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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: August 2017

July 2017

• Justice Department cracks down on leaks in Trump White House by Andrea Noble, Washington Times, July 31. "The Justice Department is expected to deliver news this week on progress in sniffing out the 'astonishing' number of leakers who have bedeviled the Trump administration, aiming to deliver on the president's promise to stop the unauthorized release of sensitive information."
• Classified projects fuel Northrop growth by Marcus Weisgerber, DefenseOne, July 27. "Work on classified programs helped boost Northrop Grumman's second-quarter earnings. It's believed a sizable portion of the work was on the Air Force's B-21 stealth bomber, but company executives can't talk about it. And the number of classified projects appears on the rise."
• Is the covert CIA program to arm Syrian rebels still secret? by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press, July 25. "President Donald Trump seemed to blow the lid on the cancellation of a covert CIA program in Syria when he tweeted about it this week. But, intelligence agencies still won't talk about it."
• A tipping point for Washington's investigative culture? by Peter Grier and Story Hinckley, Christian Science Monitor, July 25. "Congress has been investigating since George Washington's day. But there's something about the Russia probes -- anywhere from three to nine, depending on how you count them -- that seems different."
• Source: Some White House staff worry Kushner security clearance in jeopardy by Sara Murray and Jeremy Diamond, CNN, July 18. "Concerns over the fate of Jared Kushner's final security clearance have begun to creep into the West Wing."
• CIA Plans to Destroy Some of Its Old Leak Files by Aliya Sternstein, Daily Beast, July 18. "The National Archives has tentatively approved a proposal to let the agency get rid of files that don't have historical value."
• Fate of Kushner's security clearance could ultimately lie with Trump by Austin Wright and Josh Dawsey, Politico, July 16. "The president's son-in-law and adviser has come under fire for initially failing to disclose meetings with Russian officials."
• Minnesota veterans of the CIA's 'secret war' seek an honorable burial by James Eli Shiffer, Star Tribune, July 16. "The plight of Insixiengmay and thousands of other Lao and Hmong veterans demonstrates a human cost of the runaway system of classification that perpetuates federal secrecy."
• The CIA's Secret 2009 Data Breach, Revealed For The First Time by Jason Leopold, Buzzfeed, July 13. "The Inspector General's 2010 report, obtained by BuzzFeed News through a Freedom of Information lawsuit, details an incident that 'could have caused irreparable damage'."
• State Science Adviser Resigns Early, Amid Departmental Reorganization by Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, July 11. "The science and technology adviser to the secretary of State has tendered his resignation, effective next week, Government Executive has learned. The resignation has sparked concern amid some in the science community that the position could be eliminated."
• Trump's leaks crackdown sends chills through national security world by Ali Watkins and Josh Dawsey, Politico, July 7. "National security officials across the federal government say they are seeing new restrictions on who can access sensitive information, fueling fears in the intelligence and security community that the Trump administration has stepped up a stealthy operation to smoke out leakers."
• Transparency Advocates Cheer Bill to Publish Congressional Research by Charles S. Clark, Government Executive, July 5. "The House Appropriations Committee's fiscal 2018 spending bill for the legislative branch on June 28 included language directing the CRS, which is part of the Library of Congress, to make 'all non-confidential reports' available to the public."
• Security of US nukes now an official secret by Robert Burn, Associated Press, July 3. "The Pentagon has thrown a cloak of secrecy over assessments of the safety and security of its nuclear weapons operations, a part of the military with a history of periodic inspection failures and lapses in morale."

Older News: June 2017

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Maintained by Steven Aftergood
Updated August 16, 2017