---

Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: May 1999 -

December 1998 - April 1999

April 1999

• Release of Foreign Relations Volume on Germany and Berlin, 1964-1968, April 29. "...presents the documentary record of U.S. policy toward Berlin and Germany during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson."
• CIA Official Says Intel Assessments Need to Be More Explicit, Inside the Pentagon, April 29. Declassifying portions of the assessments would allow for a more educated public debate, official says.
• Statement of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, April 28. "While I cannot comment on the specifics, I can confirm that classified nuclear weapons computer codes at Los Alamos were transferred to an unclassified computer system...."
• DOE Sensitive Country Foreign Visitors Moratorium Act, introduced by Senator Shelby, April 27, 1999. "I understand that a moratorium on the foreign visitors program may be perceived as a draconian measure. Until the Department fully implements a comprehensive and sustained counterintelligence program, however, I believe that we must err on the side of caution."
• Ministry of Defence (UK) Pushes Ahead on Nuclear Openness, April 21. "The aim of UK nuclear transparency is to promote international openness and stability, helping to create the conditions, ultimately, for global nuclear reductions."
• Nuclear Disarmament in the Modern World, a speech by British Defense Secretary George Robertson, March 1. "We have brought a new and completely unprecedented degree of openness to the nuclear debate."
• Ministry of Defence (UK) Nuclear Declassification Seminar, speech by Paul Roper, senior technical adviser, Ministry of Defence, April 21. "...the process of declassification has begun but we can undoubtedly go further."
• Ministry of Defence (UK) Nuclear Declassification Seminar, speech by John Spellar, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence, April 21. "We can still preserve our defensive capabilities whilst at the same time releasing more nuclear related information into the public domain."
• Agents Who Served America Should Have Their Day in Court, legislation to address breach of contract claims against the U.S. intelligence community, introduced by Rep. James Traficant, April 22.
• Statement of Energy Secretary Richardson on the Damage Assessment of Chinese Espionage, April 21.
• White House Statement on the Assessment of Chinese Espionage, April 21. "I am asking the National Counterintelligence Policy Board to ... propose any concrete steps that may be appropriate to strengthen protections against efforts by China and other countries to acquire sensitive nuclear weapons information."
• Intelligence Community Damage Assessment on Implications of Chinese Espionage, April 21. Though there has been an "aggressive" Chinese espionage effort to collect U.S. nuclear weapons information, to date it "has not resulted in any apparent modernization of their deployed strategic force or any new nuclear weapons deployment."
• "Opening Doors for Democracy in Europe", announcement of a European Parliament Conference on Transparency and Access to Documents, to be held in Brussels, April 26
• Gathering Intelligence Nuggets One by One, intelligence news from the Washington Post, April 19
• 'Security' in Space. The decision by U.S. Space Command to restrict distribution of the orbital locations of some "unclassified but sensitive" satellites is a wonderful example of the triumph of wishful thinking over reality, writes Allen Thomson in a letter to the Washington Post, April 17.
• Legislation to Declassify the Journal of Dr. Glenn Seaborg, introduced by Senator Moynihan on March 15, 1999. "It is devastating that a man who gave so much of his life to his country was so outrageously treated by his own government."
• State Department Inspector General Says Declassification Goals are Achievable, Inside the Pentagon, April 8. An Inspector General report finds that declassification at State is in good shape, but could be improved further.
• Operational Security Warning, April 7. The Pentagon advises journalists that there will be no advance warning of military strikes on Belgrade.
• Record of Historic Richard Nixon-Zhou Enlai Talks in February 1972 Now Declassified. This is a collection of newly declassified documents presented by the National Security Archive.
• Lab's Top-Secret Computers Quiet: Managers to Look for Leaks, Albuquerque Journal, April 6. The classified computer network at Los Alamos is shut down for security reasons.
• Space Command Curtails Public's Access to Unclassified Satellite Data, Inside the Air Force, April 2. More on the withholding of data about the locations of DoD satellites, with the text of the February 19 Space Command directive on the subject.
• U.S. Masks Data on Tracks of Satellites, The Washington Post, April 1. U.S. Space Command has decided to remove data from the web about the locations of DoD satellites.
• "Trade of 'Blackest' Secrets Began in '45 -- in N.M.", Albuquerque Journal, April 1. Nuclear espionage goes way back.

March 1999

• Safeguards and Security at Domestic Nuclear Weapons Facilities, Report to the President, March 30. Security defects are found at several weapons labs. The need to protect information is "the most daunting security challenge of the next millenium [!]."
• Floor Statement of Senator Domenici on the Chinese Spy Scandal, March 24. "We have halted a declassification initiative...."
• CIA Withholds "Oldest Classified Document", press release from the James Madison Project, March 30
• When Secrecy Stops Science, Wired News, March 29
• Statement of Warren Rudman, PFIAB, on DOE Security Review, March 26
• Declassified documents from 1975 on "B�isbol Diplomacy with Cuba", presented by the National Security Archive
• Secrecy in Science, A Public Colloquium, Kresge Auditorium, MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA, March 29, 1999
• Pinochet Declassification is "Underway", State Department press briefing, March 24
• New DoD Policy Requires Oral Security Pledge for TS/SCI Clearances, memo from Defense Secretary Cohen, February 5
• More on New DoD Requirement for Oral Security Pledges, memo from Arthur L. Money, February 5
• Even More on New DoD Requirement for Oral Security Pledges, American Forces Press Service, March 22
• DOE Proposes New Directive on "Sensitive But Unclassified" Information, March 18
• White House Announces Another DOE Security Review, March 18
• Energy Department Announces New Security Measures, March 17
• U.S.-China Exchanges Threatened by Spying Charges, The Baltimore Sun, March 14
• An ISOO survey of public opinion: What Do Americans Need to Know?
• Military Reservists Police DoD Web Sites, March 11
• The National Security Archive has prepared an extraordinary collection of declassified documents on U.S. Policy in Guatemala, 1966-1996
• Keeping the Bottom Line Quiet, an article on intelligence budget secrecy from the Washington Post, March 9
• Report of the Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification, which acknowledged "a significant effort to declassify vital documents" by the U.S. government.

February 1999

• Pentagon Establishes Team to Monitor the Web, February 25
• More Nixon 'Abuse of Power' Transcripts Placed on the Web, February 25
• Los Alamos Clamps Down on Public Access from Internet, Albuquerque Journal, February 20
• Defense Department Comments on New Web Policy, February 16
• Secret U.S. Diana Files Subpoenaed, "Two U.S. spy agencies have been served subpoenas ordering them to turn over secret Princess Diana documents...."
• Invention Secrecy: At the end of last year, over 5000 secrecy orders were in effect on patent applications under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951.
• Special Historical Records Review Plan mandated by Congress will curtail automatic declassification in order to prevent the inadvertent release of Restricted Data.
• "The CIA's Budget? Sorry It's Secret", Associated Press, February 1
• "What You Don't Know Can Hurt You", an op-ed by Geneva Overholser, The Washington Post, February 1

January 1999

• Congressmen Ask President to Disclose Intelligence Budget, January 28, 1999
• Joint Security Commission Recently Reconvened
• More Nixon Materials to be Opened at National Archives, January 20
• Senator Moynihan Reintroduces the Government Secrecy Reform Act, January 19
• South Korea Declassifies Documents on 1968 Pueblo Incident, January 11
• Executive Order on Nazi War Criminal Records, January 11
• President Names Three to Nazi War Record Working Group, January 11
• State Dept Comments on Declassification of Kissinger, Pinochet Documents, January 11
• "The Kissinger Transcripts", edited by William Burr of the National Security Archive, presents declassified records of Kissinger's negotiations with Beijing and Moscow.
• A new draft declassification review plan will tend to eliminate automatic declassification in 1999 (official use only).
• The Public Records of 1968, official United Kingdom government documents released under the UK's 30 year rule, January 1.

December 1998

• FRUS Supplement on Cuba Published (1961-63), December 31
• A CIA Secret, The Washington Post (editorial), 28 December 1998
• CIA Won't Disclose Total Intelligence Appropriation, The Washington Post, 25 December 1998
• Declaration of DCI George Tenet opposing disclosure of the FY 1999 intelligence budget request, December 11, and an FAS rebuttal.
• More State Dept Comments on Pinochet Declassification, December 9
• DoD Adopts Restrictive New Web Policy, December 7
• Public Disclosure Bill would penalize state government agencies in California for improper delay or denial of records, December 7
• State Dept "Clarifies" Position on Pinochet Declassification, December 2
• State Dept Weighs Declassification of Pinochet Documents, December 1

October 1998

• Automatic Declassification Suspended, ISOO memorandum to agencies, October 28

maintained by Steven Aftergood