“Don’t use your left hand for contact with others,” advises the U.S. Marine Corps in a new edition of the Iraq Culture Smart Card (very large pdf) which is distributed to military personnel in Iraq. “It is considered unclean.” It seems late in the day for such niceties. Amid the daily brutality of the Iraq […]
In a significant policy reversal, the Department of Defense last week formally directed that the humane treatment requirements of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions shall henceforth be applied to all prisoners and detainees in DoD custody (as first reported by the Financial Times). See this July 7 memorandum (pdf) from Deputy Secretary of […]
The House Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing July 13 on the role that considerations of foreign influence play in decisions to grant or deny security clearances for access to classified information. One of the principal considerations leading to denial of a security clearance is when the applicant has relatives or relationships or other […]
A May 18 letter sent to President Bush by House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Pete Hoekstra criticizing Administration policy on intelligence (first reported July 9 by Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane of the New York Times) has already earned an enduring place in the annals of congressional oversight of intelligence. While it has been welcomed […]
“Arrogance, secrecy, and bad judgment have mired us in a mess in Guantanamo from which we are having great difficulty in extricating ourselves,” wrote U.S. Army Gen. (Ret.) Barry R. McCaffrey in a report (pdf) on his recent trip to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay. “The JTF Guantanamo Detention Center is the most professional, […]
Department of Energy classification reviewers at the National Archives examined over 2.5 million pages of previously declassified records earlier this year and found only nine (9) pages that they said contained classified information which should not have been publicly disclosed, according to a new report to Congress (pdf). This is a vanishingly small error rate […]
The Department of Energy has released a redacted version of its October 2005 Historical Records Declassification Guide, a document used by classification reviewers to determine which information may be publicly released under the declassification provisions of executive order 12958. There are 15 categories of DOE national security information that are exempt from automatic declassification, the […]
“The Administration has taken significant steps to improve the process by which the Federal Government grants individuals access to classified information,” the Office of Management and Budget said in a recent report (pdf) on security clearances. “The average time it takes today to complete the security clearance process has been reduced by 18 days, or […]
On Monday, the Bush administration announced a massive $5.1 billion arms package for Pakistan, the largest arms sale to the Indian subcontinent since US sanctions were suspended in 2001. The package includes 36 F-16 fighter jets, armaments, and upgrades for its existing fleet of F-16s. The announcement came five days after the administration officially notified […]
“It’s not a crime to publish classified information,” explained Washington Post reporter Dana Priest in an electric moment on last Sunday’s NBC Meet the Press, even though “[commentator William] Bennett keeps telling people that it is.” Mr. Bennett, who was sitting right next to Ms. Priest, had declared last April that reporters like Ms. Priest […]
A private researcher investigating the history of the U.S. biological weapons program at the National Archives recently came up empty. “She asked for the files for Fort Detrick from 1946 to 1956, and was brought 16 cartons,” recounted Milton Leitenberg of the University of Maryland. “However, every single file in every one of the 16 […]
With its decision last week to strike down the Bush Administration’s unilateral creation of military tribunals for trying detainees, the Supreme Court highlighted and reinforced the rule of law in the conduct of military operations. Several recent publications provide rich background on military law. The 2006 edition of the “Operational Law Handbook” (pdf) published by […]