SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2014, Issue No. 41
June 20, 2014

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

REP. HOLT ADDS FUNDS FOR IC WHISTLEBLOWER SUPPORT

Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) devised an amendment to the 2015 Defense Appropriations bill that would earmark $2 million for investigation of intelligence community whistleblower complaints. The amendment was approved by the House of Representatives on June 18.

The money was taken from the intelligence community management account and allocated to the IC whistleblowing and source protection directorate within the IC Office of the Inspector General.

"Currently, this directorate is literally a one-man operation," Rep. Holt explained on the House floor.

"Given the fact that there are tens of thousands of Federal employees and contractor who work for the intelligence community elements, it is not realistic to expect the IC inspector general to be able to receive and investigate effectively any and all valid complaints from conscientious internal whistleblowers through a single investigator, no matter how talented that investigator may be."

"This $2 million reallocation of funds will help the community whistleblowing and source protection directorate hire more needed additional investigators and support staff and will fund outreach and education efforts across the intelligence community," Rep. Holt said. "This amendment will ensure that they have resources to respond to legitimate concerns."

The amendment was approved on a voice vote.

Rep. Holt stressed the need for improved protections for intelligence agency whistleblowers in a May 30 op-ed we co-authored on MSNBC.com.

SEN. WYDEN SAYS IC MEDIA POLICY SHOULD BE FIXED

An Intelligence Community Directive that prohibited unauthorized contacts with the news media is overbroad and needs to be corrected, said Sen. Ron Wyden last week on the Senate floor.

"I will tell you, I am troubled by how sweeping in nature this is," Senator Wyden said about the Directive, ICD 119, issued last March. (See "Intelligence Directive Bars Unauthorized Contacts with News Media," Secrecy News, April 21).

"The new policy makes it clear that intelligence agency employees can be punished for having 'contact with the media about intelligence-related information'," he said. "Make no mistake about it, that is so broad it could cover unclassified information. It does not lay out any limits on this extraordinarily broad term that I have described."

"My hope is we can get this corrected because I think it is going to have a chilling effect on intelligence professionals who simply want to talk about unclassified matters on important national security issues-- such as how to reform domestic surveillance or whether our country should go to war," Sen. Wyden said on June 12.

The new IC media policy was discussed on the NPR program On the Media on June 13.

UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILDREN, AND MORE FROM CRS

"The number of unaccompanied alien children arriving in the United States has reached alarming numbers that strain the system put in place over the past decade to handle such cases," says a new report from the Congressional Research Service. See "Unaccompanied Alien Children: An Overview," June 13, 2014:

Other new or newly updated CRS reports that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following.

Domestic Federal Law Enforcement Coordination: Through the Lens of the Southwest Border, June 3, 2014:

The Evolution of Cooperative Threat Reduction: Issues for Congress, June 13, 2014:

Taiwan: Major U.S. Arms Sales Since 1990, June 13, 2014:

Iraq: Politics, Governance, and Human Rights, June 13, 2014:

Proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP): In Brief, June 11, 2014:

Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt, June 16, 2014:

Access to Broadband Networks: The Net Neutrality Debate, June 12, 2014:

Mongolia: Issues for Congress, June 17, 2014:

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

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