SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2018, Issue No. 33
May 1, 2018

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

PENTAGON PURSUES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as machine learning are already being used by the Department of Defense in operations in Iraq and Syria, and they have many potential uses in intelligence processing, military logistics, cyber defense, as well as autonomous weapon systems.

The range of such applications for defense and intelligence is surveyed in a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

The CRS report also reviews DoD funding for AI, international competition in the field, including Chinese investment in US AI companies, and the foreseeable impacts of AI technologies on the future of combat. See Artificial Intelligence and National Security, April 26, 2018.

"We're going to have self-driving vehicles in theater for the Army before we'll have self-driving cars on the streets," Michael Griffin, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering told Congress last month (as reported by Bloomberg).

Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.

Foreign Aid: An Introduction to U.S. Programs and Policy, April 25, 2018:

OPIC, USAID, and Proposed Development Finance Reorganization, April 27, 2018:

OPEC and Non-OPEC Crude Oil Production Agreement: Compliance Status, CRS Insight, April 26, 2018:

What Is the Farm Bill?, updated April 26, 2018:

A Shift in the International Security Environment: Potential Implications for Defense--Issues for Congress, updated April 26, 2018:

Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, updated April 27, 2018:

China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities -- Background and Issues for Congress, updated April 25, 2018:

Russian Compliance with the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty: Background and Issues for Congress, updated April 25, 2018:

The First Responder Network (FirstNet) and Next-Generation Communications for Public Safety: Issues for Congress, April 27, 2018:

African American Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2018, updated April 26, 2018:

DOD SEEKS NEW FOIA EXEMPTION FOR FOURTH TIME

For the fourth year in a row, the Department of Defense has asked Congress to legislate a new exemption from the Freedom of Information Act in the FY 2019 national defense authorization act for certain unclassified military tactics, techniques and procedures.

Previous requests for such an exemption were rebuffed or ignored by Congress.

The Defense Department again justified its request by explaining that a 2011 US Supreme Court decision in Milner v. Department of the Navy had significantly narrowed its authority to withhold such information under FOIA.

"Before that decision, the Department was authorized to withhold sensitive information on critical infrastructure and military tactics, techniques, and procedures from release under FOIA pursuant to Exemption 2," DoD wrote in a legislative proposal that was transmitted to Congress on March 16 and posted online yesterday by the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel.

"This proposal similarly would amend section 130e to add protections for military tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and rules of engagement that, if publicly disclosed, could reasonably be expected to provide an operational military advantage to an adversary."

In a new justification added this year, DoD further argued that the exemption was needed to protect its cyber activities. Tthe probability of successful cyber operations would be limited with the public release of cyber-related TTPs. This [FOIA exemption] proposal would add a layer of mission assurance to unclassified cyber operations and enhance the Department of Defense's ability to project cyber effects while protecting national security resources."

New FOIA exemptions are often unpopular and are not always routinely approved by Congress, which has repeatedly dismissed this particular proposal.

DoD has circumscribed the proposed exemption in such a way as to limit its likely impact and to make it somewhat more palatable if it were ever adopted. It would not apply to all TTPs, many of which are freely disclosed online. It would require personal, non-delegable certification by the Secretary of Defense that exemption of particular information was justified. And it would include a balancing test requiring consideration of the public interest in disclosure of information proposed for exemption.

But many FOIA advocates said the proposal was nonetheless inappropriate. It "would undermine the FOIA, creating an unnecessary and overbroad secrecy provision at odds with FOIA's goal of transparency and accountability to the public," they wrote in a letter objecting to last year's version of the proposal.

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

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