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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: February 2006

January 2006

• Labor Department Makes FOIA Policy Change Regarding Mine Investigations, news release, House Education and The Workforce, January 31. "Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) today applauded a U.S. Department of Labor decision to reverse its policy of denying all requests under the Freedom of Information Act for notes taken by Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspectors during on-site mine inspections until a case has been officially closed."
• Official: Army Has Authority to Spy on Americans by Jeff Stein, CQ Homeland Security, January 31. "Contrary to popular belief, there is no absolute ban on [military] intelligence components collecting U.S. person information," the U.S.Army's top intelligence officer said in a 2001 memo that surfaced Tuesday.
• Experts challenge need for warrantless spying by Jim Puzzanghera, San Jose Mercury News, January 28. "It's one of the most vexing questions about the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program: If in a hurry, why didn't officials simply use special emergency provisions allowing 72 hours of eavesdropping before getting court approval?"
• NSA, FISA, and the "Missing 3 Paragraphs" by Chris Anderson, NYC Indymedia, January 27. "The three most controversial paragraphs of DOJ Lawyer James A. Baker's 2002 testimony to congress have disappeared."
• Varied Rationales Muddle Issue of NSA Eavesdropping by Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus, Washington Post, January 27. "Confusion over the issue deepened further yesterday after officials discovered two versions of a Justice statement on the legislation. One, which was posted on the Federation of American Scientists Web site and quoted in media reports, noted possible constitutional concerns. The other, held by the Senate intelligence committee, did not include that issue. Officials could not explain the disparity."
• National Industrial Security Program Directive No. 1, Federal Register, January 27. "This order establishes a National Industrial Security Program (NISP) to safeguard Federal Government classified information that is released to contractors, licensees, and grantees of the United States Government."
• White House Dismissed '02 Surveillance Proposal by Dan Eggen, Washington Post, January 26. "The Bush administration rejected a 2002 Senate proposal that would have made it easier for FBI agents to obtain surveillance warrants in terrorism cases, concluding that the system was working well and that it would likely be unconstitutional to lower the legal standard."
• Does administration or Capitol Hill have better solution to FOIA reform? by Aimee Curl, Federal Times, January 26. "Bush administration officials are promising an executive order, signed last month, will speed up agencies' disclosure of public information. But open-government advocates are skeptical."
• Distrust of NSA has roots in '70s by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, January 25. "Now the NSA is being roiled by political controversy over charges that it is illegally eavesdropping on Americans."
• A Tangled Web Woven by David E. Kaplan, U.S. News and World Report, January 30. "Since 2003, at least three unclassified CSI reports--all critical of the agency--have been withheld from the CIA's website, U.S. News has learned."
• NSA issues guidance on redacting Word, PDF by Shaun Waterman, UPI, January 23. "The National Security Agency has issued technical guidance for U.S. officials on redacting or editing sensitive documents for release following a series of embarrassing incidents in which so-called metadata stored in electronic formats like Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF files has been accidentally exposed."
• NSA spy program hinges on state-of-the-art technology by Shane Harris, National Journal, January 21. "The NSA may be on the cusp of employing state-of-the-art technologies to uncover more information about potential terrorists, and about Americans here at home."
• Protection of Radio Frequency Information, US Air Force Civil Air Patrol, January 20. "It has come to our attention that the radio frequency assignments provided us by the USAF are considered sensitive information and require protection from unauthorized release."
• Lawrence A. Franklin Sentenced, Justice Dept news release, January 20. "...on three felony counts: conspiracy to communicate national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it; conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government; and the unlawful retention of national defense information."
• Judge: Those who receive classified info are liable by Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 20. "The judge in the leak case against two former staffers of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said classified information laws bind civilians, including journalists."
• Changing Faces in Bush's Cadre of Intelligence Advisers by David Greene, NPR Morning Edition, January 18. "President Bush met Tuesday with his advisory board on foreign intelligence, at a time when criticism of his domestic eavesdropping program intensifies. When it comes to intelligence matters, the president is being advised by different people than he was a few years ago."
• Bureaucracy hinders 9/11 commission recommendations by Shane Harris and Greta Wodele, National Journal, January 13. "The causes behind the failing and near-failing grades fall into six categories: a Congress resistant to institutional change; a bureaucracy that bucks new ideas; lack of money; lack of leadership; special interests that have the ear of Congress or the White House; and, finally, an inability to accurately see how the United States is perceived abroad."
• Secret's out: NSA is listening to America by Douglas Birch, Baltimore Sun, January 8. "Hearings into warrantless domestic spying will likely draw back the curtain - at least a bit - on the nation's most mysterious intelligence agency"
• Intelligence panel had clue about spying by Katherine Shrader, Associated Press, January 3. "Congressional intelligence committees had at least a hint in October 2001 that the National Security Agency was expanding its surveillance activities after the 9/11 attacks, according to a letter released Tuesday by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi."
• Pelosi's Declassified Letter on NSA Activities, released January 3. "House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi today released the following letter, which she wrote four years ago when she was Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and was recently declassified at her request."
• Letter to Congress Advocating Public Access to the World Law Bulletin, January 3. "We are writing to request that you encourage, if not direct, the Law Library of Congress to publish the World Law Bulletin on the World Wide Web for unrestricted public access."
• Shhh!!: Keeping Current on Government Secrecy by Laura Gordon-Murnane, Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals, January 2006. "In the interest of sharing information, here is a list of Web sites, blogs, listservs, and newsletters that could help clients needing access to government documents but who might experience difficulty locating that information. The list is arranged by government watchdog sites, sites that provide access to government documents, sites that document government secrecy, and advocacy groups that report on FOIA news."

Older News: December 2005

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