FAS | Secrecy | 2005 News ||

Secrecy and Security News

July 2005

Newer News: August 2005

• Intel chair urges secrecy, leaks reform by Shaun Waterman, United Press International, July 27. "The Chairman of the House intelligence committee says there has to be major reform of government secrecy rules before zero tolerance of leaks can be imposed."
• Secrets and Leaks: The Costs and Consequences for National Security, remarks of Rep. Pete Hoekstra at the Heritage Foundation, July 25. "Each year, countless unauthorized leaks cause severe damage to our intelligence activities and expose our capabilities."
• America wrestles with privacy vs. security by Brad Knickerbocker, Christian Science Monitor, July 22. "From driver's licenses to domestic spying, recent debates test public values amid terror war."
• CIA Privacy Act Systems of Records, Federal Register, July 22. "The Central Intelligence Agency completed a zero-based, Agency-wide review of its Privacy Act systems of records. As a result of this review, the Agency determined that its Privacy Act notices required extensive modifications to more accurately describe the records systems currently maintained by the Agency."
• Bush says he'll fire any aide who committed a crime in leak case by Jonathan S. Landay, Knight Ridder Newspapers, July 18. "President Bush on Monday narrowed the circumstances under which he would fire subordinates who leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer to journalists in 2003, saying it would have to be a crime."
• Political Parties Reverse Roles in Debate Over CIA Leak by Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, July 18. "The debate over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity has caused a curious about-face by Washington politicians."
• Weighing Washington's Whistle-Blowers by William Fisher, Inter Press Service News Agency, July 19. "It's not much of a stretch to argue that the toughest -- and perhaps the most thankless -- job in the U.S. government is carried out by a group of people very few citizens have ever heard of. These are the Inspectors General (IGs) of all Cabinet-level government departments -- and in many smaller departments and agencies."
• Watching the Watchdogs by William Fisher, Inter Press Service News Agency, July 18. "Even in this opaque environment, the U.S. government is still far more transparent than most. And much of the credit goes to two federal agencies -- the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Inspectors General (IGs), who operate in virtually all major government departments."
• Rove Did Leak Classified Information by David Corn, The Nation, July 13. "If Cooper's email is accurate then Rove did pass classified information to Cooper. It's possible that Rove did so unwittingly. That is, he did not know Valerie Wilson's employment status at the CIA was classified information. But he and his posse cannot say the information he slipped to Cooper was not classified."
• DoD Proposes to Amend Export Control Regulations, Federal Register, July 12. "DoD is proposing to amend the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to address requirements for preventing unauthorized disclosure of export-controlled information and technology under DoD contracts."
• Utility uses homeland security law to keep data secret by Ryan Lozar, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, July 12. "The federal Department of Homeland Security has designated a New Jersey town's electronic mapping data to be 'critical infrastructure information' protected from public disclosure."
• Bush Adviser Helped Law Firm Land Job Lobbying for CNOOC by Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post, July 12. "China is among the biggest intelligence challenges of the coming decades," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "And one has to wonder whether Mr. Langdon's involvement in Chinese affairs will be tolerated by intelligence agencies that have different interests than those of Mr. Langdon's firm."
• 'Silent' reporters face court by Eunice Moscoso, Cox News, July 6. "Free speech advocates say much more is at stake than the fates of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and TIME magazine reporter Matthew Cooper."
• Increase in the Number of Documents Classified by the Government by Scott Shane, New York Times, July 3. "Driven in part by fears of terrorism, government secrecy has reached a historic high by several measures, with federal departments classifying documents at the rate of 125 a minute."

Older News: June 2005

https://sgp.fas.org/news/2005/07/index.html
Maintained by Steven Aftergood