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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: November 2005

October 2005

• Think Before You Send by Greta Wodele, National Journal, October 31. "The adage 'Think before you speak' perhaps could be updated to 'Think before you send e-mails.' These messages, as some government officials are learning, may end up splashed across newspapers to illustrate bungling in a national emergency."
• Washington journalism also on trial in Libby case by Rebecca Carr, Cox News, October 29. "The White House is not the only institution on trial in the CIA leak probe. Washington journalism is also in the hot seat."
• Scooter Libby Indicted, news release, October 28. "Senior White House official I. Lewis Libby was indicted today on obstruction of justice, false statement and perjury charges for allegedly lying about how and when in 2003 he learned and subsequently disclosed to reporters then-classified information concerning the employment of Valerie Wilson by the Central Intelligence Agency." (Indictment).
• Complexity of Prosecuting Leakers Stirs Concern by Larry Abramson, NPR Morning Edition, October 28. "Some of the government's harshest critics want no one charged with providing unauthorized information in the Valerie Plame case. The reasoning: related charges may be appropriate, but prosecuting leakers for leaking would endanger freedom of information."
• Is the Pentagon Muzzling the NSA? Umm... no. by Kevin Poulsen, Wired News Elsewhere, October 28. "It makes no sense at all to suppose that NSA reviewed an application, determined it was okay to disclose-- and then was overruled by 'the Pentagon'."
• US spy agency's patents under security scrutiny by Paul Marks, New Scientist, October 29. "The hyper-secretive US National Security Agency -- the government’s eavesdropping arm -- appears to be having its patent applications increasingly blocked by the Pentagon."
• Homeland Security plan off-limits by Lisa Friedman, Pasadena Star-News, October 27. "A Department of Homeland Security plan to protect the nation's roads, bridges and other infrastructure from terrorist attacks remains classified and hidden from the state and local officials it was intended to help, a Senate panel was told."
• CIA Leak Queries Look at Disclosure Of Classified Data by John McKinnon, Anne Marie Squeo and Joe Hagan, Wall Street Journal, October 21. "The range of questions that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has asked witnesses in the CIA leak case suggests he may be exploring whether to charge White House officials with leaking garden-variety classified information."
• Dept of Homeland Security Final Rule on National Security Information, Federal Register, October 21. "This final rule revises the Department of Homeland Security's procedures for managing classified national security information."
• Wikipedia is wicked cool by Andrew Leifer, Stanford Daily, October 18. "Before you start writing your next research paper, make sure you are familiar with the best free information resources on the Web that will make your background work easier."
• Official: Secrecy decisions 'subjective' by Shaun Waterman, UPI, October 18. "The official in charge of the Pentagon's use of secrecy acknowledged Tuesday that there was too much subjectivity in the way decisions about classification were made."
• ISOO Symposium on Classified National Security Information: The Vision, the Reality, the Future, October 18. "This symposium marks the 10-year anniversary of Executive Order 12958, as amended, and will offer a retrospective regarding the original vision of this groundbreaking framework along with a review of its impact to date."
• Harry Shearer on the Zawahiri letter, Le Show (KCRW), October 16. "The letter appears to urge Zarqawi to send greetings to himself if he visits Fallujah. A spokesman for John Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence, acknowledged that the greetings passage was confusing.... Send greetings to yourself. Why wouldn't you believe that?"
• US cannot explain suspicious Zawahri letter passage by David Morgan, Reuters, October 14. "This would appear to be conclusive evidence that the DNI was mistaken, and that the letter was written to someone other than Zarqawi," Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists said on on Friday in his e-mail intelligence newsletter, "Secrecy News."
• Digging Past the Conventional Story Line by Paul McLeary, CJR Daily, October 6. "Far from alleging the two AIPAC officials were foreign agents, U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty is contending that the lobbyists are legally no different than the government officials they lobbied, holding Rosen and Weissman to the same rules for protecting secrets as Franklin or any other bureaucrat with a security clearance."
• Abandoment Issues: Bush gives hurricane victims that familiar sinking feeling by James Ridgeway, Village Voice, October 4. "Secrecy News, published by the Federation of American Scientists, points out that in a little-noticed maneuver, Chertoff did not designate the hurricane as a 'catastrophic event,' a special sub-category of emergency situation that entails the expedited deployment of emergency response capabilities."
• Researchers, advocates flay CDC data secrecy by Rebecca Carr, Cox News, October 3. "Scientists are accusing the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of hoarding crucial data that could help vaccinations at a time when there is growing concern about a possible influenza pandemic."
• Low Clearance by Eli J. Lake, The New Republic, October 10 (sub. req'd)). "Why an espionage investigation that snared two lobbyists is terrible news for journalists." (full text posted here)

Older News: September 2005

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