pentagon officials from publication […]
Last year the Senate Armed Services Committee held two hearings on the detention and interrogation of suspected enemy combatants held by U.S. forces, probing into the origins of military interrogation policy and documenting some of the key decisions that were made. “Today’s hearing,” said Committee Chair Sen. Carl Levin, “will explore how it came about […]
The organization and management of nuclear weapons research in nine countries — the United States, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, and the United Kingdom — are examined in a new report from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News. See “Nuclear Weapons R&D Organizations in Nine Nations” (pdf), March 16, 2009. […]
Senior military leaders of the Russian Federation were profiled last December by the Russian publication “Rossiyskoye Voyennoye Obozreniye” and the resulting compilation was recently translated by the DNI Open Source Center (OSC). The personal and professional backgrounds of some two dozen military leaders are summarized and accompanied by photographs, some of which are quite striking. […]
Between 1978 and 2004, the annual intelligence authorization bill was the principal vehicle for the congressional intelligence committees to assert their influence and control over U.S. intelligence agencies, by modifying agency statutory authorities and imposing reporting requirements. So the failure of Congress to pass an intelligence authorization bill since December 2004 is a significant handicap […]
Secrecy News previously criticized the White House web site for failing, among other things, to provide a current roster of members of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. (“White House Web Site Off to a Slow Start,” Secrecy News, March 9.) But it turns out that there are no current members, since the entire membership of […]
The People’s Republic of China has significantly increased its foreign aid to Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia from less than $1 billion in 2002 to an estimated $25 billion in 2007, according to recent academic research. The motivations, intentions and impact of this activity are examined in a new report from the Congressional Research […]
A 2008 Defense Department study of future national security trends seems to have escaped many of the conventional filters that normally limit the candor of such public documents. As previously noted, the Joint Operational Environment 2008 (JOE 2008) study set off alarms in South Korea because of its discussion of North Korean nuclear weapons and […]
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is a “front company” that seeks “to expose national security information,” according to a new briefing on classification policy prepared by a U.S. Marine Corps official. See “Derivative Classification Requirements 2009” (pdf), U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific. The 13 page briefing, which pedantically explains the proper marking of derivatively […]
U.S. ballistic missile submarines conducted 31 nuclear deterrent patrols in 2008 at an operational tempo comparable to that of the Cold War. . By Hans M. Kristensen [updated] The U.S. fleet of 14 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines conducted 31 nuclear deterrent patrols in 2008 at an operational tempo comparable to during the Cold War. The […]