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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: March 2018

February 2018

• Jared Kushner Has Lost His Top Secret Security Clearance by Jim Dalrymple II and Dan Vergano, Buzzfeed, February 27. "The president's son-in-law and other staffers had their security clearances downgraded from 'top secret' to 'secret'."
• DoD Releases Military Intelligence Program (MIP) Request for Fiscal Year 2019, DoD news release, February 27. "The total, which includes both the base budget and Overseas Contingency Operations funding, is $21.2 billion."
• Feds' case against alleged NSA hoarder hits turbulence by Josh Gerstein, Politico, February 26. "A little-noticed order from a federal judge earlier this month has the potential to upend the prosecution of Harold Martin, who was arrested in 2016 after an FBI search turned up a massive trove of sensitive data he allegedly removed during two decades of work for several different intelligence agencies."
• Why so many temporary White House clearances? Adam Schiff wants to know by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, February 14. "President Trump's White House isn't famous for sweating the small stuff. Maybe that's one reason it is stumbling over something known for exacting detail: the security clearance process."
• The president's phantom threats by Joel Simon and Alexandra Ellerbeck, Columbia Journalism Review, Winter 2018. "Trump so far has failed to follow through on his promised press assault. Could it still come?"
• The Nunes Memo: Six Degrees of Separation from Reality by Celia Wexler, WhoWhatWhy, February 12. "Interestingly, the people who for years have formed bipartisan alliances to make government more open and accountable were largely missing from this fight. Why? They contend that Nunes's effort was not the crusade he made it out to be."
• How Partisan Has House Intelligence Panel Become? It's Building a Wall by Sharon LaFraniere and Nicholas Fandos, New York Times, February 8. "To committee members of both parties, the planned division of one room into two is emblematic of how far the panel, a longtime oasis of country-first comity in a bitterly divided Congress, has fallen since it began its Russia inquiry last year."
• Releasing the GOP memo may have broken a 'safety valve' on government secrets, experts say by Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, February 6. "House Republicans' mad dash to release a fiercely contested classified memo could erode the relationship between U.S. intelligence agencies and Capitol Hill, experts say."
• 'The Memo,' Selective Disclosure and the Fight for True Transparency, On the Media, February 2. "According to transparency advocate Steven Aftergood, those hailing the memo as a bombshell are acting in bad faith disguised as openness. Aftergood and Bob discuss the implications of the memo and why this week's news might complicate black-and-white frameworks for disclosure and secrecy."
• How did the incendiary GOP memo get to Trump? Through a rule that had never been used before by Kevin Breuninger, CNBC, February 2. "House Intelligence Committee Republicans passed a classified memo to the president without intelligence agencies' input using the so-called Rule X."

Older News: December 2017

https://sgp.fas.org/news/2018/02/index.html
Maintained by Steven Aftergood
Updated March 5, 2018