SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2014, Issue No. 38
June 6, 2014

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

HOUSE INTEL BILL FUMBLED TRANSPARENCY

Intelligence community whistleblowers would have been able to submit their complaints to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) under a proposed amendment to the intelligence authorization act that was offered last week by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).

This could have been an elegant solution to the whistleblowing conundrum posed by Edward Snowden. It made little sense for Snowden to bring his concerns about bulk collection of American phone records to the congressional intelligence committees, considering that they had already secretly embraced the practice.

The PCLOB, by contrast, has staked out a position as an independent critical voice on intelligence policy. (And it has an unblemished record for protecting classified information.) The Board's January 2014 report argued cogently and at length that the Section 215 bulk collection program was likely unlawful as well as ineffective.

In short, the PCLOB seemed like a perfect fit for any potential whistleblower who might have concerns about the legality or propriety of current intelligence programs from a privacy or civil liberties perspective.

But when Rep. Gabbard offered her amendment to the intelligence authorization act, it was not voted down-- it was blocked. The House Rules Committee declared that the amendment was "out of order" and could not be brought to a vote on the House floor.

Several other amendments on transparency issues met a similar fate. These included a measure proposed by Rep. Adam Schiff to require reporting on casualties resulting from targeted killing operations, a proposal to disclose intelligence spending at the individual agency level, and another to require disclosure of the number of U.S. persons whose communications had been collected under FISA, among others.

In dismay at this outcome, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and I lamented the "staggering failure of oversight" in a May 30 op-ed. See "The House Committee on Intelligence Needs Oversight of Its Own," MSNBC:

The House did approve an amendment offered by Rep. John Carney (D-DE) to require the Director of National Intelligence "to issue a report to Congress on how to improve the declassification process across the intelligence community." While the DNI's views on the subject may indeed be of interest, the amendment failed to specify the problem it intended to address (erroneous classification standards? excessive backlogs? something else?), and so it is unclear exactly what is to be improved.

However, a more focused classification reform program may be in the works.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that he would introduce "a comprehensive security clearance reform bill" that would also address the need to shrink the national security classification system.

The Thompson bill, which is to be introduced "in the coming weeks," would "greatly expand the resources and responsibilities of the Public Interest Declassification Board," Rep. Thompson said during the House floor debate on the intelligence authorization act on May 30.

"A well-resourced and robust Board is essential to increasing accountability of the intelligence community," he said.

CIA UNDERESTIMATES THE POPULATION OF SYRIA

The population of Syria is 17,951,639, according to the CIA World Factbook.

That figure (oddly identified as a "July 2014" estimate) is wrong, according to everyone else.

The discrepancy was noted yesterday in the intelligence newsletter Nightwatch.

"NightWatch consulted six separate sources for the total population of Syria. They agreed that it is between 22 and 23 million people, not 17.9 million as indicated in the CIA World Factbook. There are about 7 million Syrians under voting age of 18 and more than 15 million registered voters," the newsletter said.

"NightWatch relies on the CIA World Factbook as a standard reference for unclassified factual, baseline information, as does the Intelligence Community. On three occasions since 2006, NightWatch has found errors in the Factbook," the newsletter added. "This was the third occasion."

A Congressional Research Service report last month also cites a total Syrian population of "more than 22 million."

Errors, of course, are to be expected-- even, and especially, in intelligence publications. One great virtue of the CIA World Factbook is that it is a public document. This makes it possible for readers to identify such errors, to draw attention to them, and to promote their correction.

DOD OPS IN A C4ISR-DENIED ENVIRONMENT, AND MORE

The Department of Defense prepares and trains for military operations in environments in which communications and surveillance are denied or obstructed, a new report to Congress says.

Combatant commanders "spend many man-hours... developing frameworks and procedures for using alternative methods, diversifying communications paths and media, and pursuing the ability to use distributed operations in a denied environment."

The issue was summarily addressed in a mandatory report to Congress on "Joint Strategy for Readiness and Training in a Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Denied Environment."

The brief, unclassified report was transmitted to Congress in February 2014 and released under the Freedom of Information Act this week.

Somewhat relatedly, a declassified 1971 memorandum from the National Reconnaissance Office addressed the subject of "avoidance of coorbital intercept," or anti-anti-satellite operations.

The subject was highly sensitive at the time. "Any action on our part which demonstrates the possibility that we possess the ability to evade a coorbital intercept... is potentially compromising of the great efficacy of U.S. satellite collection capability in this area."

Unrelatedly, but notably, the Federal Judicial Center has published a compilation of "protective orders" that were issued by courts in national security criminal cases, including espionage trials and leak cases, over the past 15 years. See "National Security Prosecutions: Protective Orders," April 2014:

HOW DOD ACQUIRES WEAPON SYSTEMS, AND MORE FROM CRS

New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following.

Defense Acquisitions: How DOD Acquires Weapon Systems and Recent Efforts to Reform the Process, May 23, 2014:

Defense Acquisition Reform: Background, Analysis, and Issues for Congress, May 23, 2014:

U.S. Air Force Bomber Sustainment and Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress, June 4, 2014:

The Number of Veterans That Use VA Health Care Services: A Fact Sheet, June 3, 2014:

Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2015, June 2, 2014:

U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations: Senate Rejections and Committee Votes Other Than to Report Favorably, 1939-2013, May 29, 2014:

Corporate Expatriation, Inversions, and Mergers: Tax Issues, May 27, 2014:

Federal Building and Facility Security: Frequently Asked Questions, May 28, 2014:

Deployable Federal Assets Supporting Domestic Disaster Response Operations: Summary and Considerations for Congress, May 16, 2014:

The Presidential Records Act: Background and Recent Issues for Congress, May 30, 2014:

Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations, June 5, 2014:

******************************

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

The Secrecy News blog is at:
      http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/

To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to:
     http://fas.org/news/secrecy/subscribe.html

To UNSUBSCRIBE, go to:
      http://fas.org/news/secrecy/unsubscribe.html

OR email your request to saftergood@fas.org

Secrecy News is archived at:
      http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html

SUPPORT the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation here:
      https://fas.org/join/