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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: March 2011

February 2011

• Invoking 'State Secrets': Still the Status Quo? by Marian Wang, ProPublica, February 24. "Numbers aside, there is a great deal of continuity between the Bush and Obama administrations," Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert with the Federation of American Scientists, told us. "And there is no case where the Obama administration has rescinded a claim of state secrets privilege that was advanced by the Bush [administration]."
• Officer says he refused 'illegal' order in Afghanistan by William R. Levesque, St. Petersburg Times, February 25. "Information operations, called IO in military jargon, is an umbrella term for a variety of ways to influence foreign populations or an enemy. Psychological operations, or PsyOps, is one aspect of IO and can employ deception."
• Research in Social Problems and Public Policy: Government Secrecy, Table of Contents, Volume 19, January 2011
• No Fundamental Classification Review Records Found at US TRANSCOM, reply to FOIA request, February 20. "A records search was conducted within this agency and no records were found. According to records search within our Directorate of Operations, Force Protection Division, Security Service Center, "... no review was required IAW DoD 5200.1-R under the 5-year review for classification guides."
• Go Inside the $56 Billion 'Black' Budget by Adam Rawnsley, Wired Danger Room, February 18. "Finding the Pentagon's secret money in the budget involves a bit of document diving and some back-of-the-envelope calculations."
• DNI Releases Budget Figure for FY 2012 Request for National Intelligence Program, ODNI news release, February 14. "The aggregate amount of appropriations requested for the National Intelligence Program is $55 billion."
• Intelligence panels ignored CIA officer's pleas by Jeff Stein, Washington Post, February 14. "Reform of the state secrets privilege, which allows the CIA and similar agencies to seek the dismissal of lawsuits by claiming they would harm national security, can't come come soon enough for ex-CIA officer Kevin Shipp."
• CIA Has "No Records" Concerning Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, February 7. "We did not locate any records responsive to your request."
• US air force backtracks over WikiLeaks ban by Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, February 8. "The US air force has backtracked after issuing guidance last week banning the families of staff from reading classified material released by WikiLeaks."
• No espionage charges for airmen on Wikileaks by Scott Fontaine, Air Force Times, February 8. "The Air Force is backing off the threat by one of its major commands to pursue espionage charges for airmen who access classified documents on WikiLeaks."
• Review of classification rules represents an opportunity, even for medicine by Steven Aftergood, Nature Medicine, February 2011. "The US system of classifying national security information is bloated and dysfunctional, shielding the government from the scrutiny it needs to avoid error and abusive practices."
• Air Force Materiel Command Offers Guidance on WikiLeaks, AFMC public affairs report, February 3. "To assist the Air Force Materiel Command workforce, the command's legal and communication experts identified the key guidelines: DO NOT access the WikiLeaks information on government or personal computers; DO treat the leaked material like any other content assumed to be classified."
• Department of Defense Personnel Security Program (PSP) - Proposed Rule, Federal Register, February 2. "This rule provides PSP policy fundamental to preventing unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified information that could cause irreparable damage to national security."
• Open Secrets by Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, February 1. "The nation's spy agency steps into the public eye, releasing documents and airing candid assessments of past operations."

Older News: January 2011

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Updated March 3, 2011