The prosecution of two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for mishandling classified information is attracting growing public attention and concern as the anomalous character of the case becomes increasingly clear. It bears repeating that the two defendants, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, are not accused of being agents of Israel […]
Members of the House of Representatives who serve on the Intelligence Committee or the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee should be required to obtain security clearances as a condition of the service, said Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), who introduced legislation to that end last week. “These two Committees have access to the most closely guarded secrets our […]
The Senate voted last week to end the practice of secret “holds” by which a Senator may anonymously block the consideration of pending legislation. The proposal, advanced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), would still permit Senators to object to legislation, but they could not do so anonymously. “What is unjust […]
The Department of Defense recently published new doctrine (pdf) on the planning and execution of “information operations.” Information operations, including what was formerly known as “information warfare” (a term that has been withdrawn from official doctrine), is comprised of five elements: psychological operations, military deception, operations security, electronic warfare, and computer network operations. Its overall […]
The effects of radio frequency (RF) microwave (MW) radiation on the human nervous system and their potential for use in non-lethal weaponry were discussed in a new summary report (pdf) prepared for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. “Although the Department of Defense is one of the world’s largest developers and users of RF/MW-emitting […]
This report examines the debate over China’s modernization of its nuclear forces, describes past and current U.S. nuclear targeting of China, and uses software to simulate the effects of Chinese and U.S. of nuclear attacks.
At a Senate hearing on the foreign aid budget on Tuesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice underscored the importance of “…deny[ing] terrorists access to the world’s most dangerous weapons, including conventional weapons like MANPADS,” and pointed to funding increases in the President’s FY07 budget for State Department programs that “help countries counter the proliferation of […]
Must the President of the United States obey the law? Ordinarily, the answer of course is yes, unless the law itself is unconstitutional. It is “uncontroversial,” wrote then-Assistant Attorney General Walter Dellinger in a 1994 memorandum for the Clinton White House, that “there are circumstances in which the President may appropriately decline to enforce a […]
The People’s Republic of China is making significant strides in science and technology areas related to national security and commercial enterprise, according to a new “bibliometric” study of Chinese scientific publications (pdf) performed by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research. “China’s output of research articles has expanded dramatically in the last decade. In terms […]
The activities of Pakistan’s notorious Abdul Qadeer Khan in proliferating nuclear weapons technology are examined in detail in a recent Master’s Thesis, along with an analysis of their enabling conditions and some of their larger implications. “The A. Q. Khan nuclear supplier network constitutes the most severe loss of control over nuclear technology ever,” wrote […]
Some notable new (or newly acquired) publications of the Congressional Research Service include the following. “North Korean Counterfeiting of U.S. Currency” (pdf), March 22, 2006. “Science and Technology Policy: Issues for the 109th Congress” (pdf), updated February 3, 2006. “The Jackson-Vanik Amendment: A Survey” (pdf), updated August 1, 2005.
Will the New Triad of nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities reduce or increase the role of U.S. nuclear weapons? To get an answer to that question I went to a hearing the Senate Armed Services Committee held earlier today on the Pentagon’s new Global Strike mission. But instead of giving a clear answer, the Pentagon muddled […]