The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to govern surveillance of foreign intelligence targets within the U.S., has had an unusually dynamic legislative history. It has been modified in a hundred ways on at least a dozen occasions, the Congressional Research Service reported (pdf) this week. Despite the demonstrated adaptability of […]
In a rare judicial denial of an official “state secrets” claim, a federal court yesterday rejected (pdf) a government assertion that a lawsuit against AT&T alleging illegal wiretapping should be dismissed because it would place state secrets at risk. In May, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte formally asserted the state secrets privilege in support […]
A new legislative initiative (S. 2590) would require the government to disclose and to publish online all federal contracts, grants, and other forms of spending. “I like to think of this bill as ‘Google for Government Spending’,” said Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). “The concept behind the bill is really quite simple: Put information on government […]
The role of deception in military operations is illuminated and elaborated in a new Department of Defense doctrinal publication (pdf). Military deception refers to “those actions executed to deliberately mislead adversary decision makers as to friendly military capabilities, intentions, and operations, thereby causing the adversary to take specific actions (or inactions) that will contribute to […]
“In the 1958-1968 decade, the U.S. Government approved four covert programs to try to influence the direction of Japanese political life,” the State Department revealed this week in the latest volume of Foreign Relations of the United States, the official history of U.S. foreign policy. “Concerned that potential electoral success by leftist political forces would […]
A new U.S. Army Field Manual (pdf) introduces the concept of “police intelligence operations,” an emerging hybrid of military intelligence and law enforcement. “Police intelligence operations are a military police function that supports, enhances, and contributes to a commander’s situational understanding and battlefield visualization and FP [force protection] programs by portraying the relevant criminal threat […]
Last year the National Academy of Public Administration developed a proposal to perform an “ethics audit” of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The proposal was a response, at NIH’s request, to persistent concerns from members of Congress and others that numerous NIH employees had conflicts of interest arising from their compensated activities outside of […]
(updated below) On January 19, 2006 NASA successfully launched the New Horizons spacecraft on a mission to Pluto. It will fly by the ninth planet on July 14, 2015 before proceeding into the Kuiper Belt. New Horizons is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) fueled by plutonium-238. The natural heat of decay of the […]
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 […]