The conflict in South Sudan is one of four in the world — along with those in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen — that are classified by the United Nations as humanitarian emergencies of the highest order (Level 3), a newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service points out. “U.N. officials estimate that at least […]
Organizations give out awards not only in order to recognize individual excellence, but also to advance and reinforce values prized by their sponsors. So it is both telling and somewhat unexpected that the U.S. intelligence community is creating a new award for certain kinds of dissidents and whistleblowers. “The intelligence community has […] committed to […]
The fact that a now-retired nuclear weapon was once located at a now-closed location in the United States shall no longer be considered classified information, the Department of Defense announced last week. This may seem so trivial and insignificant as to be hardly worth deciding or announcing, but it could have positive practical consequences for […]
After a 5 year review process, the Drug Enforcement Agency decided to reject a petition to reduce or eliminate legal controls on marijuana. However, it agreed to authorize increased legal cultivation of marijuana for research purposes. The current state of affairs was summarized by the Congressional Research Service in DEA Will Not Reschedule Marijuana, But […]
CBS’s 60 Minutes program Risk of Nuclear Attack Rises described that Russia may be lowering the threshold for when it would use nuclear weapons, and showed how U.S. nuclear bombers have started flying missions they haven’t flown since the Cold War.
In recent discussions of whether President Obama should pardon Edward Snowden, it has gone unnoticed that a presidential pardon was once granted to a person who committed an unauthorized disclosure of classified information to the press, effectively erasing his crime. In 1985, Samuel L. Morison, a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, was convicted under the Espionage […]
Last month, the 10,000th Syrian refugee was admitted to the United States in FY2016, the Congressional Research Service noted in a newly updated report. The report “details the U.S. refugee admissions process and the placement and resettlement of arriving refugees in the United States.” See Syrian Refugee Admissions and Resettlement in the United States: In […]
Public discussion of the Edward Snowden case has mostly been a dialog of the deaf, with defenders and critics largely talking past each other at increasing volume. But the disagreements became sharper and more interesting over the past week. “Mr. Snowden is not a patriot. He is not a whistleblower. He is a criminal,” wrote […]
The number of district court vacancies during the Obama presidency grew from 41 vacancies in January 2009 to 75 vacancies in September 2016 — an unusual 83% increase, according to a new assessment from the Congressional Research Service. By contrast, the number of vacancies decreased over the course of the George W. Bush Administration from […]
The Department of Justice has streamlined its national security classification activities over the last several years, resulting in the production of a diminishing number of secrets, according to a new report from the Department’s Inspector General. Specifically, the IG found: * the Department reduced the number of Original Classification Authorities (i.e. officials who are authorized […]
For at least the past six months, and perhaps longer, the Federation of American Scientists website has been blocked by U.S. Cyber Command. This week it was unblocked. The “block” imposed by Cyber Command meant that employees throughout the Department of Defense who attempted to access the FAS website on their government computers were unable […]
“With few exceptions, sea levels are rising relative to the coastlines of the contiguous United States, as well as parts of the Alaskan and Hawaiian coastlines,” a new report from the Congressional Research Service observes. “Although the extent of future sea-level rise remains uncertain, sea-level rise is anticipated to have a range of effects on […]