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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: December 2005

November 2005

• China may have upper hand in five years: US report by Charles Snyder, Taipei Times, November 30. "The document, China Naval Modernization: Implications for US Naval Capabilities, Background and Issues for Congress, was prepared by the Congressional Research Service. It was published on Monday by the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, an organization that brings security-related information to public attention."
• NGA to Go Forward with Proposal to Remove Aeronautical Data from Public Access, news release, November 29. "The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) will go forward with its previously announced proposal to remove its Flight Information Publications (FLIP) and Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (DAFIF^TM) from public access."
• Intelligence Committee Chairs Seek Declassification of Seized Documents on Terrorism, letter to DNI Negroponte, November 18 (news release). "We are proposing that you immediately develop a process to, consistent with necessary security guidelines and agreements with our foreign government partners, release these documents to the general public, including posting documents on the world wide web in a manner allowing cooperative public review."
• X Files Opened: The National Security Agency's UFO Investigations Unearthed by Leonard David, Space.com, November 16. "If the government has nothing to hide, UFO fans often ask, then why is it keeping so many UFO records under lock and key?"
• Leak probe on intelligence budget slip by Shaun Waterman, United Press International, November 14. "Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has asked one of his deputies to look into the circumstances under which another of them may have accidentally revealed the classified size of the annual U.S. intelligence budget."
• Secrecy Is Infectious: Bill Would Shield Biomedical Research by Christopher Lee, Washington Post, November 14. "The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency... would get something no other agency has: a full exemption from the Freedom of Information Act."
• Firm helps U.S. mold news abroad by Stephen J. Hedges, Chicago Tribune, November 13. "In an effort to fight what it sees as an insidious propaganda war waged by terrorists, from incendiary Web sites to one-sided television images of the Iraq war, the Pentagon has been quietly waging its own information battle throughout the Middle East and Central Asia."
• FBI, Pentagon pay for access to trove of public records by Shane Harris, National Journal, November 11. "To help the government track suspected terrorists and spies who may be visiting or residing in this country, the FBI and the Defense Department for the past three years have been paying a Georgia-based company for access to its vast databases that contain billions of personal records about nearly every person -- citizens and noncitizens alike -- in the United States."
• Congressional Leaders Seek Leak Inquiry, letter from Majority Leader Frist and Speaker Hastert, November 4 (signed November 8). "We request that you immediately initiate a joint investigation into the possible release of classified information to the media alleging that the United States government may be detaining and interrogating terrorists at undisclosed locations abroad."
• Intelligence budget is $44 billion by Stephen Losey, Federal Times, November 8. "The revelation of one of the government's best-kept secrets -- the total size of the intelligence budget -- shows that information is overclassified and should be regularly reported, one secrecy expert argues."
• Official Reveals Budget for U.S. Intelligence by Scott Shane, New York Times, November 8. "In an apparent slip, a top American intelligence official has revealed at a public conference what has long been secret: the amount of money the United States spends on its spy agencies."
• Frist urges germ spies by Jeff Nesmith, Atlanta Journal Constitution, November 5. "A bill moving rapidly through the Senate would create a secretive national research center to respond to bioterrorism threats and natural disease outbreaks."
• DHS releases draft infrastructure protection plan by Chris Strohm, Government Executive Daily Briefing, November 4. "The Homeland Security Department this week issued an overarching draft plan for protecting the nation's critical infrastructure and key resources from terrorist attacks."
• DHS Announces Availability of draft National Infrastructure Protection Plan, Federal Register, November 2. "The purpose of this notice is to inform the public and interested security partners that the draft National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) Base Plan is available for review and comment."
• Classified article in journal raises questions on Vietnam War by Katherine Shrader, Associated Press, November 1. "The National Security Agency has been blocking the release of an article by one of its historians that says intelligence officers falsified documents about a disputed attack that was used to escalate the Vietnam War, according to a researcher who has requested the article."

Older News: October 2005

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