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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: October 2001

September 2001

• Secretary Rumsfeld: Pentagon Will Not Lie, Pentagon press briefing, September 25. "I don't recall that I've ever lied to the press, I don't intend to, and it seems to me that there will not be reason for it."
• White House Press Briefing: Excerpts on Secrecy, September 24. "What I'm trying to figure out is, is a group of people somewhere being tasked with coming up with a document that can be scrubbed of classified material so that you can lay out the case [against Bin Laden]?"
• State Department Press Briefing; Excerpts on Bin Laden Evidence, September 24. "People should not conclude from what Dr. Rice or the Secretary said yesterday that we're on the verge of some imminent release of a so-called 'white paper'."
• Spies lost in Cold war in a new age of terror by Chris Fusco, Chicago Sun-Times, September 23. "America's spy network is caught in a time warp, designed to eavesdrop on the Russians and Chinese but lacking the manpower and street smarts to track terrorists such as Osama bin Laden."
• Bin Laden Evidence Report Planned by John J. Lumpkin, Associated Press, September 22. "U.S. intelligence agencies are collaborating on a report to detail evidence linking Osama bin Laden to last week's terror attacks, a U.S. official said."
• Assassination Ban Gets New Look by Nancy Benac, Associated Press, September 22. "The ban on assassinations is now being re-examined in light of the terrorist attacks that the government believes were engineered by Osama bin Laden."
• Can Spy Satellites Find Osama Bin Laden? by Emily Yoffe, Slate.com, September 20. "Can all the billion-dollar spy hardware orbiting Earth locate and identify Osama Bin Laden? No."
• Surge of New Technologies Erodes U.S. Edge in Spying by William J. Broad, New York Times, September 20. "It seems improbable that the N.S.A. would ever recover the full margin of technology advantage," said Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert at the Federation of American Scientists.
• Heightened security could erode privacy, group says by Craig Matsumoto and Loring Wirbel, EE Times, September 20. "The scramble to tighten U.S. security on multiple fronts could carry long-term dangers."
• Changing U.S. Assassination Policy Called Useless by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, September 18. "Calls to untie the CIA's hands in hiring shady agents and lift a ban on assassinations after the shattering attack on the United States are at best meaningless, analysts said."
• Terrorist Attacks Raise New Privacy Issues by Earl Lane, Newsday, September 14. "Some experts cautioned that the terror attacks this week on U.S. soil should not be used as an excuse to erode civil liberties here or mount ill-considered operations abroad."
• Lack of Warning Highlights Spy Agencies' Shortcomings by Scott Shane and Laura Sullivan, Baltimore Sun, September 13. "U.S. intelligence agencies failed utterly to give warning of Tuesday's huge terrorist assault, revealing how helpless the world's most technologically advanced spy apparatus can be."
• Secretary Rumsfeld on Classified Information, press briefing, September 12. "When people deal with intelligence information and make it available to people who are not cleared for that classified information, the effect is to reduce the chances that the United States government has to track down and deal with the people who have perpetrated the attacks on the United States and killed so many Americans."
• Who Did It? U.S. Searches for Terror Clues; Analysts See Signs of Osama Bin Laden by David Ruppe, ABCNews.com, September 12.
• White House Blocks Release of Reagan-Era Presidential Records, letters to NARA from White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, March 23, June 6, August 31, 2001. "I am now formally instructing you to extend the time in which President Bush may take appropriate action with respect to these Presidential records."
• Wen Ho Lee's Fight Continues by Richard Benke, Associated Press, September 10. "Wen Ho Lee is about to be free of the constraints of a plea agreement reached one year ago this week after a bungled government investigation of the nuclear scientist."
• NSA Begins Crypto Upgrade by George I. Seffers, Federal Computer Week, September 10. "The National Security Agency is beginning a 15-year, multibillion-dollar effort to modernize the nation's cryptographic systems, which are rapidly growing obsolete and vulnerable."
• Senate Intelligence Committee Authorizes Intelligence Spending for FY 2002, Committee press release, September 6. "The Intelligence Community is our nation's vital early warning system and we must support its mission to the fullest extent possible."
• House Judiciary Committee Asserts Jurisdiction Over "Anti-Leak" Provision, letter to Senate Intelligence Committee from Reps. Conyers and Barr, September 6. "We write to impress upon you the jurisdictional and serious substantive concerns we have with the criminalization of all leaks of classified information."
• Attorney General Asks Delay in Anti-Leak Hearing by Sean Reilly, Mobile Register, September 6. "Unable to muster support from the Bush administration, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby has shelved action on legislation to make virtually any leak of classified material a crime punishable by up to three years in prison."
• No Official Secrets Act (editorial), The Hill, September 5. "America doesn’t need an official secrets act. Sen. Graham should do everything he can to kill this bill."
• Pentagon Press Briefing on Biological Weapons Research, September 4. "What's the rationale for having kept this work a secret up to now?"

Older News: August 2001

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