The use of secret U.S. prison facilities abroad, first reported by Dana Priest in the Washington Post in November 2005, has since been confirmed by President Bush and has become the focus of controversy in the U.S. and elsewhere. A new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service synthesizes what is now publicly known about […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee set the stage for further congressional debate over warrantless electronic surveillance by reporting out competing bills that are mutually contradictory. A bill (S. 2453) sponsored by Committee Chairman Arlen Specter would sharply diminish judicial oversight of intelligence surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and expand unilateral presidential authority. On the […]
The House of Representatives approved a bill to establish a publicly searchable database of federally-funded grants and contracts. The Senate adopted the measure last week, and the White House indicated that the President would sign it. “This bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to create a Web site listing all grant awards […]
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate Minority Leader, proposed an amendment that would require the declassification of certain classified portions of a Senate Intelligence Committee report regarding pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Carl Levin charged last week that portions of the controversial report had been withheld from public disclosure in order […]
Some notable recent reports of the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News that are not otherwise readily available to the public include the following (all pdf). “Federal and State Quarantine and Isolation Authority,” updated August 16, 2006. “Declarations of War and Authorizations for the Use of Military Force: Historical Background and Legal Implications,” updated […]
The U.S. Navy announced today that the “Sea Shadow” (IX-529), an experimental naval craft, and the Hughes Mining Barge (HMB-1), which was originally developed as part of the CIA’s 1974 Project Jennifer to help raise a sunken Soviet submarine, are available for donation to a suitable museum or organization. “Ex-SEA SHADOW is contained inside HMB-1…. […]
Two partially declassified reports issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that were critical of pre-war intelligence on Iraq remain significantly overclassified, according to Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who said he would seek further disclosure. Furthermore, portions of the two Intelligence Committee reports that were withheld conceal “certain highly offensive activities” and “deeply disturbing […]
The Department of Energy has issued its twenty-second report to Congress (pdf) on inadvertent disclosures of classified nuclear weapons-related information in declassified files at the National Archives. The new report said that reviewers had found an additional 736 pages containing such classified information within the more than 465,000 pages of records that they recently reviewed. […]
The Department of Defense, having concluded that its interests would be best served by public disclosure, released a new directive (pdf) on policy towards enemy detainees and a new Army Field Manual (pdf) on detainee interrogation. The new detainee policy explicitly bars “cruel, inhumane and degrading” treatment of detainees who are in Defense Department custody […]
For the second year in a row, the U.S. Senate may fail to enact an intelligence authorization bill, effectively neutering the intelligence oversight process. “The failure of the Senate to pass intelligence authorization for 2 years threatens to erode the ability of the Intelligence Committee to carry out the mission assigned to it by the […]
In an attempt to limit unnecessary controls on unclassified information, Congress last year required the Department of Homeland Security to identify by title all DHS documents that were marked as “Sensitive Security Information” (SSI) that may not be publicly disclosed. In response, the first DHS report to Congress (pdf) listed approximately one thousand titles that […]
The National Archives described progress on a new National Declassification Initiative that has the potential to streamline declassification of historical records by eliminating multiple agency reviews of the same document. Two more Army Field Manuals of specialized interest were published this week: “Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) for the Joint Network Node-Network (JNN-N)” (pdf), Field […]