SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 104
November 7, 2005

LEVIN: NEW INFO SHOWS WHITE HOUSE MISSTATED IRAQ INTEL

Even as the Bush Administration was claiming that Iraq aided al Qaeda's chemical and biological weapons efforts, the source for those claims was deemed unreliable by U.S. intelligence, according to a release from Senator Carl Levin.

"Newly declassified information from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from February 2002 shows that, at the same time the Administration was making its case for attacking Iraq, the DIA did not trust or believe the source of the Administration's repeated assertions that Iraq had provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training," the November 6 news release said.

"Additional newly declassified information from the DIA also undermines the Administration's broader claim that there were strong links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda."

A copy of Senator Levin's release and the supporting documents, which were reported in the New York Times and the Washington Post on November 6, may be found here:

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita, quoted on CNN, said that the DIA report Levin cited was taken "out of context, without the analysis or any other indication as to how it may have factored in."

Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee outlined their expectations for the conduct of an investigation into the Administration's handling of pre-war intelligence at a November 4 press briefing. See this release:

LATEST ISSUES OF WORLD LAW BULLETIN

The three most recent issues of World Law Bulletin, produced by the Law Library of Congress but not publicly disseminated, have been obtained by Secrecy News.

Topics addressed include "Israel's Construction of a Barrier in the West Bank and the Impact of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion" (October 2005), "Women's Rights Under Shari'ah (Islamic Law)" (August 2005), "Recent Developments in the European Union," and much more. See:

INADVERTENT DISCLOSURES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS INFO

Between May and August 2005, Department of Energy reviewers examined approximately 2.9 million pages that had been declassified and made publicly available at the National Archives, and they found 140 pages containing classified nuclear weapons information that should not have been disclosed.

DOE described its findings in general terms in an August 2005 report to Congress that has just been released in declassified form. See:

DOE expects to complete its review of publicly released records at the National Archives next year, officials told historians at a meeting in College Park last week.

LEAK OF THE WEEK

Speaking at a conference in San Antonio, Deputy Director of National Intelligence Mary Margaret Graham said that the total U.S. intelligence budget is now $44 billion, U.S. News and World Report wrote in its November 14 Washington Whispers column.

See "This Time We Know Who the Leaker Is" (the third item):

According to the CIA, disclosure of such aggregate budget information causes serious damage to U.S. national security and compromises intelligence sources and methods.

But it hard to find anyone who seriously believes that. The bipartisan 9/11 Commission recommended that the aggregate and individual agency intelligence budgets be routinely disclosed each year.

MILITARY MEDICINE

A selection of military manuals on emergency medicine and related topics, from war psychiatry to emergency childbirth, can now be found on the FAS web site.

Most of this material replicates standard first aid literature, but it has also has some features that are unique to the military or otherwise distinctive.

"Army Field Manual 8-50 ('Bandaging and Splinting') is almost 50 years old, but it is the most comprehensive reference on applying bandages and splints that I know of," said Paul Schumacher, who shared his copy of the document.

"Only a 4000 year old Egyptian mummy maker could have written a better manual on this subject," he said.

See:

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

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