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 […]
At a time when the legality of U.S. intelligence activities such as the NSA surveillance program is a live issue, President Bush announced that he would name three individuals to the Intelligence Oversight Board, which is supposed to notify the President of any unlawful activities performed by U.S. intelligence agencies. The three appointees are Adm. […]
The terms “probable cause” and “reasonable suspicion” have almost become household words by now due to continuing public controversy over the legality of the NSA surveillance program. The legal definitions of these terms were examined in a new memorandum prepared by the Congressional Research Service for the Senate Intelligence Committee. A copy was obtained by […]