diplomacy

NATO Security Summit in Chicago, NSA declassification blunder, weapons in space and much more.

NATO Security Summit

• The 2012 NATO Security Summit is underway in Chicago, with heads of state and governments of NATO member states convening to discuss regional and global security challenges. Key items on the summit agenda include a transition plan for NATO forces in Afghanistan after the end of combat in 2014, NATO’s defense and security goals, and tactics to enhance NATO partnership with non-member states. For more information on the NATO Summit, visit our policy page here.

From the Blogs

• NSA Declassifies Secret Document After Publishing It: The National Security Agency last week invoked a rarely-used authority in order to declassify a classified document that was mistakenly posted on the NSA website with all of its classified passages intact. The article is a historical study entitled Maybe You Had to Be There: The SIGINT on Thirteen Soviet Shootdowns of U.S. Reconnaissance Aircraft.  It was written by Michael L. Peterson and was originally published in the classified journal Cryptologic Quarterly in 1993.

New op-ed on diplomacy with North Korea, GAO intelligence review, new CRS reports and much more.

From the Blogs

• GAO Completes an “Intelligence Related” Review: Following years of controversy, the Government Accountability Office this week released an unclassified version of its long-awaited report on FBI Counterterrorism. The report itself comes as an anti-climax, but it is the first GAO report involving intelligence-related matters to be completed since the issuance of an intelligence community directive last summer which authorized GAO to gain access to certain intelligence agency information.  As such, it may herald a growing role for GAO in intelligence oversight.

• Secret Systems Clutter the Electromagnetic Spectrum: The difficulty that the military has in allocating the efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum for military operations is aggravated by the fact that some of those uses — involving intelligence platforms and sensors — are secret even from military planners themselves, a new Pentagon doctrinal publication notes.

• Another Reason to Avoid the Dentist?: Every so often it seems that dental radiation briefly makes an appearance as something that we wonder if we should be concerned about. Dr. Y investigates the effects of dental x-rays in a new post on the ScienceWonk Blog.

• “Traitor,” A Whitleblower’s Tale: Steven Aftergood writes that Jesselyn Radack’s memoir, Traitor: The Whistleblower and the American Taliban presents the moving story of a young attorney’s unexpected encounter with official misconduct, and the excruciating ordeal that ensued when she decided to challenge it. In 2001, Ms. Radack was a Justice Department attorney and specialist in legal ethics.  In response to an official inquiry, she advised that the newly captured John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban,” should not be interrogated without an attorney present — which he then was anyway.  When Department officials publicly denied having received any such legal advice, and even destroyed evidence to the contrary, she exposed the deception.

• The Evolving Mission of the Secret Service and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such as the mission of the Secret Service, nanotechnology and an overview of U.S. energy supplies.

Publications

• Right Approach for Diplomacy with North Korea: FAS President Charles D. Ferguson writes in a new op-ed published by Kyodo News that with the failed April 13th launch of a North Korean rocket, an opportunity has opened up to form a more realistic and long-term plan to create dialogue and build trust with North Korea. The new North Korean regime may be signaling that it is receptive.

U.S.-Japan Nuclear Working Group Website

• FAS has partnered with the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation to convene a group of approximately fifteen American and Japanese experts and officials representing diverse stakeholder communities in the two countries’ nuclear energy activities.  Between March 2012 and April 2013 the working group will meet four times to discuss shared concerns at stake amidst the shifting political landscape for nuclear energy in Japan and the United States. To learn more about the working group, click here. 

Volunteer This Weekend with FAS

• FAS will have a booth at the 2nd Annual USA Science and Engineering Festival which will be held on April 28-29 in Washington, DC. We are looking for volunteers to engage the public with our hands on science activity, which will be explaning the role of science in policymaking. Please contact Melanie Stegman at mstegman@fas.org to volunteer. For more information on our booth and the festival, click here.

FAS in the News

• Apr 17: Huffington Post, “ICBM Coalition of Rural Senators Fights Nuclear Weapons Cuts”
• Apr 17: Wired – Danger Room, “Military Intelligence Gadfly Will Lead All Military Intelligence”
• Apr 17: Examiner.com, “U.S. Army General Michael Flynn Tapped to be Director of Defense Intelligence

FAS Roundup: March 5, 2012

Syria and WMD, Chinese ICBMs spotted, DoD responds to nuclear targeting questions, why sanctions on Iran won’t work and much more.

From the Blogs

• DoD Responds to Questions on Nuclear Targeting: Are U.S. nuclear forces on hair trigger alert? Not exactly, a Department of Defense official told Congress. “Although it is true that portions of the U.S. nuclear triad are capable of rapid execution upon authorization from the President, a robust system of safeguards and procedures are in place to prevent the accidental or unauthorized launch of a U.S. nuclear weapon,” said James N. Miller, Jr., Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

• Chinese Mobile ICBMs Seen in Central China: Hans Kristensen writes that recent satellite images show that China is setting up launch units for its newest road-mobile Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) in central China. Several launchers of the new DF-31/31A appeared at two sites in the eastern part of the Qinghai province in June 2011; which is part of China’s slow modernization of its small (compared with Russia and the United States) nuclear arsenal.

• Court Says Agency Classification Decision is Not “Logical”: DC District Judge Richard W. Roberts did an astonishing thing that federal courts almost never do: He probed into the decision to classify a government document and concluded that it was not well-founded, in an opinion that was published this week. He ordered the agency to release the document under the Freedom of Information Act.

FAS Roundup: January 9, 2012

New defense strategy, U.S. Army communications security, the collision course between Iran and the U.S., new CRS reports and much more.  

From the Blogs

• Army Red Teams Test Communications Security: Steven Aftergood writes about the newly revised Army regulation which prescribes the use of “red teams” that are assigned to try and penetrate the security of military communications, as if they were hackers or opposition forces.

• A New Defense Strategy: A New Nuclear Strategy?: The Obama administration presented a new defense strategy that it says is needed to realign U.S. military forces and doctrine with the reductions in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the new fiscal constraints created by the financial crisis. Hans Kristensen writes that it is important that the commitment in the new defense strategy to maintaining a nuclear deterrent does not overshadow the equally important commitment to reducing the size and role of nuclear forces.

• JASON on Producing Tritium for Fusion Reactors: If nuclear fusion were ever to become a practical method of generating electrical energy, there would be a continuing requirement to produce significant quantities of tritium for fusion reactor fuel. The JASON scientific advisory panel was asked by the DOE to assess the feasibility of large scale tritium production; the findings were presented in a new report obtained by Secrecy News.

• Director of National Intelligence Cuts Jobs and Secrets in 2011: Steven Aftergood writes that with the reduction in the workforce at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), there has also been a decline in the level of ODNI classification activity, which dropped by 17.3% from the year before.

• The Big Picture: Keeping Radiation Risks in Perspective: A dentist in the UK was sued for taking panoramic x-rays of some of his patients. Nobody claimed to have been injured, but some patients were concerned about being put at needless risk. Are we so focused on radiation safety and radiological risk reduction that we have lost sight of the larger picture?

• Periods of War, and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained new CRS reports on topics such as key issues of the Keystone XL Pipeline Project, super PACS, and growing income inequality. Note: The next issue of Secrecy News will be published the week of January 16, 2012.

FAS Roundup: December 26, 2011

New CRS reports, letter to President Obama regarding Iran, U.S. electric power grid vulnerability to severe weather  and much more.  

From the Blogs

• Congress Approves 2012 Intelligence Authorization: Steven Aftergood writes that before the House and Senate passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, there was a conspicuous absence of public debate on any issue of intelligence policy. No dissenting views were expressed.  Nor was there any discussion of or insight into current intelligence controversies.

• U.S. Arms Sales and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained new CRS reports regarding arms sales and Pakistan.

•  JASON on Severe Space Weather and the Electric Grid: The U.S. electric power grid is vulnerable to damage from severe electromagnetic solar storms and remedial measures should be taken to reduce that vulnerability, a new study from the JASON scientific advisory panel concluded.

• Libya and War Powers: Steven Aftergood writes that the U.S. government acknowledges that U.S. military forces were involved in “armed conflict” this year in Libya, but it does not acknowledge that they were engaged in “hostilities.”