Secrecy News Blog: http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/
CYBERSECURITY, RICIN, AND MORE FROM CRS
For reasons that are hard to comprehend, Congress for many years has directed the Congressional Research Service not to make its products directly available to the public.
CRS reports naturally vary in quality, originality and breadth of focus. But as a class of documents, they are both interesting and useful. Along with impartial treatments of complex policy issues, they often provide unexpected, telling detail. ("At present, about 30 million Americans, nearly 10% of the population, are subject to debt collection for amounts averaging $1,500 per person," a newly updated report on the subject notes in passing, citing the CFPB.) Even in cases where individual reports are deficient, they are nonetheless significant to the extent that they help to inform congressional deliberation. It is therefore proper and necessary that they should be available to the public.
Some of the latest CRS reports that have been withheld from public access are posted below.
The Army's Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, April 17, 2013:
Western Sahara, April 14, 2013:
Cybersecurity: Selected Legal Issues, April 17, 2013:
Cybersecurity: Authoritative Reports and Resources, April 17, 2013:
Ricin: Technical Background and Potential Role in Terrorism, April 17, 2013:
Child Welfare: Structure and Funding of the Adoption Incentives Program along with Reauthorization Issues, April 18, 2013:
The Independent Payment Advisory Board, April 17, 2013:
The World Bank Group Energy Sector Strategy, April 16, 2013:
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), April 11, 2013:
Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations: An Overview, April 16, 2013:
Changes to the Residential Mortgage Market: Legislation, Demographics, and Other Drivers, April 16, 2013:
International Climate Change Financing: The Green Climate Fund (GCF), April 16, 2013:
Submission of Mental Health Records to NICS and the HIPAA Privacy Rule, April 15, 2013:
Teenage Pregnancy Prevention: Statistics and Programs, April 15, 2013:
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Acquisition: Issues for Congress, April 16, 2013:
"Gang of Four" Congressional Intelligence Notifications, April 16, 2013:
Ensuring That Traffic Signs Are Visible at Night: Federal Regulations, April 16, 2013:
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
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INTELLIGENCE SATELLITE IMAGERY DECLASSIFIED FOR RELEASE
An enormous volume of photographic imagery from the KH-9 HEXAGON intelligence satellites was quietly declassified in January and will be transferred to the National Archives later this year for subsequent public release.
The KH-9 satellites operated between 1971 and 1984. The imagery they generated should be of historical interest with respect to a wide range of late Cold War intelligence targets but is also expected to support current scientific research on climate change and related fields of inquiry.
The film-based KH-9 satellites were officially declared "obsolete" by the Director of National Intelligence in 2011. The KH-9 imagery was nominally approved for declassification in February 2012, and then it was finally declassified in fact this year.
ODNI spokesman Michael Birmingham said that approximately 97 percent of the satellite imagery that was collected from the 19 successful KH-9 missions was formally declassified by DNI James R. Clapper on January 11, 2013.
"The small amount of imagery exempted from this declassification decision will be removed prior to its accession to the National Archives (NARA) and will remain classified pursuant to statute and national security interests, and reviewed periodically to determine if additional declassification is warranted," Mr. Birmingham said last week.
The imagery is being transferred to NARA in stages, with final delivery scheduled for September 2013, he said.
The transfer is being implemented pursuant to a November 2012 Memorandum of Agreement between the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Archives, under which the Archives is "responsible for providing public access to the declassified imagery."
Reishia R. Kelsey of NGA public affairs confirmed that the imagery "will be made available to the public following its accession to NARA" later this year.
The National Archives was not prepared last week to set a precise date for public release. But an Archives official said that "NARA intends to make these records available to the public at our research room in College Park, MD as soon as possible following transfer."
If successfully executed, the release of the KH-9 imagery will constitute a breakthrough in the declassification and disclosure of national security information. It will be one of several discrete but momentous shifts in secrecy policy during the Obama Administration that have often gone unrecognized or unappreciated. Though these declassification actions took years or decades to accomplish, they have been downplayed by the White House itself, which has seemed curiously ambivalent about them. They include the public disclosure of the size of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, the routine publication of the annual intelligence budget request, the release of the Office of Legal Counsel "torture memos," the declassification of the KH-9 satellite itself, and others.
The KH-9 imagery is being processed for public release pursuant to the 1995 Executive Order 12951 on "Release of Imagery Acquired by Space-based National Intelligence Reconnaissance Systems." That order had been effectively dormant since the Clinton Administration, when the last major release of intelligence satellite imagery (from the CORONA, ARGON and LANYARD missions) took place.
The declassification of the KH-9 imagery is a massive undertaking, Mr. Birmingham of ODNI said last year.
"For context, and to grasp the scope of the project, the KH-9/HEXAGON system provided coverage over hundreds of millions of square miles of territory during its 19 successful missions spanning 1971-1984," he said. "It is a daunting issue to address declassification of the program specifics associated with an obsolete system such as the KH-9, which involves the declassification of huge volumes of intelligence information gathered on thousands of targets worldwide during a 13 year time period."
MILITARY PHOTOGRAPHERS READY TO DEPLOY AROUND THE GLOBE
Just as law enforcement relied upon surveillance cameras and personal photography to enable the prompt identification of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing, U.S. armed forces increasingly look to the collection of still and motion imagery to support military operations.
Combat camera (COMCAM) capabilities support "operational planning, public affairs, information operations, mission assessment, forensic, legal, intelligence and other requirements during crises, contingencies, and exercises around the globe," according to newly updated military doctrine.
COMCAM personnel are "highly trained visual information professionals prepared to deploy to the most austere operational environments at a moment's notice."
COMCAM units "are adaptive and provide fully qualified and equipped personnel to support sustained day or night operations" in-flight, on the ground or undersea, as needed.
"Effectively employed COMCAM assets at the tactical level can potentially achieve national, theater strategic, and operational level objectives in a manner that lessens the requirement for combat in many situations," the new doctrine says. "Their products can counter adversary misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda and help commanders gain situational awareness on operations in a way written or verbal reports cannot."
"The products can also provide historical documentation, public information, or an evidentiary foundation... for forensic documentation of evidence and legal proceedings. They can provide intelligence documentation to include imagery for facial recognition and key leader engagements, and support special reconnaissance."
The newly issued COMCAM doctrine supersedes previous guidance from 2007. See Combat Camera: Multi-Service Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for Combat Camera (COMCAM) Operations, April 2013.
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News blog is at:
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GROUPS URGE WHITE HOUSE TO TAKE LEAD IN REDUCING SECRECY
The White House should undertake a focused effort to reduce national security secrecy, some 30 public interest organizations urged President Obama in a letter today.
The groups called upon the President to adopt a recommendation of the Public Interest Declassification Board to set up a White House-led Security Classification Reform Steering Committee.
"A presidentially appointed Steering Committee would provide a mechanism for identifying and coordinating needed changes and for overcoming internal agency obstacles to change," the group letter said. "It would also reflect the urgency of reining in a classification system that is largely unchecked."
To be effective, though, the proposed Steering Committee would need to be something more than just a deliberative, coordinating body, such as the ill-fated Security Policy Board of the 1990s.
Specifically, it would require "a clear mandate to reduce the size and scope of the national security classification system," the group letter said, as well as active White House participation to ensure agency cooperation and compliance.
In principle, reductions in national security secrecy can actually benefit government agencies by diminishing the significant financial and operational costs they incur for classification. But in practice, such reductions have been hard to accomplish and agencies have resisted any externally imposed limits on their presumed autonomy to classify as they see fit.
Of all the potential ways to reduce secrecy that could be envisioned, the proposal for a White House-led Steering Committee is currently the most salient. That's because it was recommended by the Public Interest Declassification Board, who developed it in response to a request from President Obama himself.
"I also look forward to reviewing recommendations from the study that the National Security Advisor will undertake in cooperation with the Public Interest Declassification Board to design a more fundamental transformation of the security classification system," the President wrote in a December 29, 2009 memorandum.
Now the recommendations that the President looked forward to are in hand, and it will be up to the White House to act.
SURVEY OF FEDERAL WHISTLEBLOWER LAWS, AND MORE FROM CRS
Dozens of federal laws protect employees who report waste, fraud or abuse by their employers. Some of those laws, particularly those that apply to private-sector workers, have been strengthened in recent years, according to a new survey from the Congressional Research Service.
"Eleven of the forty laws reviewed in this report were enacted after 1999. Among these laws are the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act," the CRS report said.
The report "focuses on key aspects of the federal whistleblower and anti-retaliation laws. For each law, the report summarizes the activities that are protected, how the law's protections are enforced, whether the law provides a private right of action, the remedies prescribed by the law, and the year the law's whistleblower or anti-retaliation provisions were adopted and amended."
The report does not address national security whistleblowers, or those who disclose classified information with or without authorization. See Survey of Federal Whistleblower and Anti-Retaliation Laws, April 22, 2013:
Other new or newly updated CRS reports that Congress has not made publicly available include the following.
State Taxation of Internet Transactions, April 19, 2013:
Drought in the United States: Causes and Issues for Congress, April 22, 2013:
Department of Homeland Security Appropriations: A Summary of Congressional Action for FY2013, April 22, 2013:
The FY2014 State and Foreign Operations Budget Request, April 18, 2013:
U.S.-EU Cooperation Against Terrorism, April 22, 2013:
Expediting the Return to Work: Approaches in the Unemployment Compensation Program, April 18, 2013:
Economic Recovery: Sustaining U.S. Economic Growth in a Post-Crisis Economy, April 18, 2013:
Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2013, April 19, 2013:
The U.S. Export Control System and the President's Reform Initiative, April 19, 2013:
Mexico's Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Violence, April 15, 2013:
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News blog is at:
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FBI TERRORISM INVESTIGATIONS, AND MORE FROM CRS
"Intelligence activity in the past decades has, all too often, exceeded the restraints on the exercise of governmental power that are imposed by our country's Constitution, laws, and traditions," according to the Congressional Research Service.
The CRS, which shuns polemical claims, presents that assertion as a simple statement of fact (although cautiously sourced to the 1976 Church Committee report) in a newly updated report on FBI terrorism investigations.
The report reviews the FBI investigative process, the statutory framework within which it operates, and the tools at its disposal, along with oversight considerations for Congress. See The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Terrorism Investigations, April 24, 2013:
Other new or newly updated CRS reports include the following.
Terrorism, Miranda, and Related Matters, April 24, 2013:
Terrorism Risk Insurance: Issue Analysis and Overview of Current Program, April 26, 2013:
U.S. Air Force Bomber Sustainment and Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress, April 23, 2013:
Multiyear Procurement (MYP) and Block Buy Contracting in Defense Acquisition: Background and Issues for Congress, April 25, 2013:
U.S.-South Korea Relations, April 26, 2013:
Iran Sanctions, April 24, 2013:
Intelligence Issues for Congress, April 23, 2013:
Inflation-Indexing Elements in Federal Entitlement Programs, April 24, 2013:
Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress, April 25, 2013:
Prevalence of Mental Illness in the United States: Data Sources and Estimates, April 24, 2013:
DOD POLICY ON NON-LETHAL WEAPONS, AND OTHER NEW DIRECTIVES
The Department of Defense has revised its 1996 directive on non-lethal weapons (NLW) to guide future development and procurement of this category of weaponry.
"Unlike conventional lethal weapons that destroy their targets principally through blast, penetration, and fragmentation, NLW employ means other than gross physical destruction to prevent the target from functioning. NLW are intended to have relatively reversible effects on personnel or materiel," the revised directive explains.
"It is DoD policy that NLW doctrine and concepts of operation will be developed to reinforce deterrence and expand the range of options available to commanders."
The directive does not apply to information operations, cyber operations or electronic warfare capabilities. See DoD Executive Agent for Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW), and NLW Policy, DoD Directive 3000.03E, April 25, 2013:
Other noteworthy new or updated DoD issuances include the following.
DoD Nuclear Weapons Surety Program, DoD Directive 3150.02, April 24, 2013:
DoD Counterfeit Prevention Policy, DoD Instruction 4140.67, April 26, 2013:
Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight (ATSD(IO)), DoD Directive 5148.11, April 24, 2013:
Use of Excess Ballistic Missiles for Space Launch, Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 11-008, July 5, 2011, Incorporating Change 3, April 25, 2013:
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News blog is at:
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SEQUESTRATION SLOWS DOCUMENT DECLASSIFICATION
The process of declassifying national security records, which is hardly expeditious under the best of circumstances, will become slower as a result of the mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration.
Due to sequestration, "NARA has reduced funding dedicated to the declassification of Presidential records," the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said in a report last week.
"Instead, NARA staff will prepare documents for declassification, in addition to their existing duties. This will slow declassification processes and delay other work, including FOIA responses and special access requests," said the new report, which also identified several other adverse effects of the across-the-board cuts.
Meanwhile, because of the basic asymmetry between classification and declassification, there is no particular reason to expect a corresponding reduction in the rate at which new records are classified.
Classification is an integral part of the production of new national security information that cannot be deferred, while declassification is a distinct process that can easily be put on hold. Likewise, there is no dedicated budget for "classification" to cut in the way that NARA has cut declassification spending. And while Congress has erected barriers to declassification (such as the Kyl-Lott Amendment to prohibit automatic declassification of records without review), it has simultaneously allowed declassification requirements to go overlooked and unenforced.
Some declassification is actually mandated by law. A 1991 statute on the Foreign Relations of the United States series requires the Department of State to publish a "thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of major United States foreign policy decisions" no later than 30 years after the fact, necessitating the timely declassification of the underlying records. But law or no law, the government has not complied with this publication schedule.
EGYPT AND THE IMF, AND MORE FROM CRS
A new report from the Congressional Research Service assesses the economic state of post-revolution Egypt and finds it fairly grim.
"After more than two years of social unrest and economic stagnation following the 2011 popular uprising, the government of Egypt is facing serious economic pressures that, if not remedied, could lead to economic collapse and possibly new levels of violence," the report says.
"Egyptian authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been in negotiations for more than two years over an IMF loan to Egypt in exchange for policy reforms that, if successful, could stave off economic collapse and create more 'inclusive' growth.... [but] No agreement has been finalized or implemented to date. Egyptian authorities have been reluctant to commit to economic reforms that may be politically unpopular and increase the country's debt."
Background on the negotiations and on U.S. aid to Egypt are presented in Egypt and the IMF: Overview and Issues for Congress, April 29, 2013:
Some other CRS reports on Middle Eastern countries that have been recently updated include the following.
Iraq: Politics, Governance, and Human Rights, April 26, 2013:
Iran Sanctions, April 24, 2013:
U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel, April 11, 2013:
Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses, April 4, 2013:
Jordan: Background and U.S. Relations, April 1, 2013:
INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS, AND MORE FROM CRS
The international agreements that constitute the infrastructure of international trade and investment are spotlighted in an informative new report from the Congressional Research Service.
"In the absence of an overarching multilateral framework on investment, bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters in free trade agreements (FTAs), collectively referred to as 'international investment agreements,' have emerged as the primary mechanism for promoting a rules-based system for international investment," the new report explains.
"Presently, there are over 3,000 BITs globally. The United States has concluded 47 BITs, 41 of which have entered into force." These treaties were tabulated by CRS and presented along with other little-known data on the subject in U.S. International Investment Agreements: Issues for Congress, April 29, 2013:
Other new or newly updated CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News include the following.
Mountaintop Mining: Background on Current Controversies, April 29, 2013:
National Park System: Establishing New Units, April 25, 2013:
The Administrative Process by Which Groups May Be Acknowledged as Indian Tribes by the Department of the Interior, April 26, 2013:
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Reform: An Overview of Proposals to Reduce the Growth in SSDI Rolls, April 29, 2013:
Conventional Prompt Global Strike and Long-Range Ballistic Missiles: Background and Issues, April 26, 2013:
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News blog is at:
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FISA SURVEILLANCE APPLICATIONS ROSE SLIGHTLY IN 2012
"During calendar year 2012, the Government made 1,856 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for authority to conduct electronic surveillance and/or physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes."
That somewhat opaque statistic was disclosed in the Justice Department's latest annual report to Congress on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, filed on Tuesday. As is usually the case, none of the requests for electronic surveillance were denied by the Court.
No matter how it is sliced and diced, the newly disclosed number of applications does not yield much substance. It means that the government submitted an average of 5 requests per day last year for intelligence surveillance or physical search. It is about 5% higher than the number of applications the year before (1,745), but quite a bit lower than the figure from 2007 (2,371).
The number of applications does not correspond directly to the number of targets, since multiple applications may be submitted in the course of an individual investigation. Nor is the outcome of the surveillance or search activity indicated in a way that would tend to validate or invalidate the authorization after the fact.
In any case, the FIS Court did not deny any of the government's requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance in whole or in part, the report said, although unspecified modifications were made to 40 proposed orders. The report does not say whether or not any requests for physical search were disapproved or modified.
The government also made 212 applications for access to business records and "tangible things" for foreign intelligence purposes, almost the same as the 205 the year before.
And also in 2012, the FBI submitted 15,229 National Security Letter requests for information concerning 6,223 different U.S. persons ("excluding requests for subscriber information only"), down somewhat from the 16,511 requests (concerning 7,201 different persons) the year before.
As an instrument of public oversight, the annual reports on FISA are only minimally informative. They register gross levels of activity, but they provide no measures of quality, performance or significance. Neither counterintelligence successes nor failures can be discerned from the reports. Nor can one conclude from the data presented that the FISA process is functioning as intended, or that it needs to be curbed or refined.
Congressional leaders blocked efforts to impose new or stronger public reporting requirements when the FISA Amendments Act was reauthorized late last year. However, Sen. Jeff Merkley and several Senate colleagues asked the FIS Court to summarize its opinions in such a way as to facilitate their eventual declassification and disclosure. This request has produced no known results to date.
The FISA itself is a product of a rich period of political ferment in the 1970s when public and private institutions converged to promote increased transparency, improved oversight and meaningful new constraints on government authority. Investigative journalists wrote groundbreaking stories, Congressional committees held historic hearings, political activists and ordinary citizens mobilized to defend their interests, leading to real and lasting changes. On the legislative front, these included passage of an invigorated Freedom of Information Act, along with the Privacy Act, the Government in the Sunshine Act, and the FISA, which subjected intelligence surveillance activities to at least a degree of independent judicial review.
An interesting account of that momentous decade can be found in the new book "Reining in the State: Civil Society and Congress in the Vietnam and Watergate Eras" by Katherine A. Scott, University Press of Kansas, March 2013.
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
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SENATE CONFIRMS CHAIR OF PRIVACY & CIVIL LIBERTIES BOARD
Almost a year and a half after he was nominated by President Obama in December 2011, the Senate yesterday confirmed David Medine to be the chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board by a vote of 53-45.
Republicans, led by Sen. Charles Grassley, opposed the nominee and voted against him.
"I was disappointed that he failed to answer a basic yes-or-no question about national security law: 'Do you believe that we are engaged in a war on terrorism?'," Sen. Grassley said. "Instead of a simple yes or no, he opted for a more limited answer that military power is permissible in appropriate cases."
Democrats, led by Sen. Patrick Leahy, praised Mr. Medine and the Board that he will now lead.
"The confirmation of this nominee is a significant victory for all Americans who care about safeguarding our privacy rights and civil liberties," Sen. Leahy said. "The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is a guardian of Americans' privacy rights and civil liberties as well as an essential part of our national security strategy," he said.
But this seems like an overstatement. The size of the five-member Board and the resources available to it are not commensurate with the responsibilities it has nominally been assigned. It cannot possibly perform comprehensive oversight of the broad range of privacy or civil liberties concerns that arise in the national security domain. Expectations to the contrary are bound to be disappointed. At best, the Board may serve as a boutique oversight shop that tackles a couple of discrete policy issues each year.
For background on the origins and development of the Board, see Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board: New Independent Agency Status, Congressional Research Service, August 27, 2012:
INTERNATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AGREEMENTS, AND OTHER DOD DIRECTIVES
The procedures by which the U.S. Air Force establishes international agreements for the exchange of intelligence information with foreign military services were described in a new Air Force Instruction.
"Foreign military organizations being considered for inclusion in an IIA (international intelligence agreement) must clearly support U.S. security and foreign policy objectives. The foreign government must have favorable relations with the United States; a well-developed, secure intelligence service; and a stable domestic environment and military unity. Known national characteristics of the foreign government in question must fall within the guidelines of the United States national disclosure and security policy, and be reasonably expected to have adequate fiscal means, and conform to legal guidelines," the Instruction states.
Such agreements must "Provide for mutual support (quid pro quo)" and must "Provide intelligence that would otherwise be denied to the United States." See Air Force Instruction 14-102, International Intelligence Agreements, April 29, 2013:
Another new Department of Defense Instruction governs records management within the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
"It is DoD policy," it states, "to limit the creation of records to those essential for the efficient conduct of official business and to preserve those of continuing value while systematically eliminating all others." See OSD Records and Information Management Program, Administrative Instruction 15, May 3, 2013:
Other noteworthy new military publications include the following.
Information Operations (IO), DoD Directive 3600.01, May 2, 2013:
DODD 5134.10 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), DoD Directive 5134.10, May 7, 2013:
THE U.S. SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING WORKFORCE, AND MORE FROM CRS
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has not made available to the public include the following.
The U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce: Recent, Current, and Projected Employment, Wages, and Unemployment, May 6, 2013:
Securing U.S. Diplomatic Facilities and Personnel Abroad: Background and Policy Issues, May 7, 2013:
Tax Reform in the 113th Congress: An Overview of Proposals, May 6, 2013:
Border Security: Immigration Enforcement Between Ports of Entry, May 3, 2013:
Terrorist Watch List Screening and Background Checks for Firearms, May 1, 2013:
Missing Adults: Background, Federal Programs, and Issues for Congress, May 7, 2013:
Kosovo: Current Issues and U.S. Policy, May 7, 2013:
Central America Regional Security Initiative: Background and Policy Issues for Congress, May 7, 2013:
Expulsion, Censure, Reprimand, and Fine: Legislative Discipline in the House of Representatives, May 2, 2013:
No-Fly Zones: Strategic, Operational, and Legal Considerations for Congress, May 3, 2013:
Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2013, May 3, 2013:
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
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JUDGE MOSMAN NAMED TO FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE COURT
Chief Justice John Roberts has appointed Judge Michael W. Mosman of the District of Oregon to serve as a judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The appointment was effective May 4, 2013, and will extend through May 3, 2020, said Mr. Sheldon Snook, a spokesman for the Court.
Judge Mosman replaces Judge Roger Vinson, whose term on the surveillance court expired on May 3, 2013.
Judge Mosman, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, is generally considered a conservative. But last March he drew criticism from some on the political right after he granted bail to one Reaz Qadir Khan, who was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Judge Mosman ordered Khan's release over the government's objections after he determined that the defendant was not a flight risk or a danger to the community.
"Incredibly, the judge, Michael Mosman, a George W. Bush appointee, allowed Khan to walk free from the federal courthouse pending trial," complained the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch in a March 11 posting.
The eleven-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reviews applications from government agencies for electronic surveillance and physical search under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
In 2012, the Court approved 1,788 applications for electronic surveillance and denied none, as noted in a report to Congress last month.
NASA TECHNICAL REPORT DATABASE PARTLY BACK ONLINE
The website of the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), a massive collection of aerospace-related records, was disabled in March due to congressional concerns that it had inadvertently disclosed export-controlled information. ("NASA Technical Reports Database Goes Dark," Secrecy News, March 21; "Database Is Shut Down by NASA for a Review," New York Times, March 22.)
The site is now active again, though hundreds of thousands of previously released documents have been withheld pending review.
Rather than conducting a focused search for actual export-controlled information and then removing it, as would have seemed appropriate, NASA blocked access to the entire collection. The agency acted under pressure from Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) of the House Appropriations Committee while it assessed the situation.
Now many of the NTRS records have been restored, including open literature publications, magazine articles, and other documents that were already in the public domain in any case. But hundreds of thousands of others still await a formal export control review to certify them for public release. The multi-phase process was described in a NASA email exchange that was released under the Freedom of Information Act.
An air of futility surrounds the whole exercise. Much of the NASA collection has been mirrored on foreign websites, wrote Keith Cowing of NASA Watch, while other withheld reports can be purchased in hardcopy on eBay.
MAKING GOVT INFORMATION OPEN AND MACHINE READABLE
An executive order issued by President Obama today directs that "the default state of new and modernized Government information resources shall be open and machine readable."
"As one vital benefit of open government, making information resources easy to find, accessible, and usable can fuel entrepreneurship, innovation, and scientific discovery that improves Americans' lives and contributes significantly to job creation," states Executive Order 13642 on Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information.
The new order was welcomed by the Sunlight Foundation, a proponent of open access to government data, particularly because it establishes a requirement to produce an inventory of "datasets that can be made publicly available but have not yet been released." That will facilitate enforcement and advancement of the open data agenda, Sunlight said.
While one wants to believe in the efficacy of the order and to affirm the good faith intentions behind it, it is necessary to recognize how remote it is from current practice, particularly in the contentious realm of national security information.
The CIA, for example, has stubbornly refused to release the contents of its CREST database of declassified documents, even though the documents contained there are entirely declassified. The CREST database is not open, it's not machine-readable, and you can't have a copy.
Meanwhile, the Obama White House itself has refused to publish even its unclassified Presidential Policy Directives (with a few exceptions), forcing requesters to litigate for access, or to surrender.
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
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SUBPOENA OF AP PHONE RECORDS SAID TO DAMAGE PRESS FREEDOM
The government seizure of Associated Press telephone records in the course of a leak investigation undermined freedom of the press in the United States, congressional critics said yesterday.
"It seems to me the damage done to a free press is substantial," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
Pursuant to subpoena, the government captured call records for 20 telephone lines of Associated Press reporters and editors over a two month period last year. The records are logs of calls made and received, but do not include their contents. It was a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into newsgathering activities, wrote the AP's president Gary Pruitt in a May 13 letter.
The Justice Department denied that the action deviated from established policy.
"We understand your position that these subpoenas should have been more narrowly drawn, but in fact, consistent with Department policy, the subpoenas were limited in both time and scope," wrote Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole in a May 14 reply.
The move arose from an AP story about a disrupted bomb plot originating in Yemen that led to the revelation of a classified counterterrorism operation and the existence of a valued agent. "This is among the top two or three serious leaks that I've ever seen" said Attorney General Eric Holder. He did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, the upshot is that any presumption of confidentiality in the source-reporter relationship has been compromised across the board, especially but not only in national security reporting.
"Reporters who might have previously believed that a confidential source would speak to them would no longer have that level of confidence, because those confidential sources are now going to be chilled in their relationship with the press," Rep. Lofgren said yesterday.
Last year, congressional leaders harshly criticized the Obama Administration for supposedly failing to aggressively combat leaks of classified information, including in the present case.
"The Administration's disregard for the Constitution and rule of law not only undermines our democracy, it threatens our national security," said Rep. Lamar Smith, at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee last year. "The Justice Department has not taken the initiative to prosecute leaks of national security secrets. Recent leaks about a foiled bomb plot out of Yemen and a cyberattack against Iran are, in the words of Senate Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, quote, 'very detrimental, very concerning, and hurt our country,' end quote."
The irony was not lost on Rep. Jerrold Nadler.
"I think we should put this in context, and remember that less than a year ago this committee's Republican leadership demanded aggressive investigation of press leaks, accusing the administration itself of orchestrating those leaks," he noted. "Then, members of this committee wanted the reporters subpoenaed, put in front of grand juries and potentially jailed for contempt. Now, of course, it is convenient to attack the attorney general for being too aggressive or the Justice Department for being too aggressive."
"But this inconsistency on the part of my Republican colleagues should not distract us from legitimate questions worthy of congressional oversight, including whether the Espionage Act has been inappropriately used looking at leakers, whether there is a need for a greater press shield,... and Congress' broad grants of surveillance authority and immunity," Rep. Nadler said.
Rep. Lofgren said that the damage done to freedom of the press by the clandestine seizure of AP phone records "will continue until corrective action is taken."
GPO SUSPENDS PUBLIC ACCESS TO SOME NASA RECORDS
The Government Printing Office is blocking public access to some previously released records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, while the records are reviewed to see if they contain export-controlled information. The move follows the controversial disabling and partial restoration of the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) ("NASA Technical Report Database Partly Back Online," Secrecy News, May 9.)
"GPO has been asked to suspend any activity related to making these documents available if they have not been reviewed," GPO said in a notice today.
"During this time, PURLs that GPO has created for the electronic versions of NASA Technical Reports found in cataloging records accessed through the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) may not link to the documents that the catalog record describes."
US-CHINA MOTOR VEHICLE TRADE, AND MORE FROM CRS
"In 2009, China overtook the United States to become both the world's largest producer of and market for motor vehicles," a new report from the Congressional Research Service notes.
That is not altogether bad news. "Every year since 2010, General Motors has sold more cars in China (through exports and its joint ventures there) than in the United States," CRS said. "On the other hand, China maintains a number of trade and investment barriers that affect trade flows in autos and auto parts."
See U.S.-Chinese Motor Vehicle Trade: Overview and Issues, May 13, 2013:
Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has declined to make publicly available include the following.
Regulation of Fertilizers: Ammonium Nitrate and Anhydrous Ammonia, May 9, 2013:
Haiti Under President Martelly: Current Conditions and Congressional Concerns, May 10, 2013:
Women in Combat: Issues for Congress, May 9, 2013:
The Peace Corps: Current Issues, May 10, 2013:
Proposals to Eliminate Public Financing of Presidential Campaigns, May 10, 2013:
The Federal Budget: Issues for FY2014 and Beyond, May 9, 2013:
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Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News blog is at:
http://blogs.fas.org/secrecy/
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