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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: December 2003

November 2003

• 'Nobody is safe from' scrutiny of program by Paul Shukovsky and Mike Barber, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 29. "The LINX system's unprecedented power to catch criminals and thwart terrorists also carries a serious potential for abuse of civil rights, law enforcement observers say.
• One Man Against Secrecy by Dana Priest, Washington Post, November 26. "Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, is an army of one, the David in an era of Goliath-strength government stealth."
• Lawmakers revive fight to get research reports online by Ted Leventhal, Government Executive, November 24. "On Friday, Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Jay Inslee, D-Wash., introduced a bill that would codify public access to CRS reports by placing them on the Internet in a public database, a longtime cause of public-interest groups and some members of Congress."
• Reps. Shays and Inslee Seek Reinstatement of Access to CRS Reports on Member Web Sites, letter to Rep. Bob Ney, November 24. "The new procedures make it harder, rather than easier, to provide constituents access to CRS reports."
• CIA Releases Five Million Pages of Historical Records, CIA press release, November 20. "In fiscal year 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency released more than five million pages of declassified records to the public at the National Archives (NARA) facility in College Park, MD."
• Briton accused in leak of NSA memo charged by Ariel Sabar, Baltimore Sun, November 18. "A former British intelligence worker has been charged in Great Britain with violating state secrecy laws, in connection with the alleged leak of a National Security Agency memo calling for intensified spying on United Nations envoys in the run-up to the Iraq war."
• Department of Defense Mandatory Declassification Review Addresses, Federal Register, November 17.
• DoD Statement on News Reports of al-Qaida and Iraq Connection, Pentagon press release, November 15. "News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate."
• DOE may sidestep open-government law by Ian Hoffman, Oakland Tribune, November 13. "The U.S. Energy Department is on the verge of freeing itself from a 30-year-old law guarding against bias, conflicts of interest and secrecy on panels advising the government."
• Defense bill elevates debate on tech security issues by William New, National Journal Technology Daily, November 11. "Another provision would give the National Security Agency (NSA) an exemption it requested from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for so-called 'operational files'."
• Supreme Court asks for more input on secret Sept. 11 case by Warren Richey, Christian Science Monitor, November 7. "A US Supreme Court request for the government to justify the total secrecy imposed in a Sept. 11 case from Miami is raising questions about how far that secrecy may extend into the high court's own operations."
• Government 'secrets' often wrongly held by Tom Nelson, Digital Corner, Billings Gazette, November 4. "I am not a government hater... But what I do hate is the tendency of governments to keep information secret or hard to access."
• Terrorism lends urgency to hunt for better lie detector by Richard Willing, USA Today, November 5. "The Defense Department's Polygraph Institute at Fort Jackson, S.C., is financing at least 20 projects aimed at finding a better lie detector."
• Online Public Access to Congressional Research Service Reports to be Modified, letter from the House Committee on House Administration, September 10, 2003. "We are ending the pilot program in which you have participated."
• DoD Webmasters Learn New Lessons by Matthew French, Federal Computer Week, November 3. "Several Defense Department Web sites dedicated to collecting and publishing lessons learned from operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom were scrubbed late last month."
• Renewed Access to Congressional Research Service Reports Urged, letter from dozens of organizations to Rep. Christopher Shays, November 3. "We urge you to work with CRS to restore at least the same level of access to CRS reports that your web site has provided in the past."
• In the Name of National Security by Declan McCullagh, CNet News.com, November 3. "In incident after troubling incident, federal agencies have been quietly censoring information that previously had been available on their Web sites and otherwise curbing public oversight."
• Feds Accused of Censoring Too Much by Tom Brune, Newsday, November 2. "After a computer glitch allowed publication of a complete version of a heavily redacted attorney-diversity study, some groups are complaining the Justice Department may have violated the Freedom of Information Act by blacking out too much."

Older News: October 2003

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