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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: November 2013

October 2013

• White House Press Briefing on NSA Surveillance Issues, October 28. "We will be more transparent about this than has ever been the case in history. That is already true. We have released more information about what the NSA than has ever been released before."
• US spies on 'the entire globe', experts say by Tara McKelvey, BBC News Magazine, October 25. "People and nations spy, even on friends. But in the realm of international electronic espionage, the US wields a nuclear arsenal while the rest of the globe fights with guns."
• U.S. agencies moving slowly to tighten data security, despite major leaks by Mark Hosenball, Reuters, October 23. "Despite saying they suffered major damage from classified documents made public by an Army soldier and a National Security Agency contractor, U.S. government agencies have fallen behind in installing computer software to stop such leaks, U.S. officials say."
• USA v. Donald Sachtleben - Government Sentencing Memorandum, October 21. "The Defendant committed two distinct national security offenses for which he is prepared to plead guilty and be sentenced."
• Just How Serious Is Obama's Crackdown on Media Leaks? by John Mecklin, Take Part, October 18. "Some legal experts think the Obama administration's crusade against government leaks isn't really as bad as all that--and may not last."
• House panel nixes Grayson's request for Syria intelligence by Josh Gerstein, Politico, October 18. "In a highly unusual move, the House Intelligence Committee voted this week to deny an outspoken Florida lawmaker access to classified information supporting President Barack Obama's call for a military strike in Syria."
• NSA Backlash Leads Many To Fight By Themselves, One Email At A Time by Martha Mendoza, Associated Press, October 13. "Activists are fighting back with high-tech civil disobedience, entrepreneurs want to cash in on privacy concerns, Internet users want to keep snoops out of their computers and lawmakers want to establish stricter parameters."
• Snowden's Leaks Lead To More Disclosure From Feds by Carrie Johnson, National Public Radio, October 11. "Leaks by Edward Snowden prompted the intelligence community to declassify details about super secret phone and Internet surveillance. But with every detail government lawyers release comes the pressure and the legal obligation to release more."
• The Obama Administration and the Press: Leak investigations and surveillance in post-9/11 America by Len Downie, Committee to Protect Journalists, October 10. "In the Obama administration's Washington, government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to the press. Those suspected of discussing with reporters anything that the government has classified as secret are subject to investigation, including lie-detector tests and scrutiny of their telephone and e-mail records."
• Too many secret government documents, former DOJ official says by Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Newspapers, October 9. "As the first appointee to head the Justice Department's National Security Division, Kenneth Wainstein once weighed whether to indict suspected terrorists, spies and leakers of classified information. Now, the former federal prosecutor will be advising the Obama administration on what the government should keep secret and what it should declassify."
• In Obama's war on leaks, reporters fight back by Leonard Downie, Jr., Washington Post, October 4. "Journalists who cover national security and do investigations are facing vast and unprecedented challenges in their efforts to hold the government accountable to its citizens. They find that government officials are increasingly fearful of talking to them, and they worry that their communications with sources can be monitored at any time."
• U.S. Probe Into Overclassification Finds Papers Riddled With Errors by Adam Klasfeld, Courthouse News, October 1. "Officials responsible for assessing the nation's secrets averaged more than two errors per classified document, the Justice Department found in its first audit of a more than $9.7 billion system."
• Security clearance lapses stemmed from Washington's heedless emphasis on speed over quality by Rebecca LaFlure, Center for Public Integrity, October 1.

Older News: September 2013

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Updated November 4, 2013