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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: May 2008

April 2008

• Championing access to government information by Steven Aftergood, Nieman Watchdog, April 18. "Most newspapers do not offer such 'tools for citizenship' to the same extent that their business pages offer tools for investing. Why is it that in most papers — and even on their Web sites — it is easier to find the daily batting averages of one's baseball team than the daily voting records of one's congressional delegation?"
• CIA Proposed Rule on Freedom of Information Act Implementation, Federal Register, April 17. "The Agency proposes to revise its FOIA regulations to more clearly reflect the current CIA organizational structure, record system configuration, and FOIA policies and practices and to eliminate ambiguous, redundant and obsolete regulatory provisions."
• Sen. Clinton on Openness, speech before the Newspaper Association of America, April 15. "I will restore openness in government. When I am president, the era of Bush/Cheney secrecy will be over."
• Sen. McCain Endorses Press Shield Law, speech before the Associated Press Annual Meeting, April 14. "It is, frankly, a license to do harm, perhaps serious harm. But it also a license to do good; to disclose injustice and unlawfulness and inequities; and to encourage their swift correction."
• Agencies Use Contradictory Rules for Classifying Information by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, April 11. "U.S. intelligence agencies have contradictory rules that govern classification of information, including inconsistencies over what would constitute harm if the information were disclosed, according to a report by the director of national intelligence that was made public yesterday."
• For Many Spies, It's Not About the Money by Pamela Hess, Associated Press, April 7. "Americans who spy against the U.S. are increasingly motivated by ideology rather than by money, with nearly half of the known spies since the end of the Cold War showing allegiance to another country or cause, according to a government report."
• Gov't: bar classification czar, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 4. "Prosecutors in the classified information case against two former AIPAC staffers want to keep the defense's most potentially damaging expert witness from testifying."
• Intelligence Officials Downplay Iran Report by Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times, April 4. "There have been mixed signals coming from senior intelligence officials regarding Iran," Mr. Aftergood said. "But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It helps to remind us that intelligence officials are not omniscient, that they can be mistaken, and that sometimes they change their minds. For my part, I would rather have mixed signals and a vigorous discussion than a blank wall of secrecy."
• Torture Memo = classification failure by Rebecca Carr, The Secrecy File, April 3. "As public outrage intensifies over the latest “torture document” indicating the Justice Department approved abusive tactics for suspected al-Qaida terrorists, open government advocates see another problem."
• Open Society Institute Seeks Transparency Program Director (pdf). "The OSI Transparency and Integrity Fund will use a combination of grantmaking strategies and programmatic initiatives to ensure transparency and effective oversight of government."
• Inside the Black Budget by William J. Broad, New York Times, April 1. “The military has patches for almost everything it does,” Mr. Paglen writes in the introduction. “Including, curiously, for programs, units and activities that are officially secret.”

Older News: March 2008

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