A House resolution to investigate the so-called Downing Street memo on pre-war intelligence on Iraq was considered and rejected, along with two other resolutions on Iraq and the Valerie Plame case, in a September 14, 2005 markup by the House Committee on International Relations. See the report of that Committee markup (pdf). Sen. Arlen Specter […]
The Department of Defense withdrew from its web site a DoD inspector general report that was critical of information security in the Missile Defense Agency’s ground-based missile defense system. Federal Computer Week reported on the removal of the document and posted the missing document on its own web site. See “DOD removes missile defense system […]
Some notable new reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following. “The Middle East Peace Talks,” updated March 16, 2006. “Terrorism and National Security: Issues and Trends,” updated March 9, 2006. “North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program,” updated February 21, 2006. “Nepal: Background and U.S. Relations,” updated February 2, 2006.
The Director of National Intelligence yesterday announced the public release of Iraqi documents that were captured by U.S. forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The release came in response to pressure from House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra and Senator Rick Santorum, who had both introduced legislation to compel disclosure of the captured Iraqi documents, and from […]
Senate Republicans led by Sen. Mike DeWine yesterday introduced a bill (pdf) that would authorize warrantless intelligence surveillance for up to 45 days, after which it could be renewed upon review by the Attorney General. The bill would require notification to Congress of various aspects of the program. But significantly, it would impose no external […]
Prepared testimony from a March 14 House Government Reform subcommittee hearing titled “Drowning in a Sea of Faux Secrets” that addressed overclassification, reclassification, and the use of the “sensitive but unclassified” control marking can be found here. “Congressional Notification of Intelligence Activities, Intelligence-Related Activities, Special Access Programs, and Covert Actions Within the Department of the […]
“All persons who have authorized possession of classified information, and persons who have unauthorized possession, who come into possession in an unauthorized way of classified information, must abide by the law. They have no privilege to estimate that they can do more good with it.” “So, that applies to academics, lawyers, journalists, professors, whatever. They […]
Nuclear weapons are surprisingly prominent in the Pentagon’s new offensive Global Strike mission, according to the new FAS report Global Strike: A Chronology of the Pentagon’s New Offensive Strike Plan. The 250-page report traces the development of Global Strike through a comprehensive compilation of guidance documents, public statements, budget program descriptions, contracts, and declassified military […]
The government’s use of the problematic “sensitive but unclassified” (SBU) designation to restrict access to information that does not warrant classification is coming under new scrutiny. “Federal agencies do not use uniform definitions of SBU information or have consistent policies for safeguarding or releasing it,” a new study from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) observed. […]
Some other notable publications from the Congressional Research Service include the following. “Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses,” updated March 10, 2006. “Homeland Security: Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles,” updated February 16, 2006. “Military Aviation: Issues and Options for Combating Terrorism and Counterinsurgency,” January 27, 2006.
“Intelligence in the Civil War” is the topic of a new study published by the Central Intelligence Agency (PDF). The technical challenges facing the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and a research agenda to help meet those challenges were described in a new report from the National Research Council. See “Priorities for GEOINT Research at the […]
President Bush this week said that a newspaper — the Los Angeles Times — had published details of a new technology used to defend against improvised explosive devices, and that jihadists used details from that newspaper story to develop techniques for defeating the new technology. Noah Shachtman of DefenseTech.org argues that there is reason to […]