“Sensitive Security Information (SSI) is information that would be detrimental to transportation security if publicly disclosed,” according to a Department of Homeland Security directive released last week under the Freedom of Information Act. See DHS Management Directive 11056 (pdf), “Sensitive Security Information,” December 16, 2005. Confusingly, however, SSI is also a control marking used by […]
In a somewhat gruesome but unblinking new publication (pdf) prepared for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. military prescribes doctrine for the recovery, identification, handling and burial of deceased soldiers, enemy combatants and civilian detainees. The violent, horrible death of combatants and non-combatants is of course a defining characteristic of war. And the strange […]
A Written Declaration presented in the European Parliament calls for the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe by the end of 2006. The Declaration has until December 10 to gather support from at least half of the Parliament’s 732 members to be adopted and formally submitted to the US government. The initiative comes as […]
In an op-ed in last Wednesday’s Washington Post, IAEA Secretary General Mohammad elBaradei endorsed the US-India nuclear deal without reservation. The Secretary makes several good points but he fails to demonstrate his assertion that the deal will help reach his own objectives.
One way to supplement and improve intelligence oversight would be to employ the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an investigative arm of Congress, to perform routine audits of key intelligence functions. Yet this potentially valuable oversight tool lies dormant due to opposition from the CIA and other intelligence agencies. The GAO will not even attempt to […]
Gen. Michael Hayden, who is now the new CIA director, presented himself as a committed proponent of intelligence oversight in an April 2005 hearing on his nomination to become Deputy Director of National Intelligence. But the record of that hearing, which has just been published, takes on a different aspect in light of the NSA […]
In a December 14, 2005 Executive Order, President Bush directed government agencies to review their Freedom of Information Act programs, evaluate their performance, and develop plans to reduce backlogs and improve efficiency. Those plans were due on June 14 and some of them, not all, have now been published by the Department of Justice Office […]
The Department of Justice Inspector General released a newly declassified version of its 2004 audit of the FBI’s handling of intelligence information related to the September 11 attacks, including a newly disclosed chapter (large pdf) on the case of Zacarias Moussaoui. In a previously released version of the report, the entire chapter 4 on Moussaoui […]
Al Qaeda terrorists contemplated an attack on New York subways in 2003 using an “easily constructed” device called a “mubtakkar” to release cyanide gas, according to a story in Time Magazine this week. But there are reasons to question the reliability and significance of the story, suggested chemist George Smith of GlobalSecurity.org. For one thing, […]
“The alteration of official DoD imagery by persons acting for or on behalf of the Department of Defense is prohibited,” advises a new Pentagon Instruction. See “Alteration of Official DoD Imagery” (pdf), DoD Instruction 5040.05, June 6, 2006. “The days of total air superiority by friendly forces are over. Our potential enemies now may have […]
Coverage of the debate in both the House and the Senate on measures to endorse the current policy in Iraq, referred to a mysterious set of talking points, called the Iraq Floor Debate Prep Book. The Washington Post wrote: “Their position was bolstered by a 74-page document drafted by the White House and distributed by […]
Thirty seven Nobel Laureates signed a letter opposing the administration’s proposed nuclear trade deal between India and the United States. The letter was released at a press briefing at the National Press Club yesterday. The Federation of American Scientists was founded by scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic […]