The Obama transition team announced last week that it would provide unrestricted online access to information and documents submitted by outside groups and individuals. “Every day, we meet with organizations who present ideas for the Transition and the Administration, both orally and in writing,” wrote transition co-chair John Podesta in a December 5 memo (pdf). […]
The Department of Defense has updated its policy on “humanitarian and civic assistance activities,” which are “conducted in conjunction with authorized military operations” abroad. See DoD Instruction 2205.02 (pdf), December 2, 2008. Medical assistance is a potentially important element of counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan, argued a senior military medical officer earlier this year. See “The […]
Despite a million dollar buyback program and hundreds of raids on illicit weapons caches, US and Iraqi forces are still finding surface-to-air missiles in insurgent stockpiles. US military press releases and media reports reveal that, since October 2006, at least 121 such missiles have been recovered, along with 4 additional launchers and various components. These […]
Mystery missile: widely reported as a future sea-launched ballistic missile, is the Shourya launch in November 2008 (right) a land-based mobile missile (left), a silo-based missile, or a hybrid? Images: DRDO . By Hans M. Kristensen A decade after India officially crossed the nuclear threshold and announced its intention to develop a Triad of nuclear […]
In 2004, Congress enacted an ambiguously-worded statute that made it a crime to produce, possess, or use the variola virus (which causes smallpox) or any derivative of it that has more than 85 percent of the variola gene sequence. Scientists were alarmed because the statute could be read to prohibit possession of other viruses that […]
Index on Censorship, the British magazine on freedom of expression, devotes its latest issue to secrecy, surveillance and executive authority in the United States at the end of the Bush Administration. It features articles by Jameel Jaffer, Geoffrey R. Stone, Eric Lichtblau, Patrick Radden Keefe, and myself, among others. Many of the articles can be […]
Noteworthy new Congressional publications on arms control-related topics include the following. “North Korea and Its Nuclear Program — A Reality Check” (pdf), Report to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, October 2008. “International Convention for Suppression of Nuclear Terrorism,” Report of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, September 11, 2008. “Technologies to Combat Weapons of […]
In April 2006, Iran successfully test-fired a new high-speed torpedo called Hoot. It was test-fired again last July, along with various other missiles. “The torpedo is capable of destroying the largest warships and any other vessel on the surface or beneath the water, and split it into two parts,” according to an Iranian Naval Forces […]
Despite compulsory legislative reforms and multiple executive orders intended to streamline the granting of security clearances for access to classified information, the process remains “cumbersome,” according to a new House Intelligence Committee report. While backlogs and processing time have been reduced since enactment of the 2004 Intelligence Reform Act, overall “progress over the past five […]
Andrei Soldatov, the Russian journalist who runs the independent web site Agentura.ru that reports on Russian intelligence and security services, was the subject of a profile last week prepared by the DNI Open Source Center. “Soldatov has regularly highlighted the increasing influence of the special services in Russian government, reported on the security services’ efforts […]
Charles Homans considers “The Last Secrets of the Bush Administration” in the latest Washington Monthly. “An accounting of the Bush years is a less daunting prospect than it seems from the outset,” he says. “If the new president and leaders on Capitol Hill act shrewdly, they can pull it off while successfully navigating the political […]
Government officials were reminded recently that as they depart from government service with the end of the current Administration, they are not permitted to take classified information with them. “Classified information is not personal property and may not be removed from the Government’s control by any departing official or employee. This includes ‘extra’copies.” That timely […]