SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2007, Issue No. 48
May 7, 2007

Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

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ARMY DOCUMENTS POSTED "ILLEGALLY," ARMY SAYS

A U.S. Army official told the Federation of American Scientists that Army documents on the FAS web site had been published by FAS "illegally" and must be removed.

"There are only 5 Official Army Publications Sites," wrote Cheryl Clark of the U.S. Army Publications Directorate in a May 4 email message. "You are not one of them."

"You can link to our publications, but you cannot host them," she wrote.

Furthermore, she indicated, a recent Army Regulation on "Operations Security" (first published by Wired News and mirrored on the FAS site) was "not intended for Public release."

"Please remove this publication immediately or further action will be taken," Ms. Clark warned.

"I have considered your request that we remove Army publications from the Federation of American Scientists web site," I responded today. "I have decided not to comply."

By law the Army cannot copyright its publications, the response explained. Nor is FAS, a non-governmental organization, subject to internal Army regulations on information policy.

"Accordingly, our publications are not illegal nor in violation of any applicable regulation."

To eliminate potential confusion, we added a disclaimer to our Army doctrine web page indicating that the FAS collection of Army records is not an official Army source, and directing readers to several such official sites.

THE EVOLUTION OF ARMY OPSEC

The recent evolution of Army operations security (OPSEC) policy can be traced from the 1995 regulation on the subject--

to the 2005 revision--

to the latest iteration of April 2007--

In response to reporting by Noah Shachtman of Wired News and the Danger Room blog, the Army issued a Fact Sheet on May 2 asserting that Army OPSEC policy on military blogging was unchanged:

ARMY UPDATES REGULATION ON INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES

The U.S. Army issued an updated regulation governing its conduct of intelligence activities, including domestic surveillance policy and practice.

The new regulation makes several technical changes and rescinds the "For Official Use Only" status of the prior edition.

See "U.S. Army Intelligence Activities," Army Regulation 381-10, May 3, 2007:

For comparison, the prior edition, dated 22 November 2005, may be found here:

SELECTED CRS REPORTS

Some noteworthy new (or newly updated) publications of the Congressional Research Service that have not otherwise been made available to the public online include the following.

"FY2007 Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Other Purposes," updated May 2, 2007:

"Congressional Authority To Limit U.S. Military Operations in Iraq," updated April 24, 2007:

"Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications," updated April 13, 2007:

"Clinical Trials Reporting and Publication," updated April 27, 2007:

"Nuclear Warheads: The Reliable Replacement Warhead Program and the Life Extension Program," updated April 4, 2007:

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

The Secrecy News blog is at:
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