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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: July 2010

June 2010

• Once A Critic, Obama Now Embraces Commissions by Ari Shapiro, National Public Radio, June 30. "President Obama's commission on the federal deficit has until December to come up with a plan for reducing deficits. But there's no guarantee of what will happen to those recommendations."
• Blowing the Whistle on WikiLeaks by Mark Hosenball, Newsweek Declassified, June 28. "One of America's most respected campaigners against excessive government secrecy has launched a broadside against the Web site WikiLeaks, suggesting that the enterprise is self-indulgent, irresponsibly invades the privacy of groups that are not involved in public policy, and on occasion has engaged in behavior that is 'overtly unethical'."
• Open-government guru blasts WikiLeaks, Yahoo News, June 28. "Steven Aftergood, a highly respected expert on government secrecy who has for decades sought to shine a light on the classified corners of the federal bureaucracy, blasted the controversial website WikiLeaks today as a practitioner of "information vandalism" and an 'enem[y] of open society'."
• Anti-censorship leader Aftergood blasts WikiLeaks by Jeff Stein, Washington Post SpyTalk, June 28. "Steven Aftergood, a leading opponent of government censorship, strongly denounced WikiLeaks Monday as an 'enemy' of openness 'Sbecause it does not respect the rule of law nor does it honor the rights of individuals'."
• Steven Aftergood vs Wikileaks by Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress, June 28. "Steven Aftergood, a veteran crusader against excessive government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, has unleashed a merciless critique of Wikileaks and its methods whose ferocity has really left me taken aback."
• Aftergood goes after WikiLeaks by Clint Hendler, Columbia Journalism Review, June 28. "Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, one of the nation’s foremost experts on classified documents and secrecy policy, just put up a blog post taking WikiLeaks to task."
• The Price of Secrecy: Billions by Siobhan Gorman, Wall Street Journal Washington Wire, June 25. "Secrecy, it turns out, isn’t cheap. The government and industry spent nearly $10 billion last year to keep government secrets secret, according to the Information Security Oversight Office."
• Pelosi Faces Off With Obama on CIA Oversight by Massimo Calabresi, Time, June 25. "Bucking a veto threat by President Obama and overruling a deal cut between the White House, Republicans and two Democratic committee chairmen, House Speaker Pelosi is pushing to dramatically expand Congressional oversight of the CIA and other intelligence agencies."
• FBI uncovered 14 suspected leakers in five years by Pete Yost, Associated Press, June 22. "The FBI says it's easy to complain about leaks, but hard to find the leakers."
• FBI Finds Suspects In Half Of Leak Cases by Thomas Claburn, Information Week, June 22. "Despite its fairly successful record of identifying suspected intelligence leakers, the FBI suggests that public prosecution isn't always the best way to handle the situation."
• Cases of WikiLeaks and other leaks: Worth prosecuting? by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, June 21. "In recent years the FBI has opened preliminary inquiries on hundreds of incidents of improper dissemination of classified information to the press. It has opened full investigations on only a small percentage of these cases, however."
• Obama Takes a Hard Line Against Leaks to Press by Scott Shane, New York Times, June 12. "The indictment of Mr. Drake was the latest evidence that the Obama administration is proving more aggressive than the Bush administration in seeking to punish unauthorized leaks."
• State Department assessing damage from cables leak by Robert Burns, Associated Press, June 12. "The State Department says it is studying the computer hard drives used by an Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, trying to assess the potential damage if allegations are true that the analyst leaked tens of thousands of classified diplomatic documents to a whistle-blower website."
• NARA seeks feedback on declassification priorities by Ben Bain, Federal Computer Week, June 11. "The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) wants feedback on its draft plan for how the agency’s new National Declassification Center should prioritize its work."
• The Internet Springs a Leak by Doug Bernard, Voice of America, updated June 8. "The recent posting of U.S. Defense Department video on the Wikileaks website has rekindled an old debate over leaking. But now it's not just about the public's right to know vs. the government's right to secrecy - it's also about the global reach of the World Wide Web."
• Soldier arrested in WikiLeaks classified Iraq video case by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, June 7. "Army Spc. Bradley Manning has been arrested in connection with the April release of classified footage of a US helicopter mistakenly shooting Iraqi civilians to website WikiLeaks."
• US military detains soldier linked to Iraq video by Anne Flaherty, Associated Press, June 7. "The Army has detained a 22-year-old soldier in Baghdad in connection with the leak of a military video that shows Apache helicopters gunning down unarmed men in Iraq, including two journalists, defense officials said Monday."
• Congressional Oversight of the Intelligence Community (podcast), Project on Government Oversight, June 7. "A special new POGO podcast is now available for your listening pleasure—we're honored this time to be joined by Steven Aftergood (of the Federation of American Scientists and Secrecy News) for a discussion of congressional oversight of the intelligence community."
• GI Detained in Kuwait as Suspected WikiLeaks Source by Sharon Weinberger, AOL News, June 7. "The person behind the most infamous leak of military secrets in recent years may be a 22-year-old American soldier serving in Iraq."
• National Declassification Center to Solicit Public Input on Declassification Priorities, Federal Register, June 7. "The June 23 meeting is being held to solicit public input regarding declassification priorities as identified by the Draft Prioritization Plan developed by The National Declassification Center."
• New Cyber Chief Promises Oversight, Not Openness by Sharon Weinberger, AOL News, June 3. "Amid concerns about the government's growing role in monitoring and safeguarding the nation's computer networks, the head of the newly created U.S. Cyber Command says the military would share details of its cybersecurity operations with other federal branches but not with the public."
• Panel found 'distracted' DNI by Josh Gerstein, Politico, June 2. "The report from the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board was delivered to Obama just days before the president asked Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair to step down from his post."

Older News: May 2010

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Updated July 6, 2010