Some notable new reports of the Congressional Research Service that are not readily available to the general public include the following. “Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler Aircraft: Background and Issues for Congress” (pdf), updated June 8, 2006. “Air Force Aerial Refueling Methods: Flying Boom versus Hose-and-Drogue” (pdf), updated June 5, 2006. “Project BioShield” […]
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a press release announcing that it had updated its citizen preparedness web site, Ready.gov, with “special preparedness information for pet owners, senior citizens, and individuals with disabilities and special needs,” and “increased state and local information.” Through a meticulous comparison of the new Ready.gov to a […]
On July 13th, the Nicaraguan National Assembly voted to destroy an additional 651 of its large stockpile of shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles, bringing it one step closer to fulfilling President Enrique Bolanos’s earlier commitment to destroy Nicaragua’s entire stock of Man-portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS). The Assembly approved the plan despite opposition from the Sandinista National […]
In preparation for the 60th anniversary of the Federation of American Scientists last autumn, I read several books on our early days. One of the best was Jessica Wang’s American Science in the Age of Anxiety. I got in contact with Professor Wang at UCLA (she is about to move to the University of British […]
Former State Department China expert Donald Keyser last week firmly disputed allegations that he had engaged in espionage on behalf of Taiwanese intelligence. “Mr. Keyser denies that he was ever an agent of Taiwan’s intelligence agency,” his attorneys said in a statement. They further denied that he had failed to comply with the terms of […]
A 2002 report (pdf) prepared by the CIA Counterterrorist Center discusses how terrorists recruit members in prisons such as Guantanamo Bay. “Terrorists groups, including al-Qa’ida, use incarcerated members to recruit and train new members, and in some cases run terrorist organizations and manage or facilitate terrorist attacks.” The classified CIA report was previously published on […]
“Operations security” (OPSEC) refers to the practice of identifying and controlling information that could be exploited by a hostile observer to discern intelligence about U.S. operations. “OPSEC is a methodology that denies critical information to an adversary,” according to a new Defense Department publication (pdf) on the subject. “Unlike security programs that seek to protect […]
Many U.S. intelligence agencies as well as the congressional intelligence oversight committees hire their senior staff from a predictable, somewhat in-grown pool of personnel, which frequently includes those who have previously worked in the intelligence field since they can be immediately cleared. But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence seems to be casting […]
The tiny Western European nation of Andorra has become the latest country to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. On July 12, it became the 134th country to do so, according to a news release today from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna. On the same day, Armenia became the 133rd country to […]
There have been some legislative developments on the India-US nuclear deal. The results are not what I would like to have seen but I suppose it could have been worse. On 27 June, the House International Relations Committee approved their version of the bill 37 to 5. On 29 June the Senate Foreign Relations Committee […]
The need to improve the dissemination of terrorism-related information was among the preeminent policy lessons of September 11. Yet five years later, “systematic, trusted information sharing remains more of an aspiration than a reality,” according to a new task force report from the Markle Foundation. The report proposes a new conceptual framework for authorizing and […]
A new Congressional Research Service report provides a resume of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program that was recently described in news stories. See “Treasury’s Terrorist Finance Program’s Access to Information Held by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)” (pdf), July 7, 2006. News reports on the program elicited furious criticism of the New […]