SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 82
August 25, 2005

PENTAGON ORDERS "NO COMMENT" ON BRAC

Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England directed senior Pentagon officials this week not to comment on the recommendations of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission, which is currently holding its final hearings.

"It's important that Department of Defense personnel refrain from answering questions or providing comments regarding the Commission's recommendations," England wrote in an August 23, 2005 memo. See:

All inquiries should be referred to DoD spokesman Michael Wynne, Mr. England wrote.

On August 24, Mr. Wynne issued the following statement: "We will begin to carefully review the commission's recommendations, and will have no comment on specific commission actions this week."

DCI GOSS ADDRESSES CIA EMPLOYEES (SEPT 2004)

The text of a speech given by Director of Central Intelligence Porter Goss at his first meeting with CIA employees last September was finally approved for public release by the CIA last month, and disclosed this week.

To the untrained eye, the speech appears to be an awkward attempt by the new Director to establish rapport with a suspicious audience, filled out by page after page of hollow rhetoric.

"My plan is very simple. It's for a dedicated focus on Mission, Capabilities, and Success," DCI (now DCIA) Goss said.

But the Washington Post, which independently obtained the text of the speech last October, said then that it "offers the most extensive insight into [Goss's] plans for the agency since he took over and all but shut down CIA communications with the public." (WP, 10/22/04).

A copy of the newly released September 24, 2004 speech to CIA employees is available here:

"I know that everything I say, or don't say, today is going to be interpreted in a lot of ways," Mr. Goss said ambiguously.

ODDS AND ENDS FROM CRS

A few more recent reports of the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News include:

"Defense Procurement: Full Funding Policy -- Background, Issues, and Options for Congress," updated June 28, 2005:

"Macedonia (FYROM): Post-Conflict Situation and U.S. Policy," updated June 17, 2005:

"Oman: Reform, Security, and U.S. Policy," updated June 28, 2005:

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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.

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