The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is no longer disclosing the amounts of highly enriched uranium (HEU) that are sought for export to foreign research reactors, prompting complaints that the new non-disclosure policy undermines effective oversight of the traffic in nuclear weapons-grade material. “Under prior longstanding policy the Commission publicly disclosed such information, and this enabled the […]
The Department of Energy recently approved a comprehensive manual on procedures for protecting all manner of classified or controlled information in the Department’s possession. From RD (Restricted Data) and FRD (Formerly Restricted Data) to SAPs (Special Access Programs) and SPECATs (Special Category programs), it’s all in there. (Or almost all. A complete roster of all […]
Equipped with a one million dollar budget for the current fiscal year, the Public Interest Declassification Board will hold its first meeting on Saturday, February 25. The Board, which serves a purely advisory function and does not have independent declassification authority, is chaired by L. Britt Snider, the former CIA Inspector General, and supported by […]
The challenges posed by so-called “sensitive but unclassified” information, and Administration efforts to bring order to this problematic policy area, were explored in “Government withholds ‘sensitive-but-unclassified’ information” by Lance Gay, Scripps Howard News Service, February 2, 2006. The consequences of the government’s unprecedented use of the Espionage Act to prosecute non-governmental employees for mishandling classified […]
The House Government Reform Committee held an extraordinary hearing yesterday on the vulnerabilities of national security whistleblowers who challenge what they see as agency misconduct. “Breaking bureaucratic ranks to speak unpleasant and unwelcome truths takes courage and risks invoking the wrath of those with the power and motive to shoot the messenger,” said Rep. Christopher […]
In an unprecedented and previously unimaginable case, two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) were accused last year of mishandling classified government information. Now they have asked a federal court to dismiss the charges against them. The prosecution of the former AIPAC officials, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, represents an […]
The Bush Administration’s practice of selectively declassifying information that advances its policy agenda while withholding other information that controverts that agenda is “kind of sleazy,” an analyst quoted in the Wall Street Journal today said. Okay, it was me. But still. See “Cheney Role Risks Political Fallout” by Anne Marie Squeo and John D. McKinnon, […]
A long-simmering dispute over the role and character of the Congressional Research Service now threatens to boil over in the form of a clash between CRS management and CRS analyst Louis Fisher. Fisher, a specialist in American government and separation of powers issues, is one of the superstars of the CRS, whose work is widely […]
The Central Intelligence Agency continues to make a mockery of its legal obligations under the Freedom of Information Act and the national security classification system. The Project on Government Oversight recently asked the CIA to undertake a declassification review of the Iraqi declaration on weapons of mass destruction that was presented to the United Nations […]
Navy personnel are forbidden to disclose or even discuss the presence or absence of nuclear weapons aboard any U.S. Navy vessel, according to a new Navy Instruction. “Military members and civilian employees of the Department of the Navy shall not reveal, purport to reveal, or cause to be revealed any information, rumor, or speculation with […]
The Logan Act, which became law in 1799, generally prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in freelance diplomacy with foreign governments. The Act is the subject of a new report from the Congressional Research Service. “Although it appears that there has never been a prosecution under the Logan Act, there have been several judicial references to […]
The US Chief of Naval Operations has publicly issued an Instruction that orders US Navy personnel not to tell anyone that US warships do not carry nuclear weapons. Yet the same Instruction states that it is US policy not to deploy nuclear weapons on the ships. The new Instruction, “Release of Information on Nuclear Weapons […]