SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2012, Issue No. 86
August 29, 2012

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

NRO BUDGET REQUEST REFLECTS INTERNAL, EXTERNAL CHALLENGES

In its efforts to improve responsiveness to the needs of its customers, the National Reconnaissance Office this year planned to "provide intelligence data to warfighters in the field using mobile devices." Evidently this capability had not been widely available up to now.

That's one of the slivers of information to be found in the NRO budget justification for FY 2012 that was released this week -- in heavily redacted form -- in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The NRO is the U.S. intelligence agency that builds, launches and operates intelligence satellites.

"The NRO acquires and operates satellites that provide constant global access to critical information otherwise unavailable to the President, his cabinet, other national leaders and numerous customers in the Defense and Intelligence communities," explains the FY2012 NRO Congressional Budget Justification Book, which NRO submitted to Congress in February 2011. "These satellites provide services in three broad categories: GEOINT [geospatial intelligence], SIGINT [signals intelligence], and Communications."

"Over the past 50 years, data collected by NRO systems has provided advance warning of military aggression, supported combat operations, and assisted arms control treaty verification. More recently, data from NRO systems has been used to verify environmental treaties, support humanitarian relief efforts, identify WMD programs, and locate terrorists."

Setting aside the salesmanship and the rhetoric of "striving for excellence" that is the idiom of budget requests, and allowing for the fact that perhaps 90% of the 450 page budget document remains classified, it is still possible to glean at least fragmentary insight into the current state of the NRO from the newly released budget document. For example:

Unlike most other intelligence agencies -- and unlike the Department of Defense as a whole -- the NRO conducts its finances in a manner that is susceptible to external audit.

"For the third year in a row, the NRO received a clean audit opinion on our Financial Statements, a truly unprecedented accomplishment within the IC," said Ms. Betty Sapp, the new NRO Director, in congressional testimony earlier this year.


NEW AIR FORCE INSTRUCTION ON GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

The U.S. Air Force this month issued new guidance on "Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT)." See Air Force Instruction 14-132, August 10, 2012:

The Instruction mandates that "All GEOINT activities will be conducted in compliance with applicable laws, policies, and directives. They will be conducted in a manner that ensures legality and propriety and that preserves and respects privacy and civil liberties."


JAPAN AND THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP, AND MORE FROM CRS

New reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made available to the public include the following.

Japan's Possible Entry Into the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Its Implications, August 24, 2012:

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings in Vladivostok, Russia: A Preview, August 16, 2012:

501(c)(3) Organizations: What Qualifies as "Educational"?, August 21, 2012:

The Budget Control Act of 2011: Budgetary Effects of Proposals to Replace the FY2013 Sequester, August 24, 2012:

Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2004-2011, August 24, 2012:

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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