SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2016, Issue No. 88
November 1, 2016Secrecy News Blog: http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/
A THOUSAND ADVISORY COMMITTEES, AND MORE FROM CRS
As of last year, there were 1,009 federal advisory committees comprised of 72,220 members who provided advice to the government at a cost of more than $367 million.
The operations of these federal advisory committees -- which may also include commissions, councils, task forces, or working groups -- are examined in a newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service. See Federal Advisory Committees: An Introduction and Overview by Wendy Ginsberg and Casey Burgat, October 27, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/R44253.pdf
Other new and updated CRS reports that have not been made publicly available online include the following.
Bahrain: Reform, Security, and U.S. Policy, updated October 28, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/95-1013.pdf
Iran: Politics, Human Rights, and U.S. Policy, updated October 25, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL32048.pdf
Israel: Background and U.S. Relations, updated October 28, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33476.pdf
Ukraine: Current Issues and U.S. Policy, updated October 27, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33460.pdf
Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, updated October 25, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL33745.pdf
Navy Virginia (SSN-774) Class Attack Submarine Procurement: Background and Issues for Congress, updated October 25, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL32418.pdf
Navy Columbia Class (Ohio Replacement) Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN[X]) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, updated October 25, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R41129.pdf
Department of Homeland Security Preparedness Grants: A Summary and Issues, October 28, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R44669.pdf
DHS Appropriations FY2017: Security, Enforcement, and Investigations, October 27, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R44666.pdf
Treatment of Noncitizens Under the Affordable Care Act, updated October 27, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43561.pdf
Video Broadcasting of Congressional Proceedings, October 28, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44665.pdf
The Social Security Retirement Age, October 28, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44670.pdf
Social Security: Calculation and History of Taxing Benefits, updated October 27, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32552.pdf
Did a Thermostat Break the Internet?, CRS Insight, October 26, 2016:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/IN10600.pdf
CIA RELEASES DRAFT HISTORY OF BAY OF PIGS
The Central Intelligence Agency yesterday released a long-sought draft of the fifth volume of its internal history of the 1961 invasion of the Bay of Pigs.
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/C01254908.pdf
The release was among the first tangible results of this year's amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, which imposed a 25 year limit on the exemption for "deliberative" files. As a result, the 1984 draft history could no longer be legally withheld.
CIA said in a cover note that "This fifth draft volume was not publishable in its present form, in the judgment of CIA Chief Historians as well as other reviewers, because of serious shortcomings in scholarship, its polemical tone, and its failure to add significantly to an understanding of the controversy over the Bay of Pigs operation."
Indeed, the new "volume is strange, in some respects, and interesting," said Villanova Prof. David M. Barrett, who had filed a lawsuit last summer for release of the draft history.
"Essentially, it is a critical history of the Inspector General's critical report on Bay of Pigs, which mainly blamed CIA incompetence for the failure at Bay of Pigs. [The author, CIA historian Jack] Pfeiffer says IG Lyman Kirkpatrick's report was, itself, biased and incompetent. Pfeiffer says the most obvious cause of failure at Bay of Pigs was JFK's decision to cancel a planned 2nd airstrike in support of the invaders at Bay of Pigs," Barrett said.
He noted several highlights:
Author Pfeiffer describes one of the IG report's authors as probably mentally ill (p. 75). Writing in about 1983, Pfeiffer says that CIA had kept the IG report and other internal analyses of Bay of Pigs classified Secret in order to avoid airing its "dirty laundry." (p. 4).
"Not quite earth-shaking history, but I think the real story is that CIA spent much effort and money over the past 5 years to prevent [release] of this document," Barrett said.Pfeiffer says CIA hired a couple of people to write the true story of Bay of Pigs with the hope of having Life Magazine or another outlet publish it. Only State Dept objections stopped that from being pursued, though the authors did write the article. (p. 87-90)
At the end, Pfeiffer suggests in a footnote that the history program (where he worked!) should probably be abolished, and the raw materials it possessed should be destroyed; the Operations Directorate was hostile to it, and it was hard to see the point of the program. (p. 146) [Correction: The footnote on page 146 presents the views of certain other CIA officials, not those of Pfeiffer.]
The National Security Archive, which had previously filed suit to obtain the document, hailed its release here:
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB564-CIA-Releases-Controversial-Bay-of-Pigs-History/
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
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