New publications from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public disclosure include the following. A New Authorization for Use of Military Force Against the Islamic State: Comparison of Current Proposals in Brief, October 21, 2014 U.S. Citizens Kidnapped by the Islamic State, CRS Insights, October 17, 2014 Smartphone Data Encryption: A […]
Last week government attorneys submitted 28 documents concerning “watchlisting” procedures to a federal court for in camera review that they said should be protected from disclosure under the state secrets privilege. The documents had been sought by the plaintiff in Gulet Mohamed v. Eric Holder, a case challenging the constitutionality of the “no fly” list. […]
New and updated publications from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. Cybercrime: An Overview of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Statute and Related Federal Criminal Laws, October 15, 2014 Insurance and Climate Change: Do Governments Have a Duty to Protect Property Owners?, CRS Legal Sidebar, […]
The executive branch interprets the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force to permit military action against terrorist groups that are “associated” with Al Qaeda. Such associated forces are considered co-belligerents with Al Qaeda and the Taliban and are therefore legal targets of U.S. military force. But some groups or individuals may be “affiliated” with […]
A report to Congress on authorized disclosures of classified intelligence to the media — not unauthorized disclosures — is classified and is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Agency said. The notion of an authorized disclosure of classified information is close to being a contradiction in terms. If something […]
Security policies in the executive branch are being overhauled in response to a potential “insider threat.” But while some progress is being made, the intended functionality will not be available for several more years to come. The insider threat includes “the threat of those insiders who may use their authorized access to compromise classified information.” […]
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. The Ebola Outbreak: Select Legal Issues, CRS Legal Sidebar, October 6, 2014 Ebola: Basics About the Disease, October 3, 2014 As Midterm Election Approaches, State Election Laws Challenged, CRS Legal Sidebar, October 7, 2014 Child […]
Offices of Inspector General (OIGs) are generally known for performing investigations of executive branch agencies in order to combat waste, fraud and abuse. But many IGs also have a law enforcement function, and many of their employees are armed. The most recent data available (from 2008) indicate that 33 Offices of Inspector General had a […]
The challenges of identifying the perpetrators of a nuclear attack on the United States and communicating that information to senior leadership were considered in a 2009 workshop sponsored by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. A declassified report on the workshop was released last week in heavily redacted form. See “Transforming Nuclear Attribution: […]
The Central Intelligence Agency has asked for authority to destroy email messages sent by non-senior officials of the Agency. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has tentatively approved the proposal. In an August 18 appraisal of the CIA request, Meredith Scheiber of NARA wrote that any permanently valuable material in the emails would almost […]
The CIA should not have redacted the amount that was paid for a Commodore Amiga portable computer in 1987 from a recently declassified article, a CIA official said today. (CIA: Cost of Personal Computer in 1987 is a Secret, Secrecy News, September 29). “The redaction of the cost of the Commodore Amiga computer was in […]
Updated below Under the prevailing information policies of the Central Intelligence Agency, even some well-known public facts, such as the price of a popular personal computer, may be withheld from public disclosure. “We bought our first Commodore Amiga in 1987 for less than [price redacted] including software,” according to a paper entitled “NPIC, Amiga, and […]