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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: August 2004

July 2004

• White House Considers Disclosing Intelligence Budgets by Douglas Jehl, New York Times, July 29. "Of the 40 main recommendations spelled out in the Sept. 11 report, one of the few that the White House could carry out immediately would be to lift the veil of secrecy on how much the government spends on intelligence."
• Spawning a Culture of Secrecy by Mark Tapscott, The Heritage Foundation, July 28. "Quick, call the FBI! Get a search warrant ASAP. Put the Justice Department’s best investigators and prosecutors on the case. National Security has been compromised by another leak of classified information. And what vital secrets were leaked this time, you ask? Why, appropriations for the Central Intelligence Agency … in 1953, 1954 and 1955."
• Agencies criticized for overclassifying information by Chris Strohm, Government Executive, July 26. "The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks determined last week what open government advocates have long argued: Federal agencies are overclassifying information."
• Energy Secretary Abraham Directs Complex-Wide Stand-Down, DOE news release, July 23. "I have directed that we stand-down all operations involving so-called controlled removable electronic media until such time as a site or facility conducts appropriate training, reviews security procedures, ensures complete and accountable custodial responsibility, and arranges for a complete inventory."
• Lawmakers weary of delays in release of documents by Rebecca Carr, George Edmonson, Cox News Service, July 21. "Controversy lingers over whether government agencies are over-classifying material in an effort to keep embarrassing facts from the public."
• Downloading for Democracy by Kim Zetter, Wired News, July 19. "While legislators in Washington work to outlaw peer-to-peer networks, one website is turning the peer-to-peer technology back on Washington to expose its inner, secretive workings....outragedmoderates.org has aggregated more than 600 government and court documents to make them available for download in the interest of making government more transparent and accountable."
• Marines Get Site to Pull Knockout Gas Info by Michael Regan, Associated Press, July 17. "A watchdog group has removed documents from its Web site that detail military research into knockout gases similar to the one used in the deadly 2002 Moscow theater siege after the Marine Corps warned they could pose a threat to Defense Department employees."
• Los Alamos National Laboratory is missing sensitive material, National Public Radio, July 16. "In intelligence agencies such as the CIA, they figured out years ago that it's a bad idea to have floppy disk drives or other forms of removeable media in a classified network."
• DHS Reopens Comment Period for Draft Environmental Directive, Federal Register, July 16. "In order to give the public the opportunity to review and comment on this additional information, DHS has decided to reopen the public comment period for another thirty days, until August 16, 2004."
• Wyden, Lott Propose Revamping National Security Classification Systems, news release, July 15. "U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) today introduced legislation to revamp the way intelligence information becomes classified."
• UC Halts Los Alamos' Classified Work by Leslie Hoffman, Associated Press, July 15. "All classified work at Los Alamos National Laboratory has come to a halt while officials conduct a wall-to-wall inventory of sensitive data."
• CENTCOM: FOIA Requests Concerning Abu Ghraib Will Be Handled by Pentagon, letter to FAS, July 13. "In order to provide you with as much information as possible, all detainee requests are now being consolidated and will be answered by the following department."
• Pentagon probed on torture memo secrets by Shaun Waterman, United Press International, July 8. "The federal government's secrecy watchdog has asked the Pentagon to explain why parts of a memo about the interrogation of terror detainees were classified, even though they discussed the political fall-out if the use of certain techniques became public."
• White House Statement on the Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations Bill July 7. "If any other amendment that would weaken the USA PATRIOT Act were adopted and presented to the President for his signature, the President’s senior advisors would recommend a veto."
• Highway bill's secret rules start debate by Douglas Fischer, San Mateo County Times, July 3. "Deep in a 1,381-page highway spending bill now before Congress are two sentences that would override state open-records laws and let federal authorities seal now-public information about the nation's rail and highway systems."
• Department of Defense Mandatory Declassification Review Addresses from the Federal Register, July 2. This notice provides Department of Defense addresses to which Mandatory Declassification Review requests may be sent

Older News: June 2004

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