On February 16, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller presented a proposal to investigate the National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program. A copy of Sen. Rockefeller’s motion, outlining the scope of the proposed investigation, is here. But Committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts blocked a vote on the motion until March 7. “If, by […]
“Selectively applied, the declassification process can become political and sleazy,” according to an editorial in the Buffalo News. See “Cheney misuses expanded powers,” February 18. The spectrum of opinion and analysis on the Vice President’s declassification authority was surveyed in “Cheney’s Secret Powers” by Dan Froomkin, White House Briefing, February 17. “Another House Republican committee […]
On February 15th, Senator Edward Kennedy introduced S.2291, The <a href=”http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.02291:”Responsible Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, which aims to expand compensation and clarify liability issues that will arise if untested vaccines and countermeasures need to be distributed in the event of a pandemic disease outbreak. The move is clearly designed to revise the sweeping […]
The American Bar Association (ABA) adopted a resolution (pdf) this week calling on the Attorney General to clarify that designating a record as “sensitive but unclassified” does not provide a legal basis for withholding that record. The ABA also called for establishment of a standardized policy for employing the “sensitive but unclassified” (SBU) marking. The […]
Efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to assert itself as a viable member of the U.S. intelligence community have yielded a new strategic plan for homeland security intelligence and a management directive organizing the Department’s intelligence activity. The new strategic plan is a handsome document, but largely devoid of significant content. See “DHS Intelligence […]
Several recently updated reports of the Congressional Research Service deal with the People’s Republic of China, including the following. “China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues,” updated January 31, 2006. “China’s Economic Conditions,” updated January 12, 2006. “China’s Trade with the United States and the World,” updated January 23, 2006. […]
In discussing the Vice President’s declassification authority yesterday, we should have noted that some categories of information are protected by statute, not just by executive order. Such information, including intelligence sources and methods that are protected by the National Security Act, cannot simply be declassified by presidential (or vice presidential) fiat. The point was made […]
The records of two confirmation hearings conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence have just been published: that of Benjamin A. Powell to be General Counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and that of John S. Redd to be Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Each contains some interesting details […]
A long-rumored but never before seen Chinese underground submarine base is shown for the first time in a new article written by analysts from the Federation of American Scientists and Natural Resources Defense Council. The article, published in Imaging Notes, shows newly acquired satellite images of the submarine base, three air bases, and China’s nuclear […]
More and more Americans of all political stripes are concerned that the Bush Administration has exceeded its legal authority by conducting intelligence surveillance outside of what the law permits. Anxiety over illegal surveillance is heightened by the prospect that an ideologically subservient Congress may not insist on the primacy of law, but will simply defer […]
“Is it your view that a Vice President has the authority to declassify information?” Vice President Cheney was asked yesterday by Fox News’ Brit Hume. “There is an executive order to that effect,” replied the Vice President. This was a simple answer to a straightforward question, but the matter is actually a bit more complicated. […]
The Department of Energy expects to complete the declassification review of 12.7 million pages of its 25 year old historically valuable permanent records by December 31, 2006, the Department advised the Information Security Oversight Office last month. The January 2006 Department of Energy Declassification Plan was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Michael […]