By Hans M. Kristensen For the next week I’ll be in Vienna for the Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. This is the third in a series of conferences organized and attended by a growing number of countries and humanitarian organizations to discuss the unique risks nuclear weapons pose to humanity and life […]
Updated below The Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG) received a tip last year that the Intelligence Community might have assembled a database containing US person data in violation of law and policy. “A civilian employee with the Army Intelligence and Security Command made an IC IG Hotline complaint alleging an interagency data repository, believed […]
The National Declassification Center at the National Archives yesterday announced the availability of 240 sets of records that have recently undergone declassification processing. Many of the record collections are listed in such banal or generic terms that it is hard to imagine they would attract any interest at all. (“Bureau of Naval Personnel Activity File, […]
New products from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. Iran: Interim Nuclear Agreement and Talks on a Comprehensive Accord, November 26, 2014 U.S. International Corporate Taxation: Basic Concepts and Policy Issues, December 2, 2014 Taxation of Internet Sales and Access: Legal Issues, December 1, 2014 The […]
On October 27, 1977, Dr. Gerald F. Ross filed a patent application for a new invention he had devised to defeat the jamming of electromagnetic transmissions at specified frequencies. But it was not until June 17, 2014 — nearly 37 years later — that his patent was finally granted (Anti-jam apparatus for baseband radar systems, […]
Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following. A Guide to U.S. Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom, November 20, 2014 Iran: U.S. Economic Sanctions and the Authority to Lift Restrictions, November […]
The National Archives and Records Administration told the Central Intelligence Agency last week that it was withholding approval of a CIA proposal to allow the destruction of the email records of all but 22 senior Agency officials. “NARA intends to reassess the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) proposal for the disposition of non-senior email accounts,” wrote […]
When it comes to Department of Defense doctrine on military treatment of detained persons, “unlawful enemy combatants” are a thing of the past. That term has been retired and replaced by “unprivileged enemy belligerents” in a new revision of Joint Publication 3-13 on Detainee Operations, dated November 13, 2014. Among other changes, the revised Publication […]
The government has occasionally invoked the state secrets privilege in a legal proceeding without ever publicly revealing that it had done so, government attorneys disclosed in a pending state secrets case this week. Last September, observers were surprised when the government intervened and asserted the state secrets privilege in a private defamation lawsuit brought by […]
New products from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following. Intelligence Authorization Legislation for FY2014 and FY2015: Provisions, Status, Intelligence Community Framework, November 20, 2014 U.S. Family-Based Immigration Policy, November 19, 2014 Yemen: Background and U.S. Relations, November 19, 2014 Natural Gas for Cars and Trucks: Options and Challenges, November 19, […]
Rep. James P. Moran this week called on President Obama to pardon John Kiriakou, the former CIA officer who was convicted of disclosing the name of an undercover intelligence officer and who is currently serving a prison sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pennsylvania. “Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask for a […]
Senator Edward J. Markey asked the Secretary of Energy this week to expedite the investigation of the firing of James Doyle from Los Alamos National Laboratory, which occurred after Doyle published an analysis critical of U.S. nuclear weapons policy. “I write to urge you in the strongest possible terms to quickly conclude your investigation into […]