FAS | Government Secrecy | News ||

August 1999

• Back Channels: The Intelligence Community, by Vernon Loeb, Washington Post, August 31. "Ever since the CIA embarked on a voluntary declassification program for historical documents back in 1992, the agency has declassified more than 1,000 documents about the Soviet Union."
• New Additions to the FBI FOIA Web Site, FBI press release, August 31. The FBI has added files on Pretty Boy Floyd, W.E.B. DuBois, William J. Donovan, Robert F. Kennedy, and Clergy and Laity Concerned.
• The Lessons of Nuclear Secrecy at Rocky Flats, Institute for Science and International Security, August 26. "Excessive secrecy at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production plant near Denver, Colorado, increased the health and safety risks to the public."
• Release of Foreign Relations Volume on Energy Diplomacy and Global Issues, 1964-1968, State Department press statement, August 25.
• Legislation Would Require Review of Declassified Documents, by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press, August 24. "The idea that they're going to reread material that's already been declassified is preposterous. It will basically cripple the declassification program by driving it in circles."
• Polygraph Testing at the Department of Energy, proposed rule for comment, Federal Register, August 18. "The proposed regulations describe the categories of individuals who would be eligible for polygraph testing and controls for the use of such testing and for prevention of unwarranted intrusion into the privacy of individuals."
• DOE Procedures on Eligibility for Access to Classified Information, proposed rule for comment, Federal Register, August 16. "The DOE proposes to amend its regulations concerning the procedures used to render final determinations of eligibility for access to classified matter and/or special nuclear material."
• Kennedy and Castro: The Secret Quest for Accommodation by Peter Kornbluh, National Security Archive, August 16. Declassified documents concerning a 1963 attempt at rapprochement.
• Fact Sheet on Proposed Closure of National Technical Information Service, August 13. "The American people can continue to receive the same information they have today if we close down NTIS and ensure that Government agencies post all technical reports on the Internet and send the documents electronically to the Library of Congress."
• Proposed Closure of National Technical Information Service Announced, Commerce Department press release, August 12. "It was determined that the core function of NTIS -- providing government information for a fee -- is no longer needed in this day of advanced electronic technology."
• DOE Statement on Results of Espionage Investigation, press release, August 12. "There were three lab employees whose responsibilities were clear, and they failed to meet their responsibilities, and I'm asking that the lab take appropriate action to discipline them."
• Ford Administration NSC Minutes Released, at the Gerald R. Ford Library, August 11. "Over 650 pages of formerly 'Top Secret' minutes, covering 33 of the 39 Ford NSC meetings, are now available in whole or redacted form."
• An amendment to prohibit the use of secret evidence in immigration proceedings, offered by Rep. Tom Campbell, August 5. "We are very concerned about the arrest, imprisonment and even forced deportation of individuals here in the United States based on evidence that the individual is not afforded an opportunity to review or challenge." This House colloquy elaborates on the Secret Evidence Repeal Act of 1999 that was introduced in the House as H.R. 2121 on June 10.
• Congress Enacts New Limits on Declassification, from the FY2000 defense authorization conference, August 5. New caps on declassification spending are imposed, and automatic declassification procedures are severely restricted.
• More Pentagon Papers to Remain Secret by Pamela R. Hess, United Press International, August 6. "The House and Senate Armed Services Committees are cutting the number of secret documents the Pentagon is able to declassify and release to the public."
• Espionage Case Little More Than a Political Battle, Critics Say by Jessica Wehrman, Albuquerque Tribune, August 5. "Critics say that despite the months of discussion and proposed solutions, much of the debate has become ineffectual under the weight of the political grandstanding the subject attracts."
• Special Statement on the Wen-Ho Lee Espionage Investigation, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, August 5. "This is a story of investigatory missteps, institutional and personal miscommunications, and -- we believe -- legal and policy misunderstandings and mistakes at all levels of government."
• High School Essay on U.S. Intelligence, from the Congressional Record, August 3. "How would you feel if a total stranger demanded your money and wouldn't tell you what it was being used for, but assured you it wouldn't be misused? Would you trust this person? Of course not. But this is essentially what the CIA does to the American taxpayer..."
• Court Orders Classified Info Removed from Internet, Softwar release, August 3. "On August 2, 1999, Federal Judge Robert Payne issued a court order to SOFTWAR to remove a secret DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) report from the Internet."
• Vice President Announces Declassification of Arctic Imagery, press release, August 2. "Vice President Gore today announced the declassification and release of 59 satellite images of the Arctic Ocean that will be used by scientists to better understand the interaction between polar ice caps and global warming."
• Seaborg Journal Secrecy Disputed, by Andrea Widener, Contra Costa Times, August 1. "Until he died in February at age 86, Seaborg tried to reclaim the final 940 pages of his journal -- documenting his time leading the Atomic Energy Commission and advising Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon -- that remain classified by the Department of Energy."