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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: July 2015

June 2015

• Here's What to Expect From Tomorrow's Release of Hillary Clinton's Emails by Jason Leopold, VICE News, June 29. "The State Department expects its website to be overloaded Tuesday with visits from journalists, lawmakers, and curious members of the public who will be weeding through the first batch of Hillary Clinton's emails in search of juicy bits of information about her tenure as Secretary of State."
• How the NSA Started Investigating the New York Times Original Warrantless Wiretapping Story by Cora Currier, The Intercept, June 26. "Three days after the New York Times revealed that the U.S. government was secretly monitoring the calls and emails of people inside the United States without court-approved warrants, the National Security Agency issued a top-secret assessment of the damage done to intelligence efforts by the story."
• IT tools can help declassification backlog, but is there funding? by Adam Mazmanian, Federal Computer Week, June 25. "The federal government is facing a mounting pile of electronic documents and other material that are due to be reviewed for declassification. But there just aren't enough people and enough budget to meet the statutory deadlines."
• Department of State 2015 Fiscal Transparency Report, Federal Register, June 25. "This report describes the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency, reviews those governments that were identified as anticipated recipients of foreign assistance funds in the FY 2014 Fiscal Transparency Report, assesses those that did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements, and indicates whether governments that did not meet the minimum fiscal transparency requirements made significant progress towards meeting the requirements during the review period of January 17-December 31, 2014."
• Obama has issued 19 secret directives by Gregory Korte, USA Today, June 24. "A one-digit correction to President Obama's directive on hostage policy Wednesday had the effect of disclosing the existence of a previously unknown -- and still-secret -- Obama order on national security."
• Congressional Research Belongs to the Public (editorial), New York Times, June 17. "It's hard for most people to get copies of reports produced by the Congressional Research Service, which operates as an in-house think-tank for lawmakers. That is absurd."
• FAS Proposal for the 3rd Open Government National Action Plan: Promote Public Access to Open Source Intelligence, June 15. "Specifically, we propose that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Open Source Center (OSC) be directed to systematically publish open source analytical products that are unclassified and non-copyrighted."
• CIA torture appears to have broken spy agency rule on human experimentation by Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian, June 15. "The Central Intelligence Agency had explicit guidelines for 'human experimentation' before, during and after its post-9/11 torture of terrorism detainees, the Guardian has learned, which raise new questions about the limits on internal oversight over the agency's in-house and contracted medical research."
• Releasing Osama Bin Laden's Porn Stash: The Public's Heroic Battle with the CIA Continues by Jason Leopold, VICE News, June 10. "The CIA won't release bin Laden's stash of porn, which Navy Seals apparently seized during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan four years ago. That's because, unbelievably, it's located in an 'operational file,' which is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)."
• Senators lead bipartisan push to write ban on torture into US law by Sabrina Siddiqui, The Guardian, June 10. "Six months after the Senate released a report detailing some of the gruesome interrogation tactics employed by the CIA after 9/11, a bipartisan pair of senators is seeking to permanently outlaw torture."
• DOE: size of US nuclear stockpile in 2014 and number of weapons dismantled have been declassified, June 4. "The information requested was declassified jointly by the DoD and DOE on April 10, 2015. Please find enclosed a copy of the 2014 totals as part oflarger tables."
• Congressional action on NSA is a milestone in the post-9/11 world by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, June 2. "The USA Freedom Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, marks the first piece of legislation to rein in surveillance powers in the wake of disclosures two years ago by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and the national debate he catalyzed."
• Congress turns away from post-9/11 law, retooling U.S. surveillance powers by Mike DeBonis, Washington Post, June 2. "Congress on Tuesday rejected some of the sweeping intelligence-gathering powers it granted national security officials after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with the Senate voting to end the government's bulk collection of private telephone records and to reform other surveillance policies."

Older News: May 2015

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Updated July 13, 2015