SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2013, Issue No. 105
December 16, 2013

Secrecy News Blog: http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/

DECLASSIFICATION AS A CONFIDENCE-BUILDING MEASURE

In order to restore public trust, the U.S. intelligence community ought to be "aggressive" about reducing classification, former intelligence officials said last week.

Secrecy "is an enormous problem," said Michael Leiter, who was director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 2007 to 2011. "I hope the DNI is very aggressive about moving towards less classification and more effective security clearances."

He didn't specify what information he thought should cease to be classified, or exactly how a policy of less classification should be implemented. But he said that current secrecy policies have eroded public confidence.

"I think what Snowden has really illustrated better than anything else is [that] the trust that we need to have in a democratic society between those elements which should remain secret and its public is broken," Mr. Leiter said. He spoke at a December 11 program on The Current State of Intelligence Reform held at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

"We struck a balance basically in the early 70s -- with the FISA Court, Church-Pike-- that has broken down," he said. "And we no longer trust that the HPSCI, or the SSCI, or the FISA Court as its currently constructed or the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board or the President's Intelligence Advisory Board-- people don't know those names, they don't know those acronyms, and they don't trust the US intelligence Community because people don't believe those organizations are conducting the oversight they should."

"So I hope out of this Snowden affair we end up with a new modern form of oversight which provides the trust that we need to do the things that have to remain secret," he said.

Michael Allen, former staff director of the House Intelligence Committee, defended congressional oversight and said that criticism of the quality of intelligence oversight masked a policy disagreement.

"I think Congress has been working better in these respects in the past few years," he said.

"The reason I think you see some potshots about congressional oversight as related to the Snowden matter is because Congress knew about the [bulk collection] programs and people who don't like the programs are mad at Congress for going along with them in the first place. So they assault congressional oversight writ large, when they're really making a policy judgment that they don't support the underlying programs, and they're casting aspersions against anyone who might have known or been comfortable with them," he said.

But Mr. Allen agreed that the intelligence community needed to provide the public with more insight into its activities and with more access to its products.

"I think for the intelligence community to be able to survive and [for] many of the collection programs to be able to be successful, the intelligence community has got to rethink its declassification policy," he said.

The IC should "consider trying to put out more examples of where its collection programs have been successful in order to fight for the authorities to keep them." Likewise, it "might consider putting out more of its analysis so that a broader swath of people can have an appreciation for what they [intelligence agencies] do," Mr. Allen said.

While there has been significant declassification of records concerning NSA surveillance programs, a comparable reassessment of intelligence classification policy in other topical areas remains to be accomplished.

As for public disclosure of other intelligence analysis, that currently seems remote. The ODNI Open Source Center stubbornly refuses to release even unclassified, uncopyrighted products that it generates (though some do leak from time to time).

In fact, current trends point in the opposite direction, towards reduced disclosure. Later this month the Open Source Center, which is managed by CIA, will terminate longstanding public access to translations of foreign news reports which have long been available (to paid subscribers) through the NTIS World News Connection.

Last week, the Obama Administration argued in court that the CIA should not be obliged to publicly release a 30 year old draft history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs episode.

DOD REPORTS TO CONGRESS TO BE POSTED ONLINE

In a slight but welcome incremental reform, reports to Congress from the Department of Defense are to be posted online, according to a provision in the pending FY 2014 defense authorization act.

Up to now, such reports were to be made available to the public "upon request" (10 USC 122a).

But under section 181 of the FY 2014 defense authorization bill, as agreed to by House and Senate conferees, the reports would have to be posted on a "publicly accessible Internet website" whether they were requested or not (h/t: FCNL).

The online publication requirement would not apply to DoD reports that contained classified or proprietary information, or that are otherwise exempt from disclosure under FOIA.

In a January 21, 2009 memorandum to agency heads, the newly inaugurated President Obama directed that "agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely." But agencies implemented this directive unevenly and incompletely.

COUNTERINSURGENCY SHOULD ADDRESS "ROOT CAUSES"

The latest edition of U.S. joint military doctrine on counterinsurgency states that while working to defeat and contain insurgency, efforts should also be made to "address its root causes."

Newly added doctrinal language "articulates that US counterinsurgency efforts should provide incentives to the host-nation government to undertake reforms that address the root causes of the insurgency."

The latest revision also emphasizes the importance of gaining and retaining "US public support" for counterinsurgency programs.

"US public opinion should be considered as part of the OE [operational environment], just as the indigenous population opinion is essential to the COIN [counterinsurgency] effort, because USG COIN efforts must prove worthwhile to the US public," the newly added language states. See Joint Publication 3-24, Counterinsurgency, November 22, 2013:

The previous edition from 2009 may be found here:

(Joint Publication 3-24 on Counterinsurgency is not to be confused with the 2006 Army Field Manual 3-24 associated with David Petraeus that bears the same title.)

To its harshest critics, counterinsurgency doctrine, though "marketed as a sophisticated and humane alternative to conventional combat," is a failure and a farce.

"What purports to be a thinking man's approach to war actually gives policy makers license to stop thinking," wrote Andrew J. Bacevich in a scorching piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 9, 2013. "COIN offers technique devoid of larger purpose" and "when put to the test, counterinsurgency doesn't work all that well," he wrote (sub. req'd.).

FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN THE US, AND MORE FROM CRS

Foreign investment in the United States "dropped sharply in 2012," according to a newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service, and in 2013 it could fall by another 10%. See Foreign Direct Investment in the United States: An Economic Analysis, December 11, 2013:

Other new and updated CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News include the following.

U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues, December 11, 2013:

Campaign Contribution Limits: Selected Questions About McCutcheon and Policy Issues for Congress, December 12, 2013:

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Annual Fee on Health Insurers, December 12, 2013:

The Paris Club and International Debt Relief, December 11, 2013:

Medicaid Coverage of Long-Term Services and Supports, December 5, 2013:

Interim Agreement on Iran's Nuclear Program, December 11, 2013:

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

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