The DNI Open Source Center has been redesignated the Open Source Enterprise and incorporated in CIA’s new Directorate of Digital Innovation. The Open Source Center, established in 2005, was tasked to collect and analyze open source information of intelligence value across all media – – print, broadcast and online. The OSC was the successor to […]
Procedures for electing a new Speaker of the House of Representatives are outlined in a new report from the Congressional Research Service. See Electing the Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frequently Asked Questions, October 23, 2015. Other new and updated CRS products include the following. Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage: Implications for Religious Objections, October […]
Classified U.S. intelligence information may be shared with foreign recipients when it is advantageous to the U.S. to do so and when it is not otherwise prohibited by law, according to a directive that was publicly released last week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “It is the policy of the U.S. […]
The ability of Congressional Research Service analysts to support congressional deliberations is substantially enabled by (if not entirely predicated on) the confidentiality with which requests from individual Members of Congress and the CRS responses to those requests are handled. Confidentiality permits congressional offices to consider politically sensitive or unpopular topics, and to evaluate new perspectives […]
Since 2010, the U.S. Army has cut 80,000 soldiers from its ranks. It plans to complete a further reduction of 40,000 more by the end of fiscal year 2017, for an overall 21 percent reduction of Army active forces down to 450,000 soldiers. The reductions in force were described in a July 2015 report to […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following. Privilege Against Self-Incrimination Supplements Journalist Privilege, CRS Legal Sidebar, October 20, 2015 Supreme Court Appointment Process: President’s Selection of a Nominee, October 19, 2015 Supreme Court Appointment Process: Consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee, October 19, 2015 Supreme Court Appointment Process: Senate Debate […]
The United States has used its armed forces hundreds of times in conflicts abroad, even though it has only engaged in eleven declared wars throughout its history. A newly updated tabulation of U.S. military actions has been prepared by the Congressional Research Service, up to and including the October 14, 2015 deployment of 90 U.S. […]
Updated below The Government Accountability Office this week quietly published a list of titles of its restricted reports that have not been publicly released because they contain classified information or controlled unclassified information. A new link to “Restricted Products” appears at the bottom of the GAO homepage (under Reports & Testimonies). “This list is intended […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following. The Internet of Things: Frequently Asked Questions, October 13, 2015 Colombian Peace Talks Breakthrough: A Possible End-Game?, CRS Insight, October 13, 2015 Officers May Be Liable for Assuming an Automatic Hot Pursuit No Knock Exception, CRS Legal Sidebar, October 15, 2015 Sentence Reform […]
Ideally, arms control agreements that are well-conceived and faithfully implemented will foster international stability and build confidence between nations. But things don’t always work out that way, and arms control itself can become a cause for suspicion and conflict. “Can you say anything about how Russia, in this venue, is using their Open Skies flights […]
The Department of Defense needs to take several steps in order to avoid “strategic surprise” by an adversary over the coming decade, according to a new study from the Defense Science Board, a Pentagon advisory body. Among those steps, “Counterintelligence must be enhanced with urgency.” See DSB Summer Study Report on Strategic Surprise, July 2015. […]
In 2010, then-Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair convened a panel to review the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting committed by Army Maj. Nidal Hasan and the Christmas Day bombing attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard Northwest Flight 253. A redacted version of the resulting panel report was finally declassified and released this week. […]