SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2018, Issue No. 28
April 19, 2018

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

A FORUM FOR CLASSIFIED RESEARCH ON CYBERSECURITY

By definition, scientists who perform classified research cannot take full advantage of the standard practice of peer review and publication to assure the quality of their work and to disseminate their findings. Instead, military and intelligence agencies tend to provide limited disclosure of classified research to a select, security-cleared audience.

In 2013, the US intelligence community created a new classified journal on cybersecurity called the Journal of Sensitive Cyber Research and Engineering (JSCoRE).

The National Security Agency has just released a redacted version of the tables of contents of the first three volumes of JSCoRE in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

JSCoRE "provides a forum to balance exchange of scientific information while protecting sensitive information detail," according to the ODNI budget justification book for FY2014 (at p. 233). "Until now, authors conducting non-public cybersecurity research had no widely-recognized high-quality secure venue in which to publish their results. JSCoRE is the first of its kind peer-reviewed journal advancing such engineering results and case studies."

The titles listed in the newly disclosed JSCoRE tables of contents are not very informative -- e.g. "Flexible Adaptive Policy Enforcement for Cross Domain Solutions" -- and many of them have been redacted.

However, one intriguing title that NSA withheld from release under FOIA was publicly cited in a Government Accountability Office report last year: "The Darkness of Things: Anticipating Obstacles to Intelligence Community Realization of the Internet of Things Opportunity," JSCoRE, vol. 3, no. 1 (2015)(TS//SI//NF).

"JSCoRE may reside where few can lay eyes on it, but it has plenty of company," wrote David Malakoff in Science Magazine in 2013. "Worldwide, intelligence services and military forces have long published secret journals" -- such as DARPA's old Journal of Defense Research -- "that often touch on technical topics. The demand for restricted outlets is bound to grow as governments classify more information."

USA V. TERRY ALBURY: A GUILTY PLEA

The second prosecution of an accused leaker in the Trump Administration (after Reality Winner) will yield the first conviction. Former FBI special agent Terry J. Albury pleaded guilty this week to unlawful disclosure and retention of national defense information, each of which is a felony under the Espionage Act statutes.

The plea agreement, signed by the defendant, outlines the facts of the case and sets the stage for sentencing.

"Terry Albury betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the United States," said U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick in an April 17 news release. "Today's guilty plea should serve as a reminder to those who are entrusted with classified information that the Justice Department will hold them accountable."

But Albury's attorneys said that his actions were those of a whistleblower. "His conduct in this case was an act of conscience. It was driven by his belief that there was no viable alternative to remedy the abuses he sought to address. He recognizes that what he did was unlawful and accepts full responsibility for his conduct," they said in a statement quoted in Politico.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, "The defendant waives all rights to obtain, directly or through others, information about the investigation and prosecution of this case under the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974."

THE F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER PROGRAM, AND MORE FROM CRS

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the single largest procurement program in the Department of Defense, which anticipates acquiring thousands of these aircraft.

But while "the F-35 promises significant advances in military capability..., reaching that capability has put the program above its original budget and behind the planned schedule," according to the Congressional Research Service. See F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program, updated April 13, 2018:

Other new and updated CRS reports that have not been made publicly available include the following.

FY2018 Defense Appropriations Act: An Overview, CRS In Focus, April 5, 2018:

The President's FY2019 Military Construction Budget Request, CRS In Focus, April 4, 2018:

Legal Authorities Under the Controlled Substances Act to Combat the Opioid Crisis, April 16, 2018:

Regulatory Reform 10 Years After the Financial Crisis: Dodd-Frank and Securities Law, April 13, 2018:

Offshore Oil and Gas Development: Legal Framework, updated April 13, 2018:

NASA Appropriations and Authorizations: A Fact Sheet, updated April 16, 2018:

Special Counsels, Independent Counsels, and Special Prosecutors: Legal Authority and Limitations on Independent Executive Investigations, updated April 13, 2018:

Cuba After the Castros, CRS Insight, April 17, 2018:

US GIFTS TO FOREIGN INDIVIDUALS REPORTED

The Obama Administration gave dozens of wrist watches to various foreign leaders in 2014.

A newly released State Department report to Congress lists all of the gifts presented by President Obama, Mrs. Obama, Vice President Biden, Mrs. Biden, and Secretary of State Kerry to foreign individuals.

The 32 page report reflects the fact that the presentation of gifts is a customary feature of personal encounters between US and foreign leaders, as is the recording and reporting of each gift.

Based on the descriptions in the report, most of the gifts seem generic and unimaginative, not reflecting any particularized esteem. The most common gift was a "custom men's watch in a wooden presentation box with inscription plaque" with a reported value of $465.

One exception was a "custom seed chest... containing nine varieties of American seeds" (declared value $1964.87) that was presented to Pope Francis. Also noteworthy is a rare edition of a book about the 1893 World's Congress of Religions that featured Swami Vivekananda and other luminaries (declared value $1375 -- but now half that price on Amazon) that was given to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The report on gifts from the United States to foreign individuals in FY2014 was released under the Freedom of Information Act following a three-year processing delay.

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

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