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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: January 2008

December 2007

• President Bush Signs FOIA Legislation into Law, news release, December 31. "On Monday, December 31, 2007, the President signed into law S. 2488, the 'Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007,' which amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)."
• State reaps contract windfall by David Nitkin, Baltimore Sun, December 27. "Intelligence contracting has increased dramatically in recent years. So it's ironic, and disappointing, that public accountability for such contracts is now declining," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.
• Surprise, Surprise, Government Inc. by Robert O'Harrow, Washington Post, December 19. "It turns out that several intelligence agencies are going to withhold unclassified information about their arrangements with government contractors from a new government database called USAspending.gov. The reason, according to a story by Steven Aftergood at Secrecy News: 'operational security issues'."
• Opting Out of Contract Database by Tom Shoop, Government Executive FedBlog, December 19. "Last week the Office of Management and Budget crowed about meeting a deadline to create a publicly accessible Web site to provide data on federal contracts, grants, and loans. The fine print of that announcement noted that the data would cover about 90 percent of federal spending. So what's in the other 10 percent? That's what we're starting to learn."
• Unclassified intel contracting data shielded from public scrutiny by Elise Castelli, Federal Times, December 19. "The waiver, which was first reported by the Federation of American Scientists blog, Secrecy News, applies only to fiscal 2007 and 2008 contracting data. Previous years’ contracting data for those agencies will still be available online."
• DoD Issues Proposed Freedom of Information Act Program Regulation, Federal Register, December 19. "The Department of Defense is proposing to update current policies and procedures to reflect the DoD FOIA Program as prescribed by Executive Order 13392."
• Barack Obama: Calling for ‘a New Era of Openness’ by David Nather, Congressional Quarterly, December 16. "In general, Obama talks about himself as the presidential candidate who would do the most to restore open government and constitutional checks and balances. But voters would pretty much have to take his word for it."
• Mike Huckabee: No Novice at Sparring With Lawmakers by David Nather, Congressional Quarterly, December 16. "Just before Mike Huckabee left office as governor of Arkansas in January, his chief of staff ordered the destruction of 83 computer hard drives in his office — wiping out whatever records were stored on them."
• FAS Letter to the ISOO Regarding CIA Declassification (pdf), letter from Steven Aftergood, December 6. "I am writing to call your attention to an anomaly in declassification practice at the Central Intelligence Agency that may warrant the attention and intervention of ISOO. Specifically, I believe that CIA has been improperly withholding declassified information as if it were classified."
• Secrets Case Eyes Jurors' Religion by Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, December 4. "As two pro-Israel lobbyists near trial on charges of trafficking in classified information, a federal judge is preparing to grapple with some thorny questions, such as what to ask potential jurors about their religion."
• U.S. Iran report is no "slam dunk" by Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters, December 4. "U.S. intelligence agencies have showed independence from the Bush administration with a sceptical assessment of Iran's nuclear capabilities that is far from the 'slam dunk' case against Iraq before the war."

Older News: November 2007

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