SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
January 8, 2001

FACT SHEET ON NEW COUNTERINTELLIGENCE STRUCTURE

The White House has released a fact sheet on its Counterintelligence-21 initiative which sheds a little more light on the new counterintelligence structure that was established last week.

Upon inspection, CI-21 seems to be something less than a bold new departure. While the new Office of the Counterintelligence Executive will coordinate up and down among the existing counterintelligence enterprises, "the Office will not have an operational role in CI operations and investigations and no independent contacts or activities with foreign intelligence services."

The new White House fact sheet on CI-21, which is a releasable version of the closely held Presidential Decision Directive, is available here:

Excerpts on counterintelligence policy from Friday's White House press briefing may be found here:

NATIONAL ACADEMY BEGINS POLYGRAPH STUDY

The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences is undertaking a new review of the validity and reliability of the polygraph, or "lie detector."

The 18 month review, which was proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman and funded by the Department of Energy, will examine the controversial use of polygraph testing for personnel security screening. And it "will include what is known about the effect of medications, sleep deprivation, and illnesses on the physiological responses measured."

The first meeting of the study panel has been scheduled for January 26-27 at the National Academy building in Washington, DC. Most of the meeting will be open to the public.

Further information, including the names of the proposed panel members, may be found here:

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