House Republicans foreclosed Democratic efforts to offer amendments on warrantless domestic surveillance and other controversial intelligence topics when the FY 2007 Intelligence Authorization Act was brought to the floor yesterday. Instead, the House approved by a vote of 327-96 what Rep. Leonard Boswell (R-Iowa) described as “the largest intelligence budget in our history.” Democratic amendments, […]
In the Senate, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) yesterday introduced a bill to require the White House to notify Congress when it declassifies intelligence information. The bill was prompted by recent reports that the President selectively authorized certain disclosures by Vice Presidential aide Scooter Libby without informing the originating agency or other interested persons that the […]
Some recent reports of the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following: “Renditions: Constraints Imposed by Laws on Torture” (pdf), updated April 5, 2006. “Treatment of ‘Battlefield Detainees’ in the War on Terrorism” (pdf), updated March 27, 2006. “Polygraph Use by the Department of Energy: Issues for Congress” (pdf), updated April 7, […]
The contours of the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy are expanding to include dozens of new “intelligence fusion centers” based around the country. An intelligence fusion center is “a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and/or information to the center with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and […]
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is attempting to revamp the compensation system for intelligence personnel to emphasize “pay for performance” rather than duration of employment. But it is considered a delicate, even “potentially destructive” task. “There can be no doubt that pay modernization is coming to the IC,” wrote DDNI Michael Hayden […]
The House version of the 2007 intelligence authorization bill would grant CIA and NSA security personnel the authority to make arrests for “any felony” committed in their presence, no matter how remote from the foreign intelligence mission it might be, the Baltimore Sun reported today. Section 423 of H.R. 5020 “appears…to grant to CIA security […]
Federal courts could, and should, play a more effective role in curtailing unnecessary government secrecy, argues Meredith Fuchs, general counsel at the National Security Archive, in a splendid new law review article. “All too often, courts easily accept the argument that the executive needs unquestioning adherence to its judgments and that the court is not […]
Many people who have tangled with the security clearance system have found it bafflingly inconsistent and unpredictable. New research (pdf) on the role of foreign influence in security clearance disputes, particularly those involving Israel, finds an empirical basis for that perception. According to official guidelines for granting security clearances for access to classified information, foreign […]
When the San Francisco Chronicle reported April 8 that information about the design and layout of the Presidential aircraft Air Force One was available on the world wide web, it generated a spasm of anxiety in some quarters. The anxiety was magnified by a follow-on story in the Chronicle April 19, reprinted in the Pentagon […]
The Law Library of Congress, which maintains the world’s largest collection of legal materials, produces a monthly publication called World Law Bulletin that features the highlights of legal developments around the world, as well as occasional essays on specialized topics by some of the Library’s resident experts. For no good reason, however, the World Law […]
“Security guards at the Department of Homeland Security were forced last month to sign agreements not to disclose information the agency deems sensitive — an attempt, according to several current guards, to silence them after recent high-profile revelations of security breaches at DHS.” See “Guards Say Non-Disclosure Agreements Were Used to Hide Security Flaws at […]
The U.S. Army last year published a handbook (pdf) for commanders and other U.S. military personnel who are newly deployed to Germany which describes German customs, protocol and etiquette — as understood by the Army. It includes a wide variety of interesting and peculiar details, including an introduction to German wine and beer. “German wine […]