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Secrecy and Security News

February 2002

Newer News: March 2002

• Reported disinformation plans sink Pentagon office by Richard Whittle, Dallas Morning News, February 27. "The move marked an extraordinarily rapid attempt to cut the Defense Department's losses in an incident analysts called a major embarrassment."
• Pentagon Terminates Office of Strategic Influence, DoD press briefing with Secretary Rumsfeld, February 26. "It's pretty clear to me that it could not function effectively. So it's being closed down."
• Mort du «bureau de désinformation» du Pentagone, Jean-Michel Stoullig, Agence France-Press, February 26. "La désinformation est généralement associée aux services de renseignement comme la CIA, mais les militaires y ont recours pour le combat contre l'ennemi, selon Steve Aftergood, expert à la Fédération des savants américains (FAS)."
• U.S. Planting False Stories a Common Cold War Tactic by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, February 25. "A CIA team produced a pornographic film featuring an actor resembling Sukarno with the intent of embarrassing him."
• Remarks by the President on the Office of Strategic Influence, press availability, February 25. " I told Secretary Rumsfeld -- I didn't even need to tell him this; he knows how I feel."
• White House Press Secretary on John Poindexter Appointment, excerpt from White House press briefing, February 25. "The President thinks that Admiral Poindexter has served our nation very well."
• The KGB in Afghanistan: Mitrokhin Documents Disclosed, press release from the Cold War International History Project, February 25. "Previously secret KGB materials on the Soviet war in Afghanistan reveal the determined efforts of a great power trying desperately to keep on top of events in a client state-- and failing miserably to do so."
• New Defense Office Won't Mislead, Officials Say, by Vernon Loeb and Dana Milbank, Washington Post, February 21. "A new Defense Department office will not lie to the public or plant disinformation in the foreign or U.S. media, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said yesterday."
• Rumsfeld Comments on Information Operations, excerpts from Pentagon press briefing, February 21. "The Department of Defense does not now and has no plans to conduct any disinformation campaigns or to promulgate false or inaccurate or misleading information to domestic or foreign audiences."
• Under Secretary of Defense Feith on Pentagon Office of Strategic Influence, February 20. "Despite some of the reports about the Office of Strategic Influence that I've read over the last day or two, Defense Department officials don't lie to the public."
• Controversy embroils award of Defense network contract, by Shane Harris, Government Executive, February 20. "The losing bidders claim that many of the contentious security requirements were eliminated or eased to favor Global Crossing."
• Rumsfeld Addresses Strategic Influence Criticism, Pentagon press release, February 20. "Under no circumstances will the office or its contractors knowingly or deliberately disseminate false information to the American or foreign media or publics."
• DoD News Briefing on Information Policy and Deception, media availability with Secretary Rumsfeld, February 20. "The Pentagon is not issuing disinformation to the foreign press or any other press."
• State Department Comments on Proposed Pentagon Information Operations, State Dept press briefing, February 19. "We provide information. We provide accurate and truthful information."
• What Are They Hiding? by Russ Baker, The Nation, February 25. "The Bush team has already established a record on secrecy that makes Richard Nixon, just to take a random example from our presidential past, look like a boy scout."
• Documents Deleted: Government Withdraws Public Information in Face of Terror Threat by Jim Sciutto, ABC News, February 17. "Since January, the Defense Department has withdrawn more than 6,000 documents from government Web sites — including federal reports detailing how to make anthrax easier to inhale or how to grow smallpox."
• U.S. Tightening Rules on Keeping Scientific Secrets by William J. Broad, New York Times, February 17. "The Bush administration is taking wide measures to tighten scientific secrecy in the hope of keeping weapons of mass destruction out of unfriendly hands."
• U.S. District Court Rules That World War I German Invisible Ink Formula Must Remain Hidden from the Public, James Madison Project press release, February 14. "Decision Reflects Judicial Difficulties In Addressing Secrecy Vs. Openness Disputes."
• Bush's stance on secrecy draws a number of critics by Anne E. Kornblut, Boston Globe, February 11. "Conservatives and liberals have begun to suspect that Bush is not kidding about his bent toward secrecy."
• Court Should Order National Archives to Open Presidential Records to the Public, Public Citizen press release, February 8. "President Bush’s Executive Order Violates Law, Should Not Be Implemented, Public Citizen Says in Court Filing"
• Walking a Fine Line on Web Access by William Matthews, Federal Computer Week, February 4. "Advocates for open government worry that the clampdown on public information is just beginning."
• When Government Doesn't Tell by David E. Rosenbaum, New York Times, February 3. "More than any of its recent predecessors, this administration has a penchant for secrecy."
• NASA to Seek Nuclear-Powered Spaceflight Alternatives by Leonard David, Space.com, February 1. "For the first time in a decade, the space agency is seeking funds to proceed with developing the power source, seen as critical to move forward on future space exploration initiatives."

Older News: January 2002

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