FAS | Secrecy | 2006 News || Search | Join FAS

Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: June 2006

May 2006

• Revisions and Clarification of Deemed Export Related Regulatory Requirements, Federal Register, May 31. "In sum, BIS is not adopting those recommendations of the OIG which would have required regulatory changes to the EAR and, accordingly, is withdrawing the ANPR."
• FAS Asks ISOO to Compel Vice President to Report on Classification Activity, letter from Steven Aftergood to the Information Security Oversight Office, May 30. "I believe that the Office of the Vice President is willfully violating a provision of the executive order and of the implementing ISOO directive."
• Treat reporters like spies? by Jacob Sullum, Washington Times, May 30. "When the executive branch decides what information is secret and whether any given person should be prosecuted for discussing it, the potential chilling effect on reporting and public debate is enormous."
• Panel Requires Annual Disclosure of Intelligence Budget by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, May 28. "The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has approved language in the fiscal 2007 authorization bill that calls on the president to annually make public what the National Intelligence Program costs."
• Cheney keeps classification activity secret by Mark Silva, Chicago Tribune, May 27. "Despite an executive order signed by President Bush in 2003..., the vice president’s office maintains that it has no legal obligation to report on its classification decisions."
• Statement of Administration Policy on Homeland Security Appropriations Bill for FY 2007, May 25. "The Administration supports House passage of the FY 2007 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, as reported by the House Committee and commends the Committee for reporting this bill in a timely manner."
• Deal With Wen Ho Lee May Make Press-Freedom Case Moot by Charles Lane, Washington Post, May 23. "Intensive settlement negotiations between former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee and the U.S. government are delaying -- and may ultimately avert -- action by the Supreme Court on appeals by reporters fighting to protect their confidential sources in the case."
• House Intelligence to Hold Open Hearing on the Media’s Role and Responsibilities in Leaks of Classified Information, HPSCI news release, May 23. "The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will convene an open hearing to gain a variety of perspectives from public witnesses on the role and responsibilities of the media in national security reporting."
• Warnings for emergency responders kept from Area 51 workers by Keith Rogers, Las Vegas Review Journal, May 21. "In legal battles that spanned a decade, the government refused to acknowledge that fumes from open-pit burning of stealth coatings used on its radar-evading warplanes harmed workers at the secret Area 51 installation along the dry Groom Lake bed where high-tech aircraft are tested."
• Collecting info is nothing new to companies by James Rosen, McClatchy News Service, May 21. "As politicians ponder how much leeway the National Security Agency should have to track electronic communications, they face a stark question: Is Big Brother worse than Big Business?"
• Classified military spending reaches highest level since Cold War by Drew Brown, Knight Ridder Newspapers, May 19. "Classified military spending has reached its highest level since 1988, near the end of the Cold War, a new independent analysis has found."
• Scientific Openness: Should Academics Self-Censor Their Findings on Terrorism? by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Science, May 19. "Some government-funded researchers believe their papers require special handling. But others say that creating such a gray area undermines academic freedom."
• Judge Rejects Call to Release AT& T Papers by Karen Gullo and Joel Rosenblatt, Bloomberg News/Washington Post, May 18. "A federal judge yesterday rejected a privacy group's request to release documents that it claims show AT&T Inc. helped the National Security Agency spy on Americans by providing access to customers' phone calls. U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker said at a hearing in San Francisco that the documents may contain AT&T trade secrets."
• National Archives Sponsors Mandatory Declassification Review Workshop, National Archives news release, May 12. "Have you ever requested a record from the National Archives or one of its Presidential Libraries only to be informed it was not available because it contained classified national security information? Learn about your rights to insist that the record be reviewed."
• Fortress on the Hill by Judi Hasson, Federal Computer Week, May 15. "Capitol Visitor Center has 580,000 square feet underground, but officials won’t say whether it is a congressional bunker."
• Administration cites state secrets in bid to derail spy lawsuit by David Kravets, Associated Press, May 12. "As lawmakers demand answers about warrantless electronic eavesdropping on Americans, the Bush administration says its secretive program's constitutionality cannot be challenged."
• Wiretap Reports Removed From Court Web Site by Ethan P. Sommer, CQ Homeland Security, May 12. "An official court record on federal and state wiretaps was taken off the Web site of the office that keeps track of prosecutions around the country and later re-posted with sensitive information removed, CQ/Homeland Security has learned."
• Data mining: Commonly used in business to find patterns, it rarely focuses on individuals by Matthew B. Stannard, San Francisco Chronicle, May 12. "And data mining of some type, experts agree, is almost certainly what is behind the National Security Agency's reportedly successful efforts to obtain the phone records of tens of millions of Americans from private telecommunications companies."
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission Decides to Release HEU Export Data (pdf), letter from NRC chair Nils Diaz to Nuclear Control Institute, April 26. "With respect to the two pending applications for export of HEU, the NRC has decided that the total quantity of material requested in the particular export applications may be released." (license for export to Belgium)
• Chilling free speech by Nat Hentoff, Washington Times, May 8. "This espionage case -- United States of America v. Lawrence Anthony Franklin, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman -- is the first in which the federal government is charging violations of the Espionage Act by American citizens -- who are not government officials -- for being involved in what until now have been regarded as First Amendment-protected activities engaged in by hundreds of American journalists."
• Bush's Chamber of Secrets by Jack Shafer, Slate, May 3. "Do the Bushies disrespect the press? Give them the runaround when they ask questions of the White House press office? Has the administration sown disinformation, overclassified, reclassified the previously declassified, tightened FOIA, and paid pundits to carry its water? A million times yes... So, what can journalists do to fight back?"
• Feds Go All Out to Kill Spy Suit by Ryan Singel, Wired News, May 2. "When the government told a court Friday that it wanted a class-action lawsuit regarding the National Security Agency's eavesdropping on Americans dismissed, its lawyers wielded one of the most powerful legal tools available to the executive branch -- the state secrets privilege."
• Government's use of secret warrants climbed 18 pct in 2005, Reuters, May 1. "The number of court-approved warrants allowing the Bush administration to conduct intelligence searches and electronic surveillance inside the United States climbed 18 percent to 2,072 in 2005, the Justice Department said on Monday."

Older News: April 2006

FAS | Secrecy | 2006 News || Search | Join FAS

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2006/05/index.html
Maintained by Steven Aftergood