Secrecy News

Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).

“Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2009,” January 27, 2010.

“Afghanistan Casualties: Military Forces and Civilians,” February 26, 2010.

“China-North Korea Relations,” January 22, 2010.

“Honduran Political Crisis, June 2009-January 2010,” February 1, 2010.

“Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence,” February 16, 2010.

“Satellite Surveillance: Domestic Issues,” February 1, 2010.

New reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).

“Government Interventions in Response to Financial Turmoil,” February 1, 2010.

“International Food Aid Programs: Background and Issues,” February 3, 2010.

“Architect of the Capitol: Appointment Process and Current Legislation,” February 16, 2010.

“Ozone Air Quality Standards: EPA’s Proposed January 2010 Revisions,” February 1, 2010.

“The 2009 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings and U.S. Trade Policy in Asia,” February 4, 2010.

“Direct Overt U.S. Aid and Military Reimbursements to Pakistan, FY2002-FY2011,” February 16, 2010.

“Paraguay: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations,” February 1, 2010.

Some new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not previously been made available to the public include the following (all pdf).

“Social Networking and Constituent Communications: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Month Period in the 111th Congress,” February 3, 2010.

“Metropolitan Transportation Planning,” February 3, 2010.

“Veterans Health Care: Project HERO Implementation,” February 3, 2010.

Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).

“Terrorist Attacks on Commercial Airlines: Federal Criminal Prohibitions,” January 22, 2010.

“Project BioShield: Authorities, Appropriations, Acquisitions, and Issues for Congress,” January 22, 2010.

“Charitable Contributions for Haiti’s Earthquake Victims,” January 22, 2010.

“U.S. and South Korean Cooperation in the World Nuclear Energy Market: Major Policy Considerations,” January 21, 2010.

“Argentina’s Defaulted Sovereign Debt: Dealing with the ‘Holdouts’,” January 21, 2010.

“Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder,” updated January 7, 2010.

Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf).

“Earthquakes: Risk, Detection, Warning, and Research,” January 14, 2010.

“Haiti Earthquake: Crisis and Response,” January 15, 2010.

“U.S. Immigration Policy on Haitian Migrants,” January 15, 2010.

“The Future of NASA: Space Policy Issues Facing Congress,” January 14, 2010.

“The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) — Responsibilities and Potential Congressional Concerns,” January 15, 2010.

New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following (all pdf).

“U.S. Periods of War,” January 7, 2010.

“Terrorist Watchlist Checks and Air Passenger Prescreening,” December 30, 2009.

“Cluster Munitions: Background and Issues for Congress,” December 22, 2009.

“Arms Sales: Congressional Review Process,” January 8, 2010.

“Desalination: Status and Federal Issues,” December 30, 2009.

“Understanding China’s Political System,” December 31, 2009.

Noteworthy new Congressional Research Service reports obtained by Secrecy News include the following (all pdf).

“Military Service Records and Unit Histories: A Guide to Locating Sources,” December 16, 2009.

“California Drought: Hydrological and Regulatory Water Supply Issues,” December 7, 2009.

“Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRTIOT Act Reauthorization,” December 9, 2009.

“Amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Set to Expire February 28, 2010,” December 23, 2009.

“Homeland Security Department: FY2010 Appropriations,” December 14, 2009.

“Private Security Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan: Legal Issues,” December 22, 2009.

“International Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Security Threats, U.S. Policy, and Considerations for Congress,” January 5, 2010.

“U.S. Public Diplomacy: Background and Current Issues,” December 18, 2009.

“Prospects for Democracy in Hong Kong: The 2012 Election Reforms,” December 10, 2009.

The Director of the Congressional Research Service fired the chief of its Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division after he criticized Obama Administration policy on prosecuting Guantanamo detainees in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month.

Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo who has been at CRS for the past year, argued that current U.S. policy on trying detainees amounted to a double standard.  “The administration must choose,” he wrote in the Journal on November 10. “Either federal courts or military commissions, but not both, for the detainees that deserve to be prosecuted and punished for their past conduct.”

This was too radical a statement for Daniel Mulhollan, the CRS Director, who terminated Mr. Davis effective December 21.  It was a surprising move, for several reasons.  First, Mr. Davis’s op-ed did not identify him as a CRS employee and he was clearly not representing that organization.  To the contrary, he is well-known to have independent standing and expertise to discuss military commissions.  Second, U.S. policy on military commissions is not within the purview of Mr. Davis’s division at CRS and so the possibility that his work there might be biased by his public position would not even arise.

The American Civil Liberties Union was expected to issue a letter today [now available here] urging CRS to reverse its action.  See “Top Congressional Researcher on Afghanistan Fired” by Michael Isikoff, Newsweek Declassified blog, December 3.

Mr. Mulhollan has previously punished some of his organization’s most capable experts for publicly expressing their own professional judgments.  In 2006, a clash between him and Louis Fisher, the former CRS constitutional law expert, led to the departure of the latter, who was quickly hired by the Law Library of Congress.  (“More Turmoil at the Congressional Research Service,” Secrecy News, February 9, 2006.)

New CRS reports not previously made available to the public include the following (both pdf):

“China’s Assistance and Government-Sponsored Investment Activities in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia,” November 25, 2009.

“Venezuela: Issues in the 111th Congress,” November 17, 2009.

Many of the procedural safeguards that are provided to a defendant in a criminal trial are not available to those tried in military commissions, or are present in attenuated or modified form.  Thus, for example, military commissions offer no right to a speedy trial and may allow hearsay into evidence.

These and numerous other distinctions between the two judicial frameworks were helpfully tabulated in a new report from the Congressional Research Service.  See “Comparison of Rights in Military Commission Trials and Trials in Federal Criminal Court,” November 19, 2009.  Related information on the rights of detainees in a criminal prosecution was discussed in “Closing the Guantanamo Detention Center: Legal Issues,” updated November 17, 2009.

A comparative study of greenhouse gas control policies in several large industrial nations was presented in another report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service that has not been made readily available to the public.

“All of the countries examined have in place, or are developing, some enforceable policies that serve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the CRS found.  “Most are at some stage of making their programs more stringent.”  See “An Overview of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Control Policies in Various Countries,” November 30, 2009.