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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: August 2000

July 2000

• Fighting Online "Leaks" by Dan Verton, Federal Computer Week, July 31. "Although people still sign nondisclosure agreements in which they make a solemn commitment to respect classification restrictions, it seems that more and more people are prepared to renege on that commitment," Aftergood said.
• National Defense's Most Potent Weapon: More Truth by Loren Thompson, The Lexington Institute, July 28. "The bottom line is the military needs to rethink its approach to secrecy."
• Lab Security Chief, FBI Agent in Dispute by Richard Benke, Associated Press, July 27. "A dispute has arisen between an FBI agent and a retired Los Alamos security chief over an allegation that Wen Ho Lee likely aided China's nuclear program."
• Internet Site Posts Secret CIA Documents by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, July 23. "Much of the CIA material was basics about the structure and function of U.S. intelligence operations, and its disclosure was not generally seen as a threat to national security."
• American Library Association Opposes New FOIA Exemptions, text of resolution adopted July 12. "The ALA urges Congress to eliminate these two proposed Freedom of Information Act exemptions from the defense authorization bill."
• Secret Costs by Fiona Morgan, Salon.com, July 21. "Scientists say the security crackdown at nuclear weapons labs is the real national security risk."
• Top Nuclear Lab Officials Agree Openness Has Gone Too Far by Lawrence Spohn, Albuquerque Tribune, July 11. "But openness advocate Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists suggested to the committee that the 'great mass' of secret information is the problem."
• Critics of Los Alamos Ignore a Flawed Policy on Secrets by Steven Aftergood, Chronicle of Higher Education, July 7. "It is necessary to accept the fact that there can be no absolute security. The best one can aim for is to manage the security risks, keeping them to a reasonable minimum, while fostering quality work and limiting costs."
• Job Search Offered As Wen Ho Lee's Motive by Ian Hoffman, Albuquerque Journal, July 7. "Experts say career enhancement would be an unusual reason for espionage."
• PRC Publisher Sentenced To Death for Leaking 'Secret', Xinhua News Agency, July 6. "The court said that Ju, 56, accepted bribes totaling 400,000 US dollars from a foreign businessman for intentionally leaking secrets to him in 1993."
• Update on the Wen Ho Lee Case by Richard Benke, Associated Press, July 5. "Lee expects to prove at trial that at relevant times, virtually all of the information at issue was either available in the open literature or could be readily derived from the open literature."
• Case of Lost-and-Found Disk Drives Demonstrates Weakness of U.S. Systems for Protecting Secrets by Neil King Jr., Wall Street Journal, July 5. "Was the problem of the lost-and-found hard drives at Los Alamos the result of not enough secrecy-- or too much?"
• Polygraph Bill Raises Concerns by Ian Hoffman, Albuquerque Journal, July 2. "As scientists feared, House Republicans are again pushing polygraph tests for potentially thousands of weapons lab workers with access to even the least significant bomb secrets."
• Assault on the Mountain by Joshua Dean, Government Executive, July 2000. "Agencies are working against a deadline to review and declassify hundreds of millions of documents."
• Energy Secretary Richardson Announces Changes to University of California Contract, DOE press release, June 30. "The University of California's performance in managing security at our weapons laboratories is unacceptable and must be immediately addressed," said Secretary Richardson.
• State Department Comments on Declassification of Chile Documents, excerpt from daily press briefing, June 30. "This release of documents is an effort to help the families, in particular, understand the situation that occurred in the past..."

Older News: June 2000

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