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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: June 2011

May 2011

• Judge plans to shield unclassified info in NSA leak case by Josh Gerstein, Politico Under the Radar, May 31. "A federal judge is apparently pressing forward with plans to keep certain unclassified information about the National Security Agency secret from jurors and the public during the upcoming trial of a former NSA official suspected of leaking to a journalist."
• Terrorist 'pre-crime' detector field tested in United States by Sharon Weinberger, Nature News, May 27. "Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programme designed to spot people who are intending to commit a terrorist act, has in the past few months completed its first round of field tests at an undisclosed location in the northeast, Nature has learned."
• ISCAP Announces Release of 1968 President's Daily Brief Extracts, letter to Peter Pesavento, May 26. "Please be advised that the President has directed the declassification and release of portions of the President's Daily Brief of November 26, 1968."
• Sen. Benjamin Cardin's impressive feat by Glenn Greenwald, Salon, May 27. "This is the very same Sen. Benjamin Cardin who has also introduced legislation that, if enacted, would be the most severe legislative attack on whistleblowers in the United States in the last several decades at least."
• Taming the U.S. Government's Secrecy Machine by Emily Badger, Miller-McCune, May 26. "The plodding effort to bring a modicum of common sense to how the U.S. declassifies its documents has resisted most efforts to rev it up in the digital age."
• Reporter subpoenaed in leaks case by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, May 24. "Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed New York Times reporter James Risen to testify at the trial of a former CIA operative who allegedly leaked classified information that appeared in Risen's 2006 book."
• The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an Enemy of the State? by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, May 23. "The Justice Department's indictment narrows the frame around Drake's actions, focussing almost exclusively on his handling of what it claims are five classified documents. But Drake sees his story as a larger tale of political reprisal, one that he fears the government will never allow him to air fully in court."
• Now you see the Kabul Bank, now you don't by Al Kamen, Washington Post, May 13. "The inspector general's investigation and report, which led to the termination of USAID's contract with the Deloitte accounting firm, was made public in March. But then, in the past week or so, the report disappeared from the agency's Web site."
• Deadly exposure: The Osama bin Laden photo battle by Josh Gerstein, Politico, May 12. "President Barack Obama has ordered photos of Osama bin Laden's dead body to be kept secret, but a growing number of news organizations, conservative groups and transparency activists are pushing for their release - pitting the public's right to know against fears of inciting anti-American violence."
• Case Against WikiLeaks Part Of Broader Campaign by Carrie Johnson, NPR Morning Edition, May 11. "The WikiLeaks case is part of a much broader campaign by the Obama administration to crack down on leakers."
• The CIA's Last-Minute Osama bin Laden Drama by Tara McKelvey, The Daily Beast, May 10. "The arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis came close to derailing the mission to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan."
• "Pentagon Papers" to be Opened June 13 at Nixon Library, Federal Register, May 10. "The Agency has identified, inventoried, and prepared for public access the Vietnam Task Force study, United States -Vietnam Relations 1945-1967, informally known as 'the Pentagon Papers'."
• Sunshine advocates say Congressional Research Service reports should be posted online by Joseph Marks, NextGov, May 9. "Open government groups, including opencrs.com and the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, routinely request and post large volumes of CRS reports online."
• Domestic Surveillance Court Approved All 1,506 Warrant Applications in 2010 by David Kravets, Wired Threat Level, May 6. "The secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved all 1,506 government requests to electronically monitor suspected 'agents' of a foreign power or terrorists on U.S. soil last year, according to a Justice Department report released under the Freedom of Information Act."
• Watchdog group is prepared to sue for photos of bin Laden by Kevin Bogardus, The Hill, May 5. "A watchdog group says it is prepared to file a lawsuit to obtain photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse."
• Osama bin Laden's DNA: How Sure Is 99.9 Percent Sure? by Sharon Weinberger, Popular Mechanics, May 3. "We talked to genetic experts who explained how this DNA analysis was probably done, and how to understand the uncertainties inherent in any genetic test."
• White House weighs release of bin Laden pics by Zachary Roth, Yahoo News The Lookout, May 3. "Over 36 hours after Osama bin Laden's death was announced, the Obama administration is still mulling whether to release photos of the terror leader's corpse."

Older News: April 2011

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Updated June 6, 2011