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September 1999

• Lawmaker Wants DOE to Abandon Expanded Polygraph Testing at Labs by Keith J. Costa, Inside the Pentagon, September 30. Calling the Energy Department's plans to expand polygraph testing at the agency nuclear labs "overly broad," Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) is asking DOE Secretary Richardson to enact a moratorium on all polygraph tests until an alternative system for testing DOE employees is developed.
• New Additions to the FBI FOIA Web Site, press release, September 30. Files are now available online concerning Bertolt Brecht, John Steinbeck, Armand Hammer, J. Edgar Hoover, and Sam Giancana.
• DoD Preps for Y2K-Related Cyber Attacks, by Daniel Verton, Federal Computer Week/CNN, September 29. "The Defense Department has begun to boost intelligence operations and has put technologists on alert to better defend the nation's crucial networks."
• Rep. Ellen Tauscher Calls for Moratorium on Expanded Polygraph Testing at Nuclear Labs, letter to Energy Secretary Richardson, September 28. "I urge you to enact a complete moratorium on all polygraph tests until an acceptable, limited polygraph plan is developed and vetted."
• Statement of Michael J. Ravnitzky before the Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group at a public hearing, September 27. "I have encountered many unwarranted classification barriers during my requests for Nazi War Criminal Records or related documents under the Freedom of Information Act."
• DOE Secretary Richardson Says Energy Bill Will Harm National Security, DOE press release, September 27. "By denying $35 million in funds for cyber-security upgrades, it will be impossible to provide real-time cyber intrusion detection and protection for all 70 DOE sites."
• China and the United States: From Hostility to Engagement, 1960-1998 by Jeffrey Richelson, National Security Archive. An electronic briefing book with declassified documents from the Archive collection.
• Safeguarding Classified National Security Information; Final Rule, Federal Register, September 24. "This final rule promulgates a new Directive on Safeguarding Classified National Security Information, which applies to Federal agencies."
• Remarks on Polygraph Testing by Senator Jeff Bingaman, September 22. "The proposed DOE rule on polygraphs ... is not based on sound science and does not represent reasoned decision making, in my view."
• Statement of Steven Aftergood on the Proposed DOE Polygraph Policy, September 22. "If it is imposed against the will of the affected employees, polygraph testing could actually damage the national security that it is intended to protect."
• DOE Lie-detector Tests for Employees Criticized by Katy Saldarini, Government Executive, September 22. Critics "say a new policy requiring employees of the nation's nuclear weapons complex to submit to lie-detector tests is a misguided approach that could damage, rather than protect, national security."
• The Public Interest Declassification Act of 1999, draft legislation prepared for Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, September 21. The bill, which has not yet been introduced, would establish "a process for declassifying selected records of national security activities of extraordinary public interest."
• Foreign Government Information is Subject to Mandatory Declassification Review, letter from ISOO Director Steven Garfinkel, September 21. Contrary to Pentagon assertions, "Foreign government information in the custody of the U.S. Government is subject to the mandatory declassification review provisions of E.O. 12958."
• Energy Secretary Richardson Releases Results Of Independent Security Reviews at National Labs, DOE press release, September 20.
• Pentagon, Company Spar Over Security Locks, by Lance Williams, Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader, September 19. "Taco Bell has a higher standard than what we're using for some of our classified info."
• Let All Americans in on the Stories, the Baton Rouge Advocate (editorial), September 8. "The culture of secrecy is alive and well on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers appear ready to roll back the rights of Americans to access to the government’s secrets from the Cold War."
• House Debate on FY2000 Defense Authorization Conference Report (>200k), September 15. This legislation approves the establishment of a new National Nuclear Security Administration and, according to Rep. John Dingell, "returns us to the dark, secretive days of the Atomic Energy Commission, when people did not know what was going on, and when the AEC diligently lied to everybody."
• President Announces Declassification, Release of Satellite Photos, remarks in New Zealand, September 15. "Today America is releasing once classified satellite images of the Antarctic's unique dry valleys. The pictures provide two sets of images taken 10 years apart and provide some of the most detailed and important information we've ever had on these ecological treasures."
• ISOO Directive 1; Appendix A, "a uniform referral standard that Federal agencies must use for multi-agency declassification issues," Federal Register, September 13.
• China-Spying Scandal Produces Fallout, No Charges by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, September 3. "For the rest of his life he is tagged as 'suspected spy' or 'accused spy' Wen Ho Lee. And even a real spy is entitled to better treatment in America."
• Of Spies and Culprits and Government Leaks, by Steven Aftergood, Insight Magazine (letter to the editor), September 13. "Rep. Curt Weldon dishonors himself by falsely accusing former energy secretary Hazel O'Leary of leaking a classified diagram."

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