A recent report from the secretive JASON scientific advisory group considers the feasibility of using microorganisms to produce fuels as a metabolic product, such as hydrogen or ethanol. “Microorganisms present a great opportunity for energy science,” the JASON report (pdf) to the Department of Energy said. “Microorganisms are simpler than plants; they have smaller genomes […]
Updated Below A recently updated U.S. Army regulation (pdf) defines the parameters of legitimate military intelligence activities and outlines procedures for identifying “questionable” intelligence operations. Among the permissible activities, for example, military intelligence “may conduct nonconsensual physical surveillance of U.S. persons who are– military personnel on active duty status; present or former intelligence component employees; […]
A new U.S. Navy instruction offers a “guide to the operation and administration of detention facilities.” Detention means “the temporary holding of persons in custody in a detention facility pending a decision to officially charge them with a criminal offense. Detention is distinctly different from confinement that includes pretrial or post-trial confinement.” See “Guide for […]
A recent Congressional Research Service report observed irregularities in government spending on military space. “Tracking the DOD space budget is extremely difficult since space is not identified as a separate line item in the DOD budget. Additionally, DOD sometimes releases only partial information (omitting funding for classified programs) or will suddenly release without explanation new […]
The apparent murder of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko through polonium poisoning seemed like an outlandish innovation in crime. But it was not the first time that polonium had been deliberately administered to human subjects. In 1944 at the University of Rochester in New York, “tracer amounts of radioactive polonium-210 were injected into four […]
The flight test of a sea-based missile defense system in the Pacific was aborted yesterday after an interceptor missile failed to launch from an Aegis cruiser, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency said. It was the latest setback in an ambitious sea-based missile defense program that will cost more than one billion dollars in 2007. “In […]
In a major new report (pdf) that could serve as an appendix to the Final Report of the 9/11 Commission, the Congressional Research Service performed a detailed assessment of the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations. “The discussions herein are organized on the basis of policy themes that are at the core of the 9/11 Commission’s […]
Some other noteworthy new products of the Congressional Research Service that are not widely available to the public include the following (all pdf). “Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing: U.S. Policy Development,” November 29, 2006. “Homeland Security: Evolving Roles and Missions for United States Northern Command,” updated November 16, 2006. “U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues,” […]
The Public Interest Declassification Board was established by Congress in 2000 “to promote the fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant United States national security decisions.” (FY 2001 Intelligence Authorization Act, Section 703). Six years later, it has still done no such thing. In its first practical test, […]
After having spent the last several years sending diplomats to Teheran to try to persuade Iran not to develop nuclear weapons, the British government announced Monday that it plans to renew its own nuclear arsenal. If approved by the parliament, Monday’s decision means that the United Kingdom will extend its nuclear deterrent beyond 2050, essentially […]
A Florida company called Space Propulsion Systems, Inc. announced this week that it had successfully petitioned the U.S. Government to lift secrecy orders that had been imposed on two of its rocket propellant concepts. Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, the government may restrict the publication and dissemination of information about new inventions if […]
A new Government Accountability Office study (pdf) warns darkly that the Departments of State and Commerce are not doing enough to police university research to ensure that export control violations are not occurring on campus. State and Commerce “have not fully assessed the potential for transfers of export-controlled information to foreign nationals in the course […]