The scale and sophistication of Iranian research in nuclear science and engineering are evident in a newly updated open-source bibliography. Thousands of titles address topics from nuclear physics and nuclear reactor safety to laser isotope separation. The bibliography was prepared by independent researcher Mark Gorwitz. See “Iranian Nuclear Science Bibliography: Open Literature References” (pdf), March […]
Government safety investigators canceled a public briefing about an August 28, 2008 explosion that killed two persons at a chemical plant in Institute, West Virginia after operators of the plant said that public discussion of the accident could jeopardize “sensitive security information.” Bayer CropScience, which runs the plant, told the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that […]
A November 2008 Defense Department study of trends in national and international security was intended “to spark discussions … about the nature of the future security environment.” But the study (pdf), called the Joint Operating Environment 2008 (JOE 2008), has also triggered several unintended international reactions. Last December, South Korean officials complained that JOE 2008 […]
“Evidently $30 million and 10 years wasn’t enough to finish the job of declassifying records on the involvement of U.S. intelligence agencies with Nazi and Japanese war criminals,” writes Jeff Stein in CQ Spy Talk. “Congress has just budgeted another $650,000 to finish the job — really, they’re serious this time — of poring through […]
Books sent to Secrecy News recently include these: “Snake Fish: The Chi Mak Spy Ring” by Edward M. Roche. “The Great Cold War: A Journey Through the Hall of Mirrors” by Gordon S. Barrass, Stanford University Press, March 2009. “The Contractor,” a novel by Colin MacKinnon, St. Martin’s Press, February 2009.
Yesterday Interfax news agency reported that experts estimate that over 30 nations have the capability to rapidly deploy biological weapons. The remarks were made by Natalya Kaverina of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Global Economy and International Relations during a presentation for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on March 3. Kaverina suggested […]
In its clearest departure to date from the uncompromising secrecy of the previous administration, the Justice Department yesterday released several controversial and discredited opinions produced by the Bush Administration Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) regarding detention of U.S. citizens, the domestic use of military force, and other topics. Legal conclusions advanced in those opinions “do […]
Many current debates in intelligence policy are prefigured in a 1975 “Intelligence Community Decision Book for the President” that was prepared for President Gerald R. Ford. The 243-page document (pdf) addresses basic questions of executive authority, congressional oversight of intelligence, covert action, domestic surveillance, budget secrecy and more. The briefing book was completed after the […]
The DNI Open Source Center recently published an extended account of Turkey’s military presence online. “The military uses [the website of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces] to inform the public of its counterterrorism activities, to expound its views as the upholder of Ataturk’s legacy and the foundations of the Turkish Republic, and […]
The General Services Administration has refused to divulge a complete list of U.S. government internet domain names, claiming that they would be vulnerable to cyberattack. See “Government Keeping Its .Gov Domain Names Secret” by Thomas Claburn, Information Week, March 2, 2009. I discussed the latest developments in the prosecution of two former AIPAC employees for […]
A federal court this week said that litigants have a First Amendment right to provide classified information to their attorneys when doing so is necessary to protect their interests. The ruling is implicitly at odds with a common government practice of denying attorneys access to classified information in Freedom of Information Act cases, pre-publication review […]
The Department of Homeland Security has produced a new “Concept of Operations” (pdf) to define how the Department will support and oversee the network of dozens of “fusion centers” that have been established around the country. The fusion centers are intended to promote a collaborative approach among federal, state and local authorities to combating terrorism […]