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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: October 2004

September 2004

• Intelligence Failure, Washington Post (editorial), September 30. "THE SEPT. 11 commission recently recommended that the amount of money this country spends on intelligence no longer be kept secret."
• DCI Nominee Porter Goss on Classification and Declassification, excerpt from his confirmation hearing, September 20. "I tried very hard to do some reform with it, actually worked with Senator Moynihan. We did pass a bill, bicameral, bipartisan -- a first step."
• Classified papers up in cost, number by Audrey Hudson, Washington Times, September 18. "There recently has been a dramatic upturn in the number of documents that have either been stamped SSI or 'Official Use Only,' including examples of activities that apparently were of a social orientation, and are clearly not of official nature, let alone of a classified matter," said Bob Flamm, executive director of the Federal Air Marshal Association.
• CIA refuses to release historical budget data by Chris Strohm, Government Executive Daily Briefing, September 17. "The acting director of Central Intelligence told a federal court this week that he will not release historical budget information for the intelligence community and, in some cases, does not have past budget data for individual agencies."
• Congressmen Seek Review of "Sensitive Security Information" (SSI) Designation, letter to GAO from Reps. David Obey and Martin Olav Sabo. "Given the need to protect SSI information while honoring the public's right to know information that affects their safety and security, we request that GAO conduct a review."
• Too much secrecy: Overclassification hampers cooperation by Eileen Sullivan, Federal Times, September 13. "The problem is a big one, many experts agree. Too much information gets classified that doesn’t need to be. Rules and practices used to maintain official secrets are inconsistent and misapplied. And keeping official secrets is incredibly expensive."
• Pentagon Revives Memory Project by Noah Shachtman, Wired News, September 13. "It's been seven months since the Pentagon pulled the plug on LifeLog, its controversial project to archive almost everything about a person. But now, the Defense Department seems ready to revive large portions of the program under a new name."
• White House Names Members of the Public Interest Declassification Board, news release, September 10. "The President intends to appoint the following individuals to be Members of the Public Interest Declassification Board."
• Acting DCI McLaughlin Conditionally Endorses Intelligence Budget Disclosure, at a hearing of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, September 8. "I don't think that declassifying the top line would be a major security threat."
• Homeland Security: What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us by Trudy Lieberman, Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2004. "While some news outlets assign reporters to cover the Department of Homeland Security, few do it full-time and none cover all twenty-two agencies that make up its bureaucracy. News bureaus give it short shrift, as they do most federal agencies."
• Media Group Criticizes Proposed FOIA Exemption for Commercial Satellite Imagery, letter from RTNDA president Barbara Cochran to Rep. Duncan Hunter, September 3. "Under the bill's terms, important non-confidential commercial satellite imagery, as well as products derived from such imagery, which the government has purchased, would be exempt from disclosure to the public."

Older News: August 2004

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