Several noteworthy pieces of legislation on intelligence and national security have already been introduced (or in some cases re-introduced) in the new Congress, including these. A Resolution to Enhance Intelligence Oversight (H.Res. 35) by Rep. Obey, January 5. Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007 (H.R. 1), January 5. NSA Oversight Act (pdf) (H.R. […]
The Department of Energy has published a new draft manual to help authorized personnel identify information that is classified by executive order or under the Atomic Energy Act. See “Manual for Identifying Classified Information” (draft), DOE M 475.1-1B, published January 8, 2007 (1.3 MB PDF).
Some recent reports of the Congressional Research Service that are not readily available in the public domain include the following (all pdf). “Department of Homeland Security Grants to State and Local Governments: FY2003 to FY2006,” December 22, 2006. “International Crises and Disasters: U.S. Humanitarian Assistance, Budget Trends, and Issues for Congress,” December 21, 2006. “Cuba: […]
Declaring that the need to protect government secrets overrides all other considerations, a federal court yesterday dismissed (pdf) a lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency filed by family members of a former CIA clandestine officer who alleged injuries that are largely classified. The CIA invoked the state secrets privilege in its motion for dismissal, and […]
Last October the Environmental Protection Agency closed five of its libraries, including the headquarters library in Washington DC, and limited public access at four others. EPA said the closures were part of an ongoing restructuring and that public demand for EPA records would be increasingly satisfied online. Public interest groups and librarians warned that valuable […]
Some other recent products of the Congressional Research Service that are not readily available in the public domain include the following (all pdf). “U.S. Army and Marine Corps Equipment Requirements: Background and Issues for Congress,” December 20, 2006. “U.S. Arms Sales: Agreements with and Deliveries to Major Clients, 1998-2005,” December 15, 2006. “‘Terrorism’ and Related […]
National Security Agency director Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander answered dozens of questions for the record related to NSA surveillance activities following a September 6 July 26, 2006 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “FISA for the 21st Century.” That hearing record has not yet been published, but General Alexander’s 35 page response to Senators’ questions […]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation advised Congress last month that it will no longer seek to recover classified information that may be contained in the collected papers of the late Jack Anderson. The FBI “is not seeking to reclaim any documents,” the Bureau said in response to a question from Senator Arlen Specter. The FBI […]
A new internet initiative called Wikileaks seeks to promote good government and democratization by enabling anonymous disclosure and publication of confidential government records. “WikiLeaks is developing an uncensorable version of WikiPedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis,” according to the project web site. “Our primary targets are highly oppressive regimes in China, Russia, central […]
Foreign efforts to gather information on defense-related U.S. technologies are characterized in a 2006 report (pdf) by the Defense Security Service (DSS) Counterintelligence Office. “In 2005, DSS identified 106 countries associated with suspicious activities based on U.S. cleared defense industry reporting, up from 90 countries in 2004.” Information systems, lasers, sensors and aeronautics were among […]
The State Department today invited public comment on its proposed revision of regulations on the control of classified national security information. See this January 3 Federal Register notice. The People’s Republic of China published a new edition of its annual White Paper on national defense on December 29. Boasting of increased transparency, the document features […]
The Department of Energy’s search for inadvertent disclosures of classified nuclear weapons information in declassified government files seems to have reached the point of diminishing returns. In its latest quarterly report to Congress (pdf), DOE noted that it had examined 719,040 pages of declassified public records at the National Archives and found 38 pages containing […]