nuclear weapon

Cost of B61 bomb escalating, radioactive smuggling, cyber threats and much more.

From the Blogs

• USAF Drones May Conduct  “Incidental” Domestic Surveillance: U.S. Air Force policy permits the incidental collection of domestic imagery by unmanned aerial systems (drones), but ordinarily would not allow targeted surveillance of a U.S. person.  The Air Force policy was restated in a newly reissued instruction on oversight of Air Force intelligence. Legally valid requirements for domestic imagery include surveillance of natural disasters, environmental studies, system testing and training, and also counterintelligence and security-related vulnerability assessments. Air Force units are authorized to acquire domestic commercial imagery for such validated purposes.

• B61 Nuclear Bomb Costs Escalating: The expected cost of the B61 Life-Extension Program (LEP) has increased by 50 percent to $6 billion dollars, according to U.S. government sources. The escalating cost of the program – and concern that NNSA does not have an effective plan for managing it – has caused Congress to cap spending on the B61 LEP by 60 percent in 2012 and 100 percent in 2013.

• What is a National Security “Partnership” and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such as U.S. nuclear cooperation with India, Japan-U.S. relations and same sex marriage.

• What is a Cyber Threat?: In order to establish a common vocabulary for discussing cyber threats, and thereby to enable an appropriate response, authors of a new report released by Sandia National Laboratories propose a variety of attributes that can be used to characterize cyber threats in a standardized and consistent way.

New report on non-strategic nuclear weapons, missing classified document, U.S. nuclear forces and much more.

New Report on Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons

• Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons: A new FAS Special Report written by Hans M. Kristensen comes three weeks before 28 NATO member countries convene in Chicago on May 20-21 to approve the conclusions of a year-long Deterrence and Defense Posture Review (DDPR). Among other issues, the review will determine the number and role of the U.S. non-strategic nuclear weapons deployed in Europe and how NATO might work to reduce its nuclear posture.

From the Blogs

• Counterintelligence Surveillance Under FISA Grew in 2011: In a new report to Congress from the Department of Justice, in 2011 the U.S. Government submitted 1,745 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for authorization to conduct electronic surveillance or physical searches under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The report states that of that number, there were 1,676 requests for authority to perform electronic surveillance. In 2010, there were 1,579 such applications (including 1,511 for electronic surveillance).

• Classified Records Said to be Missing from National Archives: A three-year investigation by the Inspector General found that more than a thousand boxes of classified government records are believed to be missing from the Washington National Records Center (WNRC) of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). But there are no indications of theft or espionage, an official said.

• Admin Presses for Renewal of FISA Surveillance Authority: The Obama Administration is urging Congress to renew provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act that are set to expire at the end of this year. One of the key provisions of the act would permit the electronic surveillance of entire categories of non-U.S. persons who are located abroad “without the need for a court order for each individual target.”

France’s nuclear forces, water security in Yemen, innovation in secrecy policy and much more.

From the Blogs

• Secret Satellite Promptly Detected in Orbit: On April 3, the National Reconnaissance Office successfully launched a classified intelligence satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base.  Notwithstanding the usual operations security measures, amateur satellite trackers were able to locate the satellite in orbit within a few hours and videotape its passage overhead.

• Technological Assessment at the Congressional Research Service: The elimination of the congressional Office of Technology Assessment in 1995 was a self-inflicted wound that left Congress with diminished capacity to evaluate the challenging scientific and technological issues that continue to confront it.  Steven Aftergood writes that the need for such an enterprise to support the legislative process has not gone away, and to a limited extent it is now being addressed by the Congressional Research Service (as well as the Government Accountability Office).

• A Closer Look at Water Security in Yemen: A few weeks ago, the State Department took advantage of World Water Day to announce the release of a National Intelligence Council report entitled “Water Security,” which assessed the possible effects of water shortages on U.S. national security over the next several decades. Mark Jansson investigates the relationship between water security and U.S. national security, and how the NIC report relates to Yemen’s current water challenges on the FAS in a Nutshell Blog.

• Pink Slime and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such as STEM education funding at NSF, classified information in criminal trials, and U.S. oil imports and exports.

• Fermi Versus Some Guy from Podunk: In a new post on the ScienceWonk Blog, Dr. Y writes that the world is the way that it is and the job of science is to try to tease out the rules that describe its workings. No vote – no matter how overwhelmingly one-sided – will change the rules of nature. So why is it that a recent University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) survey showed that belief in science continues to dwindle in the United States?

• Institutionalizing Innovation in Secrecy Policy: Steven Aftergood writes that it is possible to imagine all kinds of changes in government secrecy policy that would make the secrecy system smaller, more efficient, more susceptible to error correction, and more attuned to shifting security requirements. But before any change could be adopted in practice, it would almost certainly need to be tested and validated for use, particularly if it involved a real departure from current procedures.

• A New Edition of the Manual for Courts-Martial: Last week, the Department of Defense published the 2012 edition of the Manual for Courts-Martial (MCM). The Manual contains the Rules for Courts-Martial (RCM), the Military Rules of Evidence (MRE), and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  The latest edition incorporates legislative amendments and other changes introduced since the previous edition was published in 2008.

Publications

• Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project, wrote a chapter discussing France’s nuclear forces in a new publication by Reaching Critical Will, Assuring Destruction Forever: Nuclear Weapon Modernization Around the World.

​Volunteer Opportunity in DC

• 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 staff our booth-come share your knowledge and career experiences with festival attendees! If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Melanie Stegman at mstegman@fas.org. For more information on our booth and the festival, click here.

​FAS in the News

• Apr 13: National Public Radio, “The Case of an Accused Leaker: Politics or Justice?”
• Apr 12: Huffington Post, “The Deadly Folly of Nuclear Power Overhead”
• Apr 12: The Week, “Inside the Secret World of America’s Top Eavesdropping Spies”
• Apr 11: Federal Computer Week, “Digital Information May Strain GPO and Library System, CRS Says”
• Apr 10: GameSutra, “Video Games Are Good For You, Says High-Tech Parenting Expert”
• Apr 6: El Pais, “El fin del Mercader de la Muerte”

Prosecution of accused CIA leaker, new CRS reports, life-sciences research and much more.

From the Blogs

• Navy Submarine Procurement and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such as the effects of Fukushima on U.S. marine environment, policy issues related to China’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, U.S. infant mortality rate and women in combat.

• Prosecution of Accused CIA Leaker Will Face Legal Hurdles: Former CIA officer John C. Kiriakou was indicted on charges of leaking classified information to the press. Kiriakou is accused of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act for allegedly disclosing the identity of a covert CIA officer, and of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly disclosing national defense information to persons not authorized to receive it.

• Harmonize the Oversight of Life-Sciences Research: The Virtual Biosecurity Center, a project spear-headed by FAS, published an editorial by Susan A. Ehrlich who argues that the United States needs to establish a presidential commission charged with collecting, reviewing and synthesizing information into a single, comprehensive framework for the oversight of life-sciences research.

Mitigating risks of bio research, implications of Israeli strike on Iran, fissile materials and much more.

From the Blogs

• Military Intelligence and the Human Terrain System: Secrecy News has obtained the latest issue of the Army’s Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin which is devoted to the Human Terrain System (HTS),  a U.S. Army program to conduct social and cultural studies in support of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bulletin provides theoretical and practical accounts from HTS personnel in the field.

• New Policy on Mitigating Risks of Bio Research: In a new U.S. government policy released by the National Institutes of Health, certain types of life science research involving “high consequence pathogens and toxins” would be subject to new review and risk mitigation procedures which might include classification of the research or termination of the funding.

• Back to the Basics- Producing Fissile Materials: Fissile materials have been in the news recently in regards to Iran’s uranium enrichment program, North Korea’s continuing nuclear weapons program and the recent Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul. Dr. Y discusses what fissile materials are, how they are produced and why they are a security problem on the ScienceWonk blog.

• “Power and Constraint” and Mutual Frustration: Steven Aftergood writes about a new book by Jack Goldsmith, Power and Constraint, which concludes that constitutional government is alive and well in the United States. Goldsmith, a former head of the Bush Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, disputes the widely accepted view that traditional checks and balances have been diminished by the war on terrorism.

• Implications of an Israeli Strike on Iran and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such as the implications of Israel attacking Iranian nuclear targets, foreign assistance to North Korea and the growing emphasis on Asia as a focus for U.S. national security planning.