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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: October 2013

September 2013

• Kenneth Wainstein Appointed to Public Interest Declassification Board, Congressional Record, September 17.
• Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis's clearance draws scrutiny by Leigh Munsil, Politico, September 17. "The cases of the National Security Agency leaker, and yesterday's Washington Navy Yard shooter show just how dependent the national security apparatus is on outside contractors. And, critics say, it exposes serious flaws in the screening process necessary for access to sensitive jobs and highly secure buildings."
• Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis heard voices by Richard A. Serrano, David Cloud and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times, September 17. "The security clearance system is not foolproof," said Steven Aftergood, a secrecy and security expert with the Federation of American Scientists. "But what is reasonable to expect is that evidence of past criminal activity and a propensity to violence should be detected, and in this case the process failed to do that."
• NYPD 'Secret' Classification For Documents 'Means Diddly' In Eyes Of Legal Experts by Matt Sledge, Huffington Post, September 16. "Since at least 2003, the New York Police Department has been labeling some of its internal documents 'Secret,' a designation that has baffled government secrecy experts, journalists and civil liberties lawyers."
• Cyber security: The new arms race for a new front line by Anna Mulrine, Christian Science Monitor, September 15. "The Pentagon -- and a growing cyber industrial complex -- gears up for the new front line: cyberspace. Cyber defense is necessary. But it could cost us."
• Intelligence Officials Admit That Edward Snowden's NSA Leaks Call For Reforms by Andy Greenberg, Forbes, September 13. "Over the past week, two high-level intelligence officials have now acknowledged that the still-widening scandal around Snowden's disclosures of classified information have actually led to a worthwhile public debate and warrant legal reforms."
• Comments of Steven Aftergood Submitted to Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, September 10. "what we want to optimally protect is not 'national security' but 'constitutional government.' They are not exactly the same thing."
• Doubts raised about independence of White House panel on NSA privacy by Ali Watkins, McClatchy Newspapers, September 7. "President Barack Obama has announced the names of the five members of a task force to examine the National Security Agency's controversial collection of Internet and cell phone records, but privacy and open government advocates say they don't believe the panel is likely to be very critical of the NSA program."
• U.S. intelligence agencies spend millions to hunt for insider threats, document shows by Carol D. Leonnig, Julie Tate and Barton Gellman, Washington Post, September 1. "The U.S. government suspects that individuals with connections to al-Qaeda and other hostile groups have repeatedly sought to obtain jobs in the intelligence community, and it reinvestigates thousands of employees a year to reduce the threat that one of its own may be trying to compromise closely held secrets, according to a classified budget document."

Older News: August 2013

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Updated October 1, 2013