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Newer News: August 2010

July 2010 Intelligence News

• Political Wisdom: The Ethics of Leaking Military Secrets by Mary Lu Carnevale, Wall Street Journal Washington Wire, July 31. "The reform that may be needed more urgently than any other is a careful reduction in the size of the secrecy system. When less information is kept secret, it will become easier to keep it secure," Aftergood says.
• WikiLeaks: An Editor-In-Chief Or Prolific Source? by David Folkenflik, National Public Radio, July 31. "The shadowy website WikiLeaks proved this week it can obliterate the ability of the U.S. government and the military to smother the circulation of closely held secrets."
• Afghan Leak: Does Keeping More Secrets Make Them Less Secure? by Alex Altman, Time, July 30. "The leak highlights an intelligence paradox: the more data classified as secret, the less secure that data becomes. More classified information requires clearing more people to handle it, a bigger network to process it and more secure facilities to store it.
• Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring by Noah Shachtman, Wired Danger Room, July 28. "The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future."
• Is WikiLeaks the Pentagon Papers, Part 2? Parallels, and differences, exist by Paul Farhi and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, July 27. "Superficially, the two episodes do seem related. In substance, however, the case may be weaker."
• WikiLeaks shrouded in its own secrecy by Peter Eisler and Gregory Korte, USA Today, July 27. "WikiLeaks emerged in 2007 as a self-described check on unjustified government secrecy and the abuses that can come with it, yet the organization itself is shrouded in no small amount of secrecy."
• Army begins probe of leaked secret Afghan war files by Susan Page, USA Today, July 27. "The debate over America's longest war was fueled Monday by history's most massive leak of classified documents. Now, it's a criminal matter."
• Document Classification System Under Review by Max Cacas, Federal News Radio, July 26. "A Presidential panel is wrestling to develop a simpler, more common-sense approach to government documents, and protecting the nation's sensitive information. And the outcome will determine how agencies all across the federal government deal with the classification of sensitive material."
• Drones, Deaths and Bribes: Mining the WikiLeaks Data by Sharon Weinberger, AOL News, July 26. "Documents posted by WikiLeaks are a trove of raw data about Pakistan and Afghanistan, featuring such events as previously unreported civilian deaths and drones gone missing."
• Wikileaks takes new approach in latest release of documents by Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick, Washington Post, July 26. "Wikileaks' decision to transfer tens of thousands of raw classified field reports on the Afghan war to the New York Times and two European news organizations reflects the growing strength and sophistication of the small nonprofit Web site, founded three years ago to fight what it considers excessive secrecy."
• Is Wikileaks growing up? by Blake Hounsell, Foreign Policy, July 25. "Wikileaks, the controversial website that on Sunday published more than 91,000 U.S. military documents related to the war in Afghanistan, has come under fire for its methods, its obvious agenda, and its willingness to publish seemingly anything it can get its digital paws on. But one prominent advocate of government openness who has previously been critical of Wikileaks sees the organization as behaving more responsibly with its latest document dump."
• In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks ‘Transparency’ by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, July 25. "WikiLeaks.org, the online organization that posted tens of thousands of classified military field reports about the Afghan war on Sunday, says its goal in disclosing secret documents is to reveal 'unethical behavior' by governments and corporations.
• Was Post's 'Top Secret America' series a threat to lives and security? by Andrew Alexander, Washington Post, July 25. "From my point of view, The Post erred on the side of nondisclosure," said Steven Aftergood, a noted government secrecy expert with the nonpartisan Federation of American Scientists.
• Questions & Answers on the Intelligence Community Post 9/11, ODNI release, July 19. "Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, which instantly transformed the U.S. threat environment, the nation turned to the Intelligence Community with a massive and urgent tasking: to secure the homeland."
• Key Facts About Intelligence Contractors, ODNI release, July 19. "70% of the Intelligence Community (IC) budget is spent on contracts, not contractors."
• ODNI Fact Sheet, July 16. "The DNI oversees a 17-element Intelligence Community and manages the National Intelligence Program budget which was $49.8 billion in FY2009."
• ODNI Notice to Industry on Washington Post series involving "Potential Disclosure of Contract Information", July 16. "Early next week, the Washington Post is expected to publish articles and an interactive website that will likely contain a compendium of government agencies and contractors allegedly conducting Top Secret work."
• US intelligence spending – value for money? by Bernd Debusmann, Reuters, July 16. "America’s spy agencies are spending more money on obtaining intelligence than the rest of the world put together. Considerably more. To what extent they are providing value for money is an open question."
• Analysis: GAO in tug of war over Intelligence audits, interview with Steven Aftergood, director, Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, Federal News Radio, July 12. "The Government Accountability Office is caught in a tug of war over auditing intelligence programs. The White House is threatening to veto a pending intel bill that includes a provision that gives the GAO the authority to perform audits. At the same time, the Defense Department has issued a directive explicitly giving the GAO access to highly classified programs."
• Intrigue and Ambiguity in Cases of 4 Russians Sent to West in Spy Swap by Scott Shane and Ellen Barry, New York Times, July 10. "When Aleksandr Zaporozhsky, one of four Russians delivered to the West in this week’s spy swap, landed at Dulles International Airport on Friday to join his family in the United States, it was only the latest unexpected twist in a classic story of espionage and deception."
• US, Russia raced to close spy case by Mike McCarthy, German Press Agency, July 8. "The spy swap that is underway between the United States and Russia is a sign that the two countries want to quickly close the case and avoid any disruptions in the effort to rebuild relations, analysts say."
• Army intelligence analyst charged in Wikileaks case by Leila Fadel, Washington Post, July 7. "The military said Tuesday that it has charged an Army intelligence analyst in connection with the leak of a controversial video and the downloading and transfer of classified State Department cables, in a case that is likely to further deter would-be whistleblowers."
• Army: Alleged Wikileaker Swiped Thousands of Files by Andrea Stone, AOL News, July 7. "Whether Manning did the right thing or not is a judgment call, he said. The tape 'belonged in the public domain' because it 'did not cause identifiable damage to national security and it did give the viewing public a visceral sense of what the conduct of war is like. That is a public service'."
• Soldier Faces Charges in Leak by Nathan Hodge, Wall Street Journal, July 7. "Wikileaks' Fame From Baghdad Airstrike Video Carries a Price for Pfc. Manning."
• WikiLeaks case: Army charges soldier in release of Iraq cockpit video by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, July 6. "The Army said Tuesday that Spec. Bradley Manning stole information on a massive scale, though charging papers did not mention the WikiLeaks website by name."
• Defense Department Broadens Congressional Oversight of Secret Programs by Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic, July 6. "The Department of Defense quietly and subtly offered Congress an olive branch last week, setting out a formal procedure for the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, to be granted access to special access programs, or SAPs."
• Charge Sheet Against Bradley E. Manning, July 5. "Private First Class Bradley E. Manning, U.S. Army, did have unauthorized possession of a classified video of a military operation filmed at or near Baghdad, Iraq, on or about 12 July 2007, and did willfully communicate, deliver and transmit the video, or cause the video to be communicated, delivered, and transmitted, to a person not entitled to receive it, in violation of 18 U.S. Code Section 793(e)."