SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 80
August 16, 2005


** IT'S EASY FOR TERRORISTS
** PENTAGON ISSUES DOCTRINE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
** JASON ON TACTICAL INFRASOUND
** ABLE DANGER: WELDON UNLEASHED
** NRC ADOPTS POLICY ON DISCLOSURE OF SECURITY INFORMATION
** DECLASSIFICATION AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
** SELECTED CRS REPORTS
** SUPPORT SECRECY NEWS


IT'S EASY FOR TERRORISTS

"To attack [America's electrical] grid, a terrorist need only study
publicly available trade journals, which explain where new
facilities are constructed," according to an op-ed in the New York
Times on August 13. "A terrorist could then disable a particular
system by destroying the computers and relays housed in the poorly
protected building."

The New York Times op-ed editor has an affinity for such claims
about the simplicity of perpetrating a disastrous act of terrorism.

On May 30, the Times published an op-ed article asserting that "a
terrorist," using a 27 page manual found online, could manufacture
gram quantities of botulinum toxin and cause tens or hundreds of
thousands of casualties. No lab scientist familiar with the
procedures involved would endorse that scenario, presented by a
Stanford business professor.

The notion of a hyper-competent terrorist who can easily overcome
the physical and technical obstacles that perplex and detain
ordinary mortals has become a common rhetorical trope in public
discussions of terrorism.

George Smith of GlobalSecurity.org conducted a Nexis search for the
phrase "easy for a terrorist" (and similar formulations) and found
about one hundred mainstream media citations over the past two
years.

Judging from press reports, nearly everything comes "easy" to
terrorists:

"From food terror, to manipulating the flu virus, to blowing up
chemical plants, to getting driver's licenses, to coming across the
Mexican border, to buying large caliber guns, to shooting down
planes with ground-to-air missiles, to spreading hoof-and-mouth
disease and destroying the cattle industry, to paralyzing Los
Angeles by attacking power stations, to causing major blackouts, to
putting anthrax in bagged rice," Smith found. "There really is no
end to it. It's stupefying in its universality."

Such glib assessments of terrorist capabilities are worse than
simply wrong. They spread fear and a sense of helplessness, doing
the work of the terrorists, and they threaten to dissipate limited
security and financial resources in a hundred different directions.


PENTAGON ISSUES DOCTRINE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

A new Department of Defense publication spells out official doctrine
for the conduct of military operations in defense of homeland
security.

The military has two "distinct but interrelated" homeland security
missions, the new publication explains: homeland defense and civil
support.

Homeland Defense is "the protection of US sovereignty, territory,
domestic population, and critical infrastructure against external
threats and aggression or other threats as directed by the
President."

Civil Support refers to "support to US civil authorities for
domestic emergencies, and for designated law enforcement within the
scope of restrictions required by the Posse Comitatus Act and other
support approved by the SecDef."

The new publication "describes the homeland security framework,
mission areas, missions and related supporting operations and
enabling activities. It also discusses legal authorities; joint
force, multinational, and interagency relationships; command and
control; planning and execution; and training and resource
considerations," the preface states.

The new doctrinal publication is "Homeland Security," Joint
Publication 3-26, dated 2 August 2005 (flagged by docuticker.com).
A copy is posted here (117 pages, 4 MB PDF file):

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/jp3_26.pdf


JASON ON TACTICAL INFRASOUND

The military and intelligence value of monitoring "infrasound" --
inaudible sound waves of a frequency less than 20 Hertz -- is the
subject of a new report from the secretive JASON advisory group on
military science and technology.

"Using sound as a source of intelligence in a tactical setting has a
long military tradition. Our study was undertaken to assess how
this technique might be exploited in contemporary settings, in
particular at tactical infrasound arrays," the JASON authors write.

"An array of low power robust sensors could be used to monitor
diverse activities from a distance. Sonic data could provide
strategic information to corroborate rocket launches that are
detected by other means, including perhaps location information for
mobile launch vehicles. Activity levels at military airfields
could be monitored from a safe distance. Real time bomb damage
assessments could be augmented with sonic data; particularly when
attacking targets below the surface, listening for the explosions
can help identify instances when the ordinance fails to detonate.
These are but a few examples of the potential utility of sonic
monitoring in the intelligence arena," the report stated.

The JASON report was prepared for the Army's National Ground
Intelligence Center.

A copy was obtained by Secrecy News.

See "Tactical Infrasound," May 2005 (72 pages, 1.4 MB PDF file):

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/infrasound.pdf


ABLE DANGER: WELDON UNLEASHED

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) caused a stir lately by alleging that a
classified military intelligence data mining program codenamed ABLE
DANGER had identified September 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta as a
threat as early as summer of 2000 and that the 9/11 Commission had
been so informed but had chosen to suppress the information.

In an official statement on the matter, former Commission Chair and
Vice Chair Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton disputed Weldon's account,
and Weldon himself has begun to backtrack, stating that he is no
longer certain that a chart he obtained from the military in 2001
actually named Atta.

A copy of the August 12 Kean-Hamilton statement is here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/08/pdp081205.pdf

Rep. Weldon has a history of making inflammatory allegations that
later proved to be unfounded.

On June 7, 1999 he stood on the House floor and accused the Clinton
Administration of leaking the design of the W87 nuclear warhead to
U.S. News and World Report. It was a charge he repeated several
times, referring to an artist's rendering of the W87 warhead which
appeared in the magazine's July 31, 1995 edition.

"This administration leaked this document to U.S. News & World
Report, giving the entire populace of the world... access to the
design of the W87 nuclear warhead," he alleged.

"I have been told... that it was [Secretary of Energy] Hazel O'Leary
herself who gave U.S. News & World Report the actual diagram of the
W87 nuclear warhead in 1995," he said.

On June 8, 1999 he stated flatly: "Hazel O'Leary leaked the plans,
which are in this magazine, for the W87 nuclear warhead."

None of this was true.

No government diagram of the W87 warhead was given to U.S. News.
The artist's rendering of the weapon was a conceptual drawing, not
a design. It was explicitly credited by the magazine to the
Natural Resources Defense Council. An NRDC analyst confirmed that
he had supplied the information to the graphic artist, and that it
was based on informed speculation, not classified information.

In accordance with the political tactics used to attack the
Clinton-Gore Administration throughout much of the 1990s, Rep.
Weldon never retracted or apologized for his unfounded accusations.
See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/bulletin/sec80.html#weldon

According to an August 10 story in The Hill, Rep. Weldon said House
Speaker Dennis Hastert will support his potential bid to become the
next chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in 2008.


NRC ADOPTS POLICY ON DISCLOSURE OF SECURITY INFORMATION

Following a dispute with the National Academy of Sciences over the
release of security-related information in an NAS report on spent
nuclear fuel, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission undertook a review
of its policy regarding public disclosure of such information.

An NRC Task Force prepared a report on the subject, and the NRC
recently approved a new statement of disclosure policy.

"The task force has concluded that the Commission has considerable
authority to withhold from public disclosure information that could
be useful, or could reasonably be expected to be useful, to a
terrorist, provided that the information is not readily available
to the public already," the report stated.

The resulting NRC policy concluded generally that "to the extent
practicable," the withholding of sensitive information from public
disclosure should conform to Freedom of Information Act principles
for withholding security-related information.

See "NRC Task Force Report on Public Disclosure of Security-Related
Information," Nuclear Regulatory Commission, May 18, 2005 (approved
June 30, 2005) (thanks to MJR):

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/nrc-disc.pdf


DECLASSIFICATION AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

A proposed rule on declassification of national security information
at the National Archives (NARA) would update current policy to
reflect President Bush's March 2003 amendments to classification
policy.

The proposed rule, published for public comment in the Federal
Register on August 12, also sets forth procedures for automatic
declassification and for reclassification of information that has
been previously declassified.

The Federal Register notice presents a useful and informative series
of questions and answers regarding classification and
declassification policy. (It mistakenly continues to refer to the
"Director of Central Intelligence," a position that no longer
exists.)

Thus: "Can previously released White House-originated information be
reclassified or have its classification restored?"

The answer: "An agency or an entity within the Executive Office of
the President that solely advises and assists the President, may
ask NARA to temporarily close, review, and possibly reclassify or
restore the classification of White House-originated information
that has been declassified and previously released."

See the Proposed Rule on Declassification of National Security
Information, Federal Register, August 12:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/08/nara081205.html


SELECTED CRS REPORTS

The Congressional Research Service does not make its publications
directly available to the public. The following CRS reports were
obtained by Secrecy News.

"Missile Survey: Ballistic and Cruise Missiles of Selected Foreign
Countries," updated July 26, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL30427.pdf

"Iran's Nuclear Program: Recent Developments," updated August 2,
2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RS21592.pdf

"'Bunker Busters': Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005
and FY 2006," updated August 2, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL32347.pdf

"Black Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2005," updated
August 4, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30378.pdf

"Cambodia: Background and U.S. Relations," July 8, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32986.pdf
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 85
September 7, 2005


** DEMONSTRATED DESTRUCTION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (1967)
** SECRECY REPORT CARD
** A RAFT OF CRS REPORTS


DEMONSTRATED DESTRUCTION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS (1967)

Once upon a time, the government of the United States sought ways
and means to achieve negotiated reductions in stockpiles of
nuclear weapons through the verified destruction of such weapons.

In 1965, US Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur J. Goldberg
presented what was known as the "Transfer" proposal, under which
the U.S. would transfer 60,000 kilograms of weapons grade uranium
to nonweapons uses if the Soviet Union would transfer 40,000
kilograms. Each country would destroy existing nuclear weapons to
make these materials available.

In order to assess whether nuclear weapons could be verifiably
destroyed for this purpose without disclosing sensitive design
information, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the
Defense Department conducted a field test of the process in summer
1967.

The field test was part of a program known as "Cloud Gap," a
remarkable government initiative established in 1963 "to test the
feasibility of hypothetical arms control and disarmament
measures."

The 1967 Cloud Gap Field Test-34 was "an investigation of the
demonstration of the destruction of nuclear weapons by visual
observation, use of radiation detection equipment, inspection of
X-ray plates of weapons, and laboratory analyses of the resulting
fissionable material."

The field test, which was documented in more than a thousand
pages, did in fact identify weaknesses in the protection of
classified information and in the ability of inspectors to
distinguish real weapons from decoys. The final report on the
test, however, also noted ways in which these weaknesses could be
mitigated.

Today, Cloud Gap Field Test-34 is scarcely a footnote in the
history of nuclear weapons and national security, a road not taken.
Yet in its unusual dedication to the empirical testing of policy
options, Cloud Gap may still have something to teach.

An assortment of Cloud Gap documents obtained by the Federation of
American Scientists, including the Final Report on Field Test-34,
may be found here:

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/cloudgap/index.html


SECRECY REPORT CARD

Many Americans have sensed a qualitative reduction in their access
to government information, particularly when it concerns matters
of security policy.

Now a new publication from the coalition OpenTheGovernment.org
provides some quantitative benchmarks that confirm and document
the rise in official secrecy.

Metrics cited in the report range from formal classification --
which is at a record high -- to the fraction of federal advisory
committee meetings closed to the public -- nearly two-thirds.

See the Secrecy Report Card 2005 by Rick Blum,
OpenTheGovernment.org, September 2005:

http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/SRC2005.pdf


A RAFT OF CRS REPORTS

Some recent reports of the Congressional Research Service obtained
by Secrecy News include the following:

"Oil and Gas: Supply Issues After Katrina," August 31, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22233.pdf

"Tactical Aircraft Modernization: Issues for Congress," updated
August 30, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/IB92115.pdf

"Strategic Petroleum Reserve," updated August 29, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/IB87050.pdf

"Federal Disaster Recovery Programs: Brief Summaries," updated
August 29, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL31734.pdf

"Federal Stafford Act Disaster Assistance: Presidential
Declarations, Eligible Activities, and Funding," August 29, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33053.pdf

"Risk-Based Funding in Homeland Security Grant Legislation:
Analysis of Issues for the 109th Congress," August 29, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33050.pdf

"Sudan: Humanitarian Crisis, Peace Talks, Terrorism, and U.S.
Policy," updated August 26, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IB98043.pdf

"Department of Homeland Security Reorganization: The 2SR
Initiative," August 19, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33042.pdf

"Al Qaeda: Profile and Threat Assessment," August 17, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL33038.pdf

"Legislative Approaches to Chemical Facility Security," August 16,
2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL33043.pdf

"Loss-of-Use Damages From U.S. Nuclear Testing in the Marshall
Islands: Technical Analysis of the Nuclear Claims Tribunal's
Methodology and Alternative Estimates," August 12, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL33029.pdf

"Tsunamis and Earthquakes: Is Federal Disaster Insurance in our
Future?," April 6, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32847.pdf




_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 86
September 9, 2005


** GLOBAL STOCKS OF NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS
** STATE SECRETS IN A PATENT CASE
** CRS ON KATRINA
** AIR FORCE HISTORY
** THE PRESS AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT


GLOBAL STOCKS OF NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVE MATERIALS

In an exemplary exercise of what might be termed "public
intelligence," the Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS) has published a new account of nuclear explosive
materials around the world.

The ISIS database provides estimates of national inventories of
plutonium and highly enriched uranium (as well as neptunium-237
and americium) for countries from Argentina and Armenia to
Vietnam through the end of 2003. More than 50 countries were
found to possess five kilograms or more of these materials.

Such information is ordinarily very closely held, not only by the
foreign governments themselves but also by U.S. government
agencies.

"Some agencies would classify all of this stuff," observed a
State Department intelligence official seated next to me at the
ISIS briefing on September 7 presenting the new estimates.

But of course classification renders information unavailable for
public deliberation.

The purpose of the ISIS publication, in contrast, is "to create a
set of data that everyone can use," said ISIS President David
Albright.

"We need a common language to discuss this," he said,
particularly in light of the threat of diversion of nuclear
materials by terrorists.

"There is a lot of fissile material in the world," Albright said,
noting that ISIS had estimated the production of nearly 4000
tonnes of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, enough for more
than 300,000 nuclear weapons.

See "Global Stocks of Nuclear Explosive Materials," Institute for
Science and International Security, published September 2005:

http://www.isis-online.org/global_stocks/e...ofcontents.html


STATE SECRETS IN A PATENT CASE

Once rarely used, the state secrets privilege is now being
invoked by the government with uncommon frequency to limit or
block litigation. It surfaced yet again this week in an ongoing
patent infringement lawsuit.

In 1998, the Crater Corporation alleged violation of its patent
for an underwater fiber optic coupling device, but the
government stepped in citing the state secrets privilege.
Then-Secretary of the Navy Richard J. Danzig declared that
"discovery in this case could be expected to cause extremely
grave damage to national security." The case was dismissed, and
appealed.

This week, a federal appeals court ruled that the state secrets
privilege had been properly asserted, but that the district
court nevertheless erred in dismissing the plaintiff's lawsuit.

A copy of the September 7 ruling in Crater v. Lucent Technologies
and United States, US Court of Appeals for the Federal District,
is here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/crater090705.pdf

See also "Government Secrecy Request Stalls IP Case," Patently-O
Patent Law Blog (thanks to MJR):

http://patentlaw.typepad.com/patent/2005/0...nment_secr.html

The state secrets privilege was the subject of a news segment on
National Public Radio Morning Edition by Jackie Northam today.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4838701


CRS ON KATRINA

The Congressional Research Service promptly prepared several
reports related to the aftermath and implications of Hurricane
Katrina. Despite congressional prohibitions on direct public
access to CRS products, the latest reports were made available
courtesy of Pennyhill Press.

"New Orleans Levees and Floodwalls: Hurricane Damage
Protection," September 6, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22238.pdf

"Price Increases in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Authority
to Limit Price Gouging," September 2, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22236.pdf

"Disaster Evacuation and Displacement Policy: Issues for
Congress," September 2, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22235.pdf

"Tax Deductions for Catastrophic Risk Insurance Reserves:
Explanation and Economic Analysis," September 2, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33060.pdf

A few other notable recent CRS publications are:

"Venezuela: Political Conditions and U.S. Policy," updated August
24, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32488.pdf

"Argentina: Political Conditions and U.S. Relations," updated
August 17, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RS21113.pdf

"Science and Technology Policy: Issues for the 109th Congress,"
updated August 22, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32837.pdf


AIR FORCE HISTORY

Air Force history "is an objective, accurate, descriptive, and
interpretive record of all activities of the Air Force in peace
and war. By recounting lessons learned, Air Force history
enables our nations' military and civilian leaders to approach
current problems and concerns more intelligently and
professionally."

It is the mission of Air Force historians "to provide immediate
and continuing historical documentation of [military
operations], and to preserve complete, accurate, and useful
records for future analysis and study."

The role of the Air Force historian was spelled out at length in
two Air Force Instructions that were issued last month. See:

Air Force Instruction 84-101, "Historical Products, Services, and
Requirements," 1 August 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afi84-101.pdf

Air Force Instruction 84-102, "Historical Operations in
Contingencies and War," 1 August 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afi84-102.pdf


THE PRESS AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

"Without the media the Civil Rights Movement would have been a
bird without wings," said movement veteran Rep. John Lewis in a
tribute published yesterday.

"Without the media's willingness to stand in harm's way and
starkly portray events of the Movement as they saw them unfold,
Americans may never have understood or even believed the horrors
that African Americans faced in the Deep South."

"That commitment to publish the truth took courage. It was
incredibly dangerous to be seen with a pad, a pen, or a camera
in Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia where the heart of the
struggle took place," Rep. Lewis said.

His remarks, a timely reminder of the importance of a free press,
also carried an implicit suggestion that the summit of
journalistic achievement may be something other than the
Watergate-style expose.

See "On the Contribution of the Press to the Civil Rights
Movement," by Rep. John Lewis, entered in the Congressional
Record, September 8, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2005/h090805.html



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 88
September 15, 2005


** CRS VIEWS CONVENTIONAL WARHEADS FOR ICBMS
** POPPY SATELLITE PROGRAM DECLASSIFIED
** SOME MORE CRS REPORTS


CRS VIEWS CONVENTIONAL WARHEADS FOR ICBMS

A new report from the Congressional Research Service examines the
possibility of replacing the nuclear warheads on U.S. long range
ballistic missiles with conventional warheads, and sorts through the
implications of such a move.

From the warfighter's perspective, the availability of
conventionally-armed long-range ballistic missiles would mean
increased flexibility and would permit prompt global offensive
reach.

Critics worry that any use of such a missile would lend itself to
misinterpretation as a nuclear strike and thereby lower the
threshold for nuclear war.

Others suggest that conversion of long-range missiles to conventional
warheads would facilitate sharp reductions in nuclear weapons
stockpiles, if there were a will to pursue such reductions.

The U.S. currently has an estimated 4,868 nuclear warheads on 982
land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched
ballistic missiles.

The U.S. nuclear weapons targeting plan that was formerly known as the
SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan) is now designated OPLAN
8044, the CRS report notes, and "it reflects changes in U.S.
targeting plans and priorities that resulted from the Bush
Administration's nuclear posture review."

A copy of the new CRS report was obtained by Secrecy News.

See "Conventional Warheads For Long-Range Ballistic Missiles:
Background and Issues for Congress," September 6, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL33067.pdf


POPPY SATELLITE PROGRAM DECLASSIFIED

Information about the POPPY intelligence satellite program, which
operated from 1962 to 1971, was declassified this week.

"POPPY was the successor to the nation's first ELINT [electronic
intelligence] satellite, known as 'GRAB' (Galactic Radiation and
Background)," according to a September 12 press release from the
National Reconnaissance Office.

"The POPPY system was designed to detect land based radar emitters
and support ocean surveillance."

The newly declassified information is summarized in a POPPY Program
Fact Sheet, dated September 12, 2005, and available here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/nro/poppy.pdf


SOME MORE CRS REPORTS

Some recent reports of the Congressional Research Service obtained
by Secrecy News include the following:

"Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Hurricane Katrina Relief,"
September 7, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22239.pdf

"An Emergency Communications Safety Net: Integrating 911 and Other
Services," September 1, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL32939.pdf

"Agricultural Disaster Assistance," updated August 29, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21212.pdf

"V-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft," updated August 4, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL31384.pdf

"Defense Outsourcing: The OMB Circular A-76 Policy," updated June 30,
2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL30392.pdf

"Federal Flood Insurance: The Repetitive Loss Problem," June 30, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32972.pdf




_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 89
September 16, 2005


** BUSH WAGE CUTS FOR RELIEF WORKERS MAY BE LEGAL ERROR
** DOD DICTIONARY OF MILITARY TERMS


BUSH WAGE CUTS FOR RELIEF WORKERS MAY BE LEGAL ERROR

On September 8, President Bush issued a proclamation suspending the
minimum wage requirements for relief workers engaged in Katrina
recovery operations.

But in order to do so, he relied upon a statutory authority that
has been dormant for thirty years and that appears to be legally
inoperative.

"I find that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute
a 'national emergency' within the meaning of section 3147 of title
40, United States Code," President Bush declared on September 8 as
he removed the Davis Bacon Act wage supports for workers in
Louisiana, and portions of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

But this emergency statute was one of numerous authorities that
were rendered dormant by the National Emergencies Act of 1976, and
that can only be activated by certain procedural formalities that
were absent in this case.

In particular, the President must formally declare a national
emergency under the National Emergencies Act, and he must specify
which standby legal authorities he proposes to activate so as to
permit congressional restraint of emergency powers.

Strangely, however, President Bush proceeded as if the National
Emergencies Act did not exist.

The September 8 presidential declaration was "an anomaly,"
according to a new Congressional Research Service assessment, and
it did not follow "the historical pattern of declaring a national
emergency to activate the suspension authority."

"The propriety of the President's action in this case may be
ultimately determined in the courts," the CRS report stated
delicately.

The newly updated CRS report, written by Harold C. Relyea, traces
the evolution of emergency powers and includes a tabulation of
declared national emergencies from 1976-2005.

See "National Emergency Powers," Congressional Research Service,
updated September 15, 2005 (esp. pp. 18-19):

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/98-505.pdf

The President's September 8 proclamation is here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20050908-5.html

Why would the President deviate from established practice in this
way?

One subject matter expert consulted by Secrecy News rejected the
idea that there was any self-interested motive at work, and noted
that the President had properly invoked the National Emergencies
Act in previous cases.

"I think it's just poor staff work at the White House," he said.

But if it was an innocent mistake, that doesn't mean it is an
inconsequential one.

"The hell-to-pay could come if a union or some affected worker
decides this [wage cut] was improperly done" and files a lawsuit
to challenge it, a possibility implicitly raised by the CRS above.

Meanwhile, taking the President's proclamation at face value, Rep.
George Miller and several dozen other members of Congress
introduced a bill to undo what the President has proposed.

H.R. 3763, introduced on September 14, would "reinstate the
application of the wage requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act to
Federal contracts in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina."


DOD DICTIONARY OF MILITARY TERMS

The Department of Defense has updated and substantially expanded
its Dictionary of Military Terms.

The Dictionary is useful for students of military policy and also
provides some striking adaptations of ordinary language to
military needs.

"Space," picking an example at random, is defined as "A medium like
the land, sea, and air within which military activities shall be
conducted to achieve US national security objectives."

See "Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated
Terms," Joint Publication 1-02, amended 31 August 2005 [746 pages,
2 MB PDF file]:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/jp1_02.pdf




_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 90
September 20, 2005


** REMOVING HEU FROM ARGENTINA
** ARKIN: EARLY WARNING
** KATRINA AND CLASSIFIED RECORDS
** REMEMBERING PHILIP MORRISON
** SELECTED CRS REPORTS


REMOVING HEU FROM ARGENTINA

The U.S. Department of Energy, "in secret and under heavy security
measures," has been removing highly enriched uranium fuel elements
from the RA3 nuclear research reactor in Ezeiza, Argentina,
according to a September 18 report in the Buenos Aires newspaper
Clarin, as part of a continuing effort to convert such reactors to
the use of low enriched uranium fuel.

See "EE.UU. se lleva materiales nucleares de la Argentina" by
Daniel Santoro, Clarin, September 18, 2005:

http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/zona/200.../18/z-03615.htm


ARKIN: EARLY WARNING

A new blog by author and critic William Arkin on the
WashingtonPost.com web site has become instantly "bookmarkable"
for students of national security affairs.

The web is already supersaturated with opinion, of course, and with
analysis of varying degrees of sophistication or self-indulgence.
But Arkin's blog, Early Warning, stands out because he also
offers access to official records that are otherwise not publicly
available.

In his first outing on September 14, for example, he posted the
April 2005 Department of Homeland Security National Planning
Scenarios, which are "for official use only." On September 19, he
disclosed another FOUO document on "Potential Terrorist Use of
Pressure Cookers." And "there is a lot more where that came
from," he promises, or threatens.

See "Early Warning" here:

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/


KATRINA AND CLASSIFIED RECORDS

One of the many disruptive effects of Hurricane Katrina with which
residents and government agencies have to contend is the loss of
personal and official records.

The National Archives has "consulted with Federal agencies
concerning classified national security information that may be
affected by the hurricane," according to a September 19 news
release. See:

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releas...5/nr05-120.html


REMEMBERING PHILIP MORRISON

Physicist Philip Morrison, a Manhattan Project veteran and former
FAS President who died earlier this year, is recalled in an
obituary in the latest FAS Public Interest Report by Priscilla
McMillan. See:

http://www.fas.org/faspir/2005/v58n2/morrison.htm

Ms. McMillan's recent book "The Ruin of J. Robert Oppenheimer" was
perceptively reviewed by author Thomas Powers, along with several
other recent books on Oppenheimer, in the September 22 New York
Review of Books:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18268


SELECTED CRS REPORTS

Some new or newly acquired reports of the Congressional Research
Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following:

"Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations (COOP)
Planning in the Federal Judiciary," updated September 8, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RL31978.pdf

"Legislative Initiatives to Temporarily Relocate Federal Courts
Interrupted by Natural or Man-Made Disasters, 109th Congress,"
September 8, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RS22244.pdf

"Continuity of Government: Current Federal Arrangements and the
Future," updated August 5, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RS21089.pdf

"Homeland Security: Protecting Airspace in the National Capital
Region," September 1, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RS22234.pdf

"Military Base Closures: A Historical Review from 1988 to 1995,"
updated October 18, 2004:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/97-305.pdf



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 91
September 22, 2005


** HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE BEGINS HEARINGS ON LEAKS
** GUIDELINES FOR ACCESS TO GEOSPATIAL DATA
** US ARMY WEAPONS SYSTEM HANDBOOK
** ABLE DANGER HEARING
** A CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT


HOUSE INTEL COMMITTEE BEGINS HEARINGS ON LEAKS

The first of a series of congressional hearings on the unauthorized
disclosure of classified information was held last week by the
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The closed
hearing featured "a representative of the intelligence community"
who discussed the consequences of such unauthorized disclosures.

Committee chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said the committee will
hold open hearings on the issue in the future. He indicated that
no legislation on unauthorized disclosure is pending before the
committee and that no decision has been made to introduce a bill,
according to a September 14 news release. See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/09/hpsci091405.pdf

Meanwhile, the Committee voted on party lines to reject a resolution
requesting that the executive branch provide documents on the
unauthorized disclosure of the identity of CIA officer Valerie
Plame.

When it comes to leaks, the Republican majority said, "the House
must focus on the problem broadly rather than focusing solely on
any specific case."

Democrats said "the Committee missed a critical opportunity to
exercise appropriate and responsible oversight of this serious
matter."

See the House Intelligence Committee report on the resolution here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_rpt/hrpt109-228.html


GUIDELINES FOR ACCESS TO GEOSPATIAL DATA

Official guidelines for deciding whether and how to permit public
access to geospatial data -- such as maps and satellite imagery
-- have recently been issued by the Federal Geographic Data
Committee of the U.S. Geological Survey.

"In the United States many public and private organizations and
individuals originate geospatial data and make them available to
the public," the Guidelines note. "Because of this condition
centralized control of information is not viable and decision
making about the sensitivity and safeguarding of geospatial data
will be decentralized."

To assist in such decentralized decision making, the Guidelines
define general procedures for identifying sensitive information
and weighing the risks and benefits of disclosure.

See "Guidelines for Providing Appropriate Access to Geospatial
Data in Response to Security Concerns," Federal Geographic Data
Committee, June 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/fgdc0605.pdf


US ARMY WEAPONS SYSTEM HANDBOOK

The 2005 U.S. Army Weapons System Handbook, a descriptive catalog of
dozens of current and near-term weapons systems used by the U.S.
Army, is now available on the Federation of American Scientists web
site.

Previous editions of the Handbook were routinely made available on
Army web sites. But along with many thousands of other
unclassified documents, they were withdrawn from online public
access a few years ago when the Army moved much of its web-based
content behind a password-protected portal called Army Knowledge
Online. A softcopy of the new edition was obtained by Secrecy
News.

The unclassified Handbook is not sensitive, even by government
standards. A hardcopy of the publication can still be purchased
through the Government Printing Office. But the online version was
a casualty of the Army's retreat from the web, until now.

See the 2005 U.S. Army Weapons System Handbook here:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/wsh/index.html


ABLE DANGER HEARING

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing yesterday on ABLE
DANGER, the Defense Department intelligence program that may or may
not have identified Mohamed Atta and other September 11 hijackers a
year or more before they struck.

The hearing ended inconclusively after the Pentagon refused to
permit several witnesses to testify, citing classification
concerns.

"That looks to me as if it may be obstruction of the committee's
activities," said Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa).

"The Senate Intelligence Committee, as I understand it, has
jurisdiction over this matter and is looking into it," Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in response.

"Second, the department, I'm told, offered a classified briefing
because the subject matter was classified," Rumsfeld said. "And as
I understand it, the Judiciary Committee preferred to have an open
hearing on a classified matter, and therefore the department
declined to participate in an open hearing on a classified matter."

The prepared testimony from the September 21 Judiciary Committee
hearing is available here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_hr/index.html

A September 1 Pentagon press briefing on ABLE DANGER is available
here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/09/dod090105.html


A CITIZEN'S GUIDE TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

The House Committee on Government Reform has published a new edition
of its popular "Citizen's Guide on Using the Freedom of Information
Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 to Request Government Records."

The Guide, first published in 1977, "is one of the most widely read
congressional committee reports in history," the new edition says.

A copy of the updated Guide, House Report 109-226, September 20,
2005, is available here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/citizen.html



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 92
September 26, 2005


** WAS KATRINA A CATASTROPHIC EVENT?
** RESTORING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AFTER KATRINA
** CHALLENGE TO 1953 STATE SECRETS CASE BLOCKED


WAS KATRINA A CATASTROPHIC EVENT?

On August 30, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff
designated Hurricane Katrina "an incident of national
significance," and thereby activated the National Response Plan
(NRP).

But did the Secretary also designate the Hurricane as a
"catastrophic event," a special sub-category of emergency
situations that entails the expedited deployment of emergency
response capabilities?

The answer to this question is mysteriously hard to find.

Catastrophic events permit "an accelerated, proactive national
response" and may include "mobilizing and deploying assets before
they are requested via normal NRP protocols," according to the
Catastrophic Incident Annex to the National Response Plan.

"A catastrophic event is any natural or manmade incident, including
terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass
casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the
population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale,
and/or government functions."

"All catastrophic events are Incidents of National Significance."
However, not all Incidents of National Significance are
"catastrophic events."

So did the Secretary designate Katrina a catastrophic event, or not?

DHS won't say.

"When asked if Chertoff exercised his catastrophic incident
authority in response to Hurricane Katrina, DHS spokesman Russ
Knocke said it was too early to make a determination," wrote Chris
Strohm in Government Executive Daily Briefing on September 8 in
perhaps the only news story to address the issue. See:

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0905/090805c1.htm

The answer to this question would help clarify whether the faulty
government response to Katrina was a failure of planning or of
personnel, or some combination of the two.

Meanwhile, President Bush appeared to suggest that his Department
of Homeland Security was incapable of coping with a catastrophic
natural disaster and that increased military authority was needed.

"Is there a circumstance in which the Department of Defense becomes
the lead agency [for emergency response]?" the President asked at
a September 25 press briefing. "Clearly, in the case of a
terrorist attack, that would be the case, but is there a natural
disaster which -- of a certain size that would then enable the
Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and
leading the response effort. That's going to be a very important
consideration for Congress to think about."

Some related issues are discussed by the Congressional Research
Service in "Hurricane Katrina: DOD Disaster Response," September
19, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33095.pdf

See also "The Use of Federal Troops for Disaster Assistance: Legal
Issues," CRS, September 16, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22266.pdf


RESTORING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AFTER KATRINA

A Department of Homeland Security memo presents guidelines to
assist in restoring critical infrastructure systems that were
damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and to help secure such
systems against attack.

"The loss of major critical infrastructures and associated control
systems in the Gulf Coast Region has created cascading impacts
across multiple critical infrastructure sectors," the memo states.

"During the aftermath of this natural disaster, threat agents with
malicious intent may attempt to exploit new vulnerabilities or
take advantage of existing vulnerabilities as significant focus
and resources are directed to those in need. It is important for
the control systems community to be cognizant of threats that may
attempt to take advantage of personnel and systems likely to be
more vulnerable to both physical and cyber attacks as a result of
Hurricane Katrina."

See "Hurricane Katrina Control System Assistance," DHS United
States Computer Emergency Readiness Team -- Control Systems
Security Center, September 16, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dhs/katrina-csa.pdf


CHALLENGE TO 1953 STATE SECRETS CASE BLOCKED

A federal appeals court last week upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit
alleging that the government fraudulently invoked the state
secrets privilege in a case that went to the Supreme Court fifty
years ago.

The landmark 1953 Supreme Court ruling in Reynolds v. United States
ratified the state secrets privilege as a way for the government
to prevent discovery by a plaintiff in litigation.

A half century after that case was decided, the surviving
plaintiffs and their families obtained the now declassified
records that had been withheld from them under the state secrets
privilege. To their surprise, they saw nothing sensitive in the
records to justify the use of the privilege, and they returned to
court alleging fraud.

But the appeals court wasn't buying it.

"The concept of fraud upon the court challenges the very principle
upon which our judicial system is based: the finality of a
judgment," the ruling stated.

A layman might have supposed that "the very principle upon which
our judicial system is based" is justice, or fairness to the
parties, or an accurate record. But a layman would be wrong.

"The presumption against the reopening of a case that has gone
through the appellate process all the way to the United States
Supreme Court and reached final judgment must be not just a high
hurdle to climb but a steep cliff-face to scale," the ruling
declared, foreshadowing its rejection of the plaintiffs' claims.

A copy of the September 22 ruling is here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/herring0905.pdf

See also "3rd Circuit Finds No 'Fraud on the Courts' in 50-Year-Old
Case" by Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer, September 26:

http://www.law.com/

The application of the state secrets privilege to block a patent
infringement case involving an underwater fiber optic coupler was
neatly reported in "Secrecy Power Sinks Patent Case" by Kevin
Poulsen in Wired News, September 20:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68894,00.html



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 93
September 28, 2005


** ISOO REPORTS ON AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION PLANS
** A BILL TO TELEVISE SUPREME COURT PROCEEDINGS
** COMMAND AND CONTROL OF DETAINEE OPERATIONS


ISOO REPORTS ON AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION PLANS

Most executive branch agencies are on track to meet the deadline
for automatic declassification of their 25 year old classified
documents by December 31, 2006, the Information Security Oversight
Office (ISOO) said in a new report submitted to President Bush
this week.

But "a handful of agencies still remain at risk of not meeting the
deadline," ISOO director J. William Leonard wrote.

Automatic declassification of historically valuable classified
records as they become 25 years old was originally mandated (with
certain specified exceptions) by President Clinton in his 1995
executive order 12958.

The principle of automatic declassification was also affirmed by
President Bush in the 2003 executive order 13292 though he
deferred the effective date until the end of next year to permit
agencies more time to assess their classified collections and plan
for declassification.

Now the December 2006 deadline is looming and an estimated 155
million pages of textual records await agency review for
declassification, authorized exemption, or referral to another
agency.

"Any such records not acted upon will be automatically declassified
subject to the limitations and conditions set forth in the
Order," the ISOO report stated.

Properly understood, declassification is not a compromise with
national security requirements or a concession to critics. It is
an integral part of the national security classification process.

As the ISOO report explained, "The classification system... cannot
be depended upon to protect today's sensitive national security
information unless there is an ongoing process to purge it of
yesterday's secrets that no longer require protection."

Yet declassification activity has declined steadily over the past
several years, while spurious classification appears to be on the
rise.

The implementation of automatic declassification next year will
therefore be a test of the continued viability of the
classification system.

"It is important to recognize that December 31, 2006, represents
not an end unto itself but rather the beginning of integrating
automatic declassification into the fabric of the security
classification framework."

"We have emphasized to each agency head that automatic
declassification is an ongoing program that begins, not ends, on
December 31, 2006, and thus requires their personal commitment as
you called for in the Order," ISOO told the President.

See "An Assessment of Declassification in the Executive Branch,"
Report to the President from the Information Security Oversight
Office, September 21, 2005 (transmitted September 26):

http://www.fas.org/sgp/isoo/2005declass.pdf


A BILL TO TELEVISE SUPREME COURT PROCEEDINGS

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this week would
permit television coverage of open sessions of the U.S. Supreme
Court.

"The purpose of this legislation is to open the Supreme Court doors
so that more Americans can see the process by which the Court
reaches critical decisions of law that affect this country and
everyday Americans," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Justice Felix Frankfurter perhaps anticipated the day when Supreme
Court arguments would be televised when he said that he longed for
a day when the news media would cover the Supreme Court as
thoroughly as it did the World Series," Sen. Specter said in his
introductory statement.

"Allowing the public greater access to [Supreme Court] proceedings
will allow Americans to evaluate for themselves the quality of
justice in this country, and deepen their understanding of the
work that goes on in the Court," added Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT),
who cosponsored the bill along with Senators Cornyn, Allen,
Grassley, Schumer and Feingold.

See the introduction of S.1768, a bill to permit televising of
Supreme Court proceedings, September 26:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2005/s1768.html

"Justices on the Supreme Court oppose the televising of their
proceedings," according to a recent Congressional Research Service
report, "in part because the cameras might alter decision making
and intrude on the privacy of the justices, making them public
celebrities."


COMMAND AND CONTROL OF DETAINEE OPERATIONS

The U.S. Army has issued a new interim field manual to clarify
command and control responsibilities in the handling of detainees,
acknowledging that existing military doctrine on the subject is
deficient.

"As a result of recent events and investigations into detainee
operations in Iraq, it was determined there was a need to clarify
command and control," the Interim Field Manual states, or
understates.

The new manual defines the command structure and discusses "the
flow of detainees... at each echelon of command."

"It is important to note that there is a single officer at every
echelon overall responsible for detainee operations."

See "Command and Control of Detainee Operations," Field Manual
Interim (FMI) 3-63.6, September 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fmi3-63-6.pdf

In an extraordinary letter to Senator John McCain published by the
Washington Post today, Capt. Ian Fishback wrote that the military
chain of command failed to provide clear guidance on treatment of
detainees.

"I have been unable to get clear, consistent answers from my
leadership about what constitutes lawful and humane treatment of
detainees," Capt. Fishback wrote.

"I am certain that this confusion contributed to a wide range of
abuses including death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder,
exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion,
hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading
treatment. I and troops under my command witnessed some of these
abuses in both Afghanistan and Iraq."




_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 94
October 3, 2005


CONGRESS PUSHES BACK ON "SENSITIVE SECURITY INFORMATION"

In a rare defense of public access to government information, Congress
has instructed the Department of Homeland Security to clarify and
tighten its procedures for generating so-called "sensitive security
information" (SSI), to reduce subjective factors in marking documents
as SSI, and to provide Congress with the titles of all documents that
are so designated.

SSI refers generally to transportation security information that is
exempt by law from public disclosure. It includes airport security
plans, vulnerability assessments, and related airline security data,
but also undefined "other" information that may be considered too
sensitive for public release.

"Because of insufficient management controls, information that should
be in the public domain may be unnecessarily withheld from public
scrutiny," members of Congress wrote in the new conference report on
the 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations Act.

The congressional conferees directed DHS to "promulgate guidance that
includes common but extensive examples of SSI" so as to "eliminate
judgment ... in the application of the SSI marking."

See the report language here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2005/dhs-ssi.html

SSI has been a source of controversy because it has been invoked in
seemingly arbitrary ways to deflect public requests for information.

For examples of some SSI disputes and for further background, see my
article "The Secrets of Flight" in Slate, November 18, 2004:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2109922/

SSI is only one of several dozen types of controls on unclassified
information, and not the most common. Because they are mostly
informal and discretionary, such controls are also more susceptible to
abuse than the comparatively rigorous classification system.

Lately, the Centers for Disease Control has been criticized for
withholding data needed for flu vaccine production and for adopting
aggressive controls on "sensitive but unclassified" information.

See "CDC locks up flu data" by Rebecca Carr, Cox News, in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, October 3:

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stori...5/03natcdc.html


THE FRANKLIN/AIPAC CASE AND THE PRESS

The recent indictment of two former employees of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for mishandling classified
information is an abrupt departure from established practice because
it treats members of the public as if they were cleared government
employees who are obliged to protect classified secrets.

For the same reason, it poses an extraordinary challenge to the ability
of the press to report on national security affairs.

"Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman repeatedly sought and received
sensitive information, both classified and unclassified, and then
passed it on to others in order to advance their policy agenda and
professional standing," said U.S. attorney Paul McNulty at a press
conference announcing their indictment (along with former defense
official Larry Franklin, who will reportedly plead guilty).

"But," writes Eli Lake in The New Republic, "if it's illegal for Rosen
and Weissman to seek and receive 'classified information,' then many
investigative journalists are also criminals."

"While most administrations have tried to crack down on leaks, they
have almost always shied away from going after those who receive
them--until now."

"At a time when a growing amount of information is being classified,
the prosecution of Rosen and Weissman threatens to have a chilling
effect--not on the ability of foreign agents to influence U.S. policy,
but on the ability of the American public to understand it," writes
Lake.

See "Low Clearance" by Eli J. Lake, The New Republic, October 10
(subscription required):

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20051010&s=lake101005

See also "Israeli lobby spy case suggests new push to keep leaks from
reporters" by John Byrne, Raw Story, September 30:

http://rawstory.com/admin/dbscripts/prints....php?story=1250


SSCI MARKUP OF 2006 INTEL AUTHORIZATION ACT

The authority of the Director of National Intelligence over U.S.
intelligence policy would be further consolidated under the 2006
intelligence authorization act as marked up by the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence.

Among other notable provisions, the new bill would assign authority to
the DNI to manage access to human intelligence information (sec. 403),
previously a function of the Director of Central Intelligence.

The bill would authorize defense intelligence officers to conduct
intelligence "assessment contacts" within the United States without
disclosing their own identity (sec. 431).

The bill would exempt "operational files" of the Defense Intelligence
Agency from the Freedom of Information Act (sec. 434). Such an
exemption was rejected by a less compliant Congress when it was first
requested by DIA in 2000.

The 2006 intelligence authorization act, S. 1803, as marked up by the
Senate Intelligence Committee, is available here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_cr/s1803.html


COURT ORDERS RELEASE OF ABU GHRAIB IMAGES

In a decision full of ruminative commentary on the pitfalls of
unchecked secrecy, a federal judge last week ruled that photographic
images of abuses committed by American military personnel at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq are not exempt from the Freedom of Information
Act.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein decided in favor of the ACLU, which had
sought the images, and against the Department of Defense, which
opposed their release.

"Suppression of information is the surest way to cause its significance
to grow and persist," the judge opined. "Clarity and openness are the
best antidotes, either to dispel criticism if not merited or, if
merited, to correct such errors as may be found."

"The fight to extend freedom has never been easy, and we are once again
challenged, in Iraq and Afghanistan, by terrorists who engage in
violence to intimidate our will and to force us to retreat. Our
struggle to prevail must be without sacrificing the transparency and
accountability of government and military officials. These are the
values FOIA was intended to advance, and they are at the very heart of
the values for which we fight in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The 50 page ruling includes discussions of the Glomar response (i.e.
neither confirming nor denying the existence of requested
information), the consequences of unwarranted secrecy, and the state
of FOIA law. A copy of the decision, which is likely to be appealed,
is posted here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/aclu092905.pdf


SELECTED CRS REPORTS

Some recent reports of the Congressional Research Service obtained by
Secrecy News include the following:

"The Middle East Peace Talks," updated September 29, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/IB91137.pdf

"Air Force Aerial Refueling," updated September 19, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RS20941.pdf

"Material Support of Terrorists and Foreign Terrorist Organizations:
Expiring Amendments in Brief," August 16, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RS22222.pdf

"Material Support of Terrorists and Foreign Terrorist Organizations:
Sunset Amendments," August 11, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL33035.pdf

"Free Mail for Troops Overseas," July 22, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22203.pdf

"Detainees at Guantanamo Bay," updated July 20, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22173.pdf



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 95
October 6, 2005


** SENATE VOTES TO PROHIBIT CRUEL TREATMENT OF DETAINEES
** SSCI REPORT ON 2006 INTEL AUTHORIZATION ACT
** OPEN SOURCES GET CLOSED AT CIA
** SELECTED CRS REPORTS
** SABO ON SSI
** SECURITY CONTROLS ON FOREIGN SCIENTISTS
** HANS BETHE IN WAR AND PEACE


SENATE VOTES TO PROHIBIT CRUEL TREATMENT OF DETAINEES

Defying a White House veto threat, a large majority of the United
States Senate voted in favor of an amendment offered by Sen. John
McCain that would establish uniform standards for the interrogation
of detainees held by the Department of Defense and prohibit "cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment" of prisoners in U.S. custody.

In spite of White House opposition, the amendment won the support of
90 Senators. It was also endorsed in letters from 29 former
high-ranking military leaders and former Secretary of State Colin
Powell that were entered into the congressional record.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), one of the nine Senators who opposed
the measure, explained his position: "I think there is a place in
our operations against individuals involved in the war on terrorism
where we deal with them as they deal with us."

See the October 5 Senate floor debate here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_cr/mccain100505.html


SSCI REPORT ON 2006 INTEL AUTHORIZATION ACT

The newly released Senate Intelligence Committee report on the 2006
intelligence authorization act presents several initiatives that
would alter the landscape of both foreign and domestic intelligence
collection. See Senate Report 109-142:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_rpt/srpt109-142.html

The Committee noted in passing that "Improper classification of
information -- the disclosure of which would not harm national
security -- prevents the public from considering national issues in
light of all publicly available facts." It did not provide any
examples of such information. The Committee further "strongly
recommend[ed]" that the Director of National Intelligence "examine
the guidelines and rules for classification, and, as necessary,
propose standards for the modernization and simplification of the
classification system."

Dissenting views appended to the report exposed some of the tensions
that have divided the Committee.

Committee Democrats harshly criticized the failure to complete an
investigation of pre-war intelligence on Iraq. "The Committee's
delinquency in addressing an issue that it unanimously voted to
address over a year and a half ago has diminished the Committee's
credibility as an effective overseer of the Intelligence
Community," they wrote.

They also noted the Committee's failure to examine the handling of
detainees. "Despite repeated attempts to initiate a detailed
review of fundamental legal and operational questions surrounding
the detention, interrogation and rendition of individuals held in
U.S. custody, the Committee majority has refused to conduct such an
investigation."


OPEN SOURCES GET CLOSED AT CIA

The CIA this month will establish a new unit devoted to analysis of
"open source" intelligence, referring to unclassified information
that is openly and legally collected, Time magazine reported on
August 15.

But at the CIA, even open source material is often treated as
secret.

Last week, the CIA denied a request for a copy of a compilation of
published statements made by Osama bin Laden between 1994 and 2004
on grounds that release of the material would compromise
"intelligence sources and methods" (FOIA exemption b(3)) and that
the material was obtained on a privileged basis (exemption b(4)).
See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/09/cia092705.pdf

But as it happens, the same material will be published next month
under the title "Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin
Laden" edited by Bruce Lawrence and published by Verso
(www.versobooks.com).

"Over the last ten years, bin Laden has issued a series of carefully
tailored public statements, from interviews with Western and Arabic
journalists to faxes and video recordings. These texts supply
evidence crucial to an understanding of the bizarre mix of Quranic
scholarship, CIA training, punctual interventions in Gulf politics
and messianic anti-imperialism that has formed the programmatic
core of Al Qaeda," according to the publisher's announcement.

"In bringing together the various statements issued under bin
Laden's name since 1994, this volume forms part of a growing
discourse that seeks to demythologize the terrorist network. Newly
translated from the Arabic, annotated with a critical introduction
by Islamic scholar Bruce Lawrence, this collection places the
statements in their religious, historical and political context."

Meanwhile, "In a move mirroring the recruitment process at the
Central Intelligence Agency," an Al Qaeda website is openly
soliciting applicants who can serve as researchers and linguists,
according to a report in the London-based Al Sharq al Awsat. See
"Al Qaeda Website Openly Hiring New Recruits" by Mohammed Al
Shafey, October 3:

http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news....ction=1&id=1987

Open Source Solutions (www.oss.net), a proponent of open source
intelligence, reported that Dr. James Billington, the Librarian of
Congress, had rejected an invitation from the Director of National
Intelligence to serve as the first Director of the new Open Source
Agency.


SELECTED CRS REPORTS

Reports of the Congressional Research Service recently obtained by
Secrecy News include the following:

"The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan and Enhanced Base Security Since
9/11," October 3, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf

"Strategic Mobility Innovation: Options and Oversight Issues," April
29, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL32887.pdf


SABO ON SSI

The successful enactment of new limitations on the use of the
"sensitive security information" control marking stems from an
initiative by Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-MN), who raised the issue in
the House last spring.

See this May 10 news release on the Sabo amendment which led to the
conference agreement to tighten controls on SSI in the 2006
Homeland Security Appropriations bill (SN, 10/03/05):

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/05/sabo051005.html


SECURITY CONTROLS ON FOREIGN SCIENTISTS

For many foreign scientists and engineers, new post-9/11 security
controls have created "the perception -- and too often the reality
-- that the United States was becoming an unwelcoming and
increasingly hostile destination," according to a new White Paper
from the Commission on Scientific Communication and National
Security.

"The White Paper explains the importance to the United States
scientific and technical base -- and to U.S. national security and
economic vitality -- of ensuring that foreign students, scholars,
researchers, and technical professionals are able to visit the
United States. It outlines problems that have been experienced with
visa approval and border security processes as a result of
post-9/11 reforms and makes a number of recommendations for
improvement." See:

http://www.csis.org/hs/051005_whitepaper.pdf


HANS BETHE IN WAR AND PEACE

The October issue of Physics Today is devoted to the achievements of
the late physicist Hans Bethe.

In one article, Richard Garwin and Kurt Gottfried recall Bethe as a
scientist-activist.

"Hans Bethe spent a lifetime enhancing the security of his adopted
homeland--initially designing its nuclear bombs, but ultimately
warning presidents and the public to guard against the hazards of
such bombs."

See "Hans in War and Peace" by Richard L. Garwin and Kurt Gottfried,
Physics Today, October 2005:

http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-58/iss-10/p52.html



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 96
October 11, 2005


** ISOO SYMPOSIUM ON CLASSIFICATION POLICY
** Q AND A WITH NEGROPONTE
** AMICUS BRIEF URGES SCRUTINY OF SECRECY CLAIMS
** SELECTED CRS REPORTS
** THE ART OF SECRECY


ISOO SYMPOSIUM ON CLASSIFICATION POLICY

The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) will hold a
public symposium at the National Archives on October 18 to mark
the tenth anniversary of an executive order that initiated
significant changes in the national security classification
system.

Executive Order 12958, which took effect in October 1995,
triggered an avalanche of declassification of historically
valuable records that surpassed one billion pages last year. It
also created bureaucratic innovations like the Interagency
Security Classification Appeals Panel that has served as an
alternate venue for members of the public to challenge agency
classification decisions.

But the executive order did little or nothing to combat the
systemic overclassification that the 9/11 Commission and others
identified as a flaw in the nation's security.

In fact, the order, amended by President Bush in 2003, has
permitted a massive expansion of classification activity in
recent years. This, in turn, has contributed to the erosion of
government accountability and the impoverishment of public
deliberation on matters of war and peace, humane treatment of
enemy prisoners, and government surveillance, among other
topics.

The ISOO symposium brings together representatives of government
agencies, journalists, academics and public interest groups to
assess the state of classification policy today. For more
information, see:

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releas...06/nr06-01.html


Q AND A WITH NEGROPONTE

The record of the confirmation hearing of John D. Negroponte to
be Director of National Intelligence, which has just been
published, provides some new scraps of information about his
understanding of the Director's role and his views on various
intelligence policy issues.

Since taking office, DNI Negroponte has kept a low profile as he
quietly consolidated power over the massive U.S. intelligence
bureaucracy. The record of his April 12, 2005 hearing before
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence provides a large
fraction of his oral and written public statements on
intelligence, including answers to pre-hearing questions and
post-hearing questions for the record.

What happens if the DNI wishes to terminate a national
intelligence program that the Secretary of Defense wants to
preserve? (In the case of a DoD program, the President
decides.) Where does the DNI stand on disclosure of the
aggregate intelligence budget, as recommended by the 9/11
Commission and endorsed last year by the Senate? (He would be
willing to study it, but "The President made clear his
opposition to declassification.")

These and many other such matters are discussed in "Nomination of
Ambassador John D. Negroponte to be Director of National
Intelligence," Senate Intelligence Committee, S. Hrg. 109-79,
April 12, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_hr/negroponte.html


AMICUS BRIEF URGES SCRUTINY OF SECRECY CLAIMS

The Supreme Court should critically examine government claims
that national security secrecy requires the dismissal of the
lawsuit brought by FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, several
public interest groups argued in an amicus brief filed with the
Court on October 10.

Citing the growing consensus within the government that too much
information is classified, the brief argues that simple judicial
deference to classification claims is inappropriate.

"We are asking courts to take a harder look," said Meredith
Fuchs, General Counsel at the National Security Archive and
principal author of the amicus brief.

See "Archive and Openness Advocates Urge Supreme Court: Tell
Lower Courts to Scrutinize Government Secrecy Claims":

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20051010/index.htm


SELECTED CRS REPORTS

Some new or newly acquired reports of the Congressional Research
Service obtained by Secrecy News include the following:

"Renditions: Constraints Imposed by Laws on Torture," updated
September 22, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32890.pdf

"U.S. Military Operations in the Global War on Terrorism:
Afghanistan, Africa, the Philippines, and Colombia," August 26,
2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32758.pdf

"Presidential and Vice Presidential Succession: Overview and
Current Legislation," updated September 27, 2004:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31761.pdf

"High-Threat Chemical Agents: Characteristics, Effects, and
Policy Implications," updated September 9, 2003:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL31861.pdf


THE ART OF SECRECY

Among the more peculiar artifacts of the culture of secrecy are
the wall posters produced and distributed by government agencies
in order to instill security awareness and promote compliance
with security requirements.

Many of these wall posters are simple-minded to an extreme, based
on weak puns or failed attempts at humor and combined with
mediocre production values. Occasionally, they achieve such a
intense concentration of stupidity that the viewer is helplessly
transported to another plane of existence.

A representative sample of security posters was collected and
introduced by Dan Dupont of InsideDefense.com who was
guest-blogging on DefenseTech.org here:

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001862.html



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 99
October 21, 2005


** FAILURE TO DECLASSIFY INTEL BUDGET TERMED "UNSATISFACTORY"
** LEE HAMILTON ON SECRECY
** F-16 FIGHTER AIRCRAFT FOR PAKISTAN
** DOD ON CONTRACTORS AND ARMED FORCES
** ZAWAHIRI TO ZARQAWI: THE ASPENS ARE TURNING


FAILURE TO DECLASSIFY INTEL BUDGET TERMED "UNSATISFACTORY"

In a progress report on the status of the recommendations made by
the 9/11 Commission, the former Commissioners rated Congress
"unsatisfactory" for failing to declassify the intelligence budget
total.

The final report of the bipartisan Commission last year had singled
out budget declassification as best place to begin combating the
excessive secrecy that has degraded the performance of U.S.
intelligence agencies (at page 416).

But not even the national catastrophe of September 11 proved
sufficient to dislodge the official prejudice in favor of
unfettered secrecy.

Ironically, the intelligence community has probably suffered more
than anyone from budget secrecy, as significant cuts to classified
intelligence spending were imposed in the 1990s without public
awareness or even the possibility of debate.

("In the 1990s, we suffered deep cuts in intelligence funding,"
DCIA Goss recalled on June 29, 2005.)

The proponents of budget secrecy thus bear a heavy burden of
responsibility for the steadily eroding quality of U.S.
intelligence.

Last year, the full Senate voted in favor of intelligence budget
disclosure, but the measure was opposed by the Bush White House
and rejected by most House Republicans. It was abandoned in a
House-Senate conference.

Now, the 9/11 Commission members urge in their new report,
"Congress should pass a separate appropriations act for
intelligence, making public the overall amounts being appropriated
from national intelligence and being assigned to the various
components of the intelligence community."

See "Report on the Status of 9/11 Commission Recommendations" from
the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, October 20:

http://www.9-11pdp.org/press/2005-10-20_report.pdf

A new critique of the Silberman-Robb Commission on WMD Intelligence
written by David Isenberg and published by the British American
Security Information Council is available here:

http://www.basicint.org/pubs/Research/05WMD.pdf


LEE HAMILTON ON SECRECY

"At a time when the U.S. intelligence community is under intense
scrutiny in the aftermath of 9/11 and the failure to find weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq, we only increase public skepticism
about our government by denying the public information," said Lee
H. Hamilton, the distinguished former Congressman and vice chair
of the 9/11 Commission.

Mr. Hamilton was the keynote speaker this week at a remarkable
symposium sponsored by the Information Security Oversight Office
(ISOO) to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Executive Order
12958 on national security classification.

Under other circumstances, many of Mr. Hamilton's remarks would be
considered truisms, e.g. "Information must be made available -- to
the maximum extent possible -- to the American people." But
today, such sentiments practically amount to a radical critique of
government policy.

See the text of his presentation here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/hamilton.pdf

The superb ISOO symposium offered genuinely diverse and strongly
argued perspectives, unresolved disagreements, and even a few
laughs.

For a partial account of one of the symposium panels, see
"Official: Secrecy decisions 'subjective'," by Shaun Waterman,
UPI, October 18:

http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20...18-070909-6371r


F-16 FIGHTER AIRCRAFT FOR PAKISTAN

The United States may offer to sell Pakistan "up to 55 new and 25
used F-16" fighter aircraft, a newly updated Congressional
Research Service study says, citing unspecified "reports."

See "Pakistan-U.S. Relations, Congressional Research Service,
updated October 13, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IB94041.pdf


DOD ON CONTRACTORS AND ARMED FORCES

A new Department of Defense Instruction defines "DoD policy and
procedures concerning DoD contractor personnel authorized to
accompany the U.S. Armed Forces."

Contractors deployed alongside U.S. military forces in Iraq and
elsewhere have assumed increasing responsibilities for military
tasks up to and including prisoner interrogation, but in doing so
they have also created legal, administrative and procedural
problems.

The new DoD Instruction attempts to bring some order to what has
occasionally been a chaotic situation and addresses, for example,
the conditions under which contractors may be armed.

The issuance of the Instruction earlier this month was first
reported by InsideDefense.com.

See DoD Instruction 3020.41, "Contractor Personnel Authorized to
Accompany the U.S. Armed Forces," October 3, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/i3020_41.pdf


ZAWAHIRI TO ZARQAWI: THE ASPENS ARE TURNING

The letter purportedly written from Al Qaeda's Ayman al Zawahiri to
Abu Musab al Zarqawi and released October 11 by the Director of
National Intelligence has met with continuing skepticism and has
now entered the domain of spoofery.

The anomalous fact that the supposed letter to Zarqawi advises the
recipient, if in Fallujah, to "send greetings to Abu Musab Al
Zarqawi," noted last week in Secrecy News, was elaborated in a
Reuters story by David Morgan.

See "US Cannot Explain Suspicious Zawahri Letter Passage," October
14:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N1460892.htm

The story was picked up appreciatively by Harry Shearer in his
satirical broadcast "Le Show" on October 16. An audio clip can be
found here (thanks to A):

http://tinyurl.com/ajtep

Taking it to the next level, T.A. Frank wrote his own letter from
Zawahiri to Zarqawi in the The New Republic:

"Please remember that here in Waziristan, out East, where you
train, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters--
partly because their roots connect them, partly because a recent
volley of daisy-cutters has reduced them to charred stumps."

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20051031&s=frank103105

U.S. intelligence analysts are not completely oblivious to the
peculiarities of the proffered Zawahiri letter.

A national security reporter who was briefed by senior intelligence
officials told Secrecy News:

"One hypothesis from the analysts is that the last line--about
giving regards to Zarqawi if in Fallujah--was a note to one of the
couriers who would have carried or transmitted the letter-- and
not, therefore, part of the letter addressed to Zarqawi. The
senior official said that he has 'rarely been more confident' that
the letter was indeed authored by Zawahiri, based on intelligence
from 'multiple' sources."


_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 101
October 31, 2005


** WHITE HOUSE NAMES NEW PFIAB MEMBERS
** FITZGERALD ON LEAKS AND THE ESPIONAGE ACT
** SECRET DHS TRANSPORTATION STRATEGY DRAWS FIRE
** SASC REPORT ON THE 2006 INTEL AUTHORIZATION ACT
** MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES


WHITE HOUSE NAMES NEW PFIAB MEMBERS

President Bush has announced the names of a dozen individuals
whom he will appoint to the President's Foreign Intelligence
Advisory Board (PFIAB), the White House intelligence oversight
body.

Stephen Friedman, an investment banker and a previous PFIAB
member, will serve as the next PFIAB chairman. Other appointees
include former congressman Lee Hamilton and former National
Reconnaissance Office director Martin Faga. See the full list
in this October 27 White House announcement:

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/10/wh102705.html

PFIAB "provides advice to the President concerning the quality
and adequacy of intelligence collection, of analysis and
estimates, of counterintelligence, and of other intelligence
activities. The PFIAB, through its Intelligence Oversight
Board, also advises the President on the legality of foreign
intelligence activities," according to a description on the
White House web site.

As an intelligence oversight mechanism, PFIAB is inherently
flimsy. It provides no public accountability to speak of.

Yet given the diminished state of congressional intelligence
oversight today, PFIAB has arguably become more important than
ever.

Recently, for example, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC) was able to uncover a series of investigative violations
committed by the FBI because of a provision requiring agencies
to report such violations to the PFIAB's Intelligence Oversight
Board. There is no requirement that the violations be reported
to Congress.

"It's because of section 2.4 [of executive order 12863, requiring
reports to the PFIAB IOB] that we got the recent documents of
alleged abuse by the FBI under the Patriot Act," said Marc
Rotenberg of EPIC. See the documents here (3.1 MB PDF file):

http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usap...ot/foia/iob.pdf


FITZGERALD ON LEAKS AND THE ESPIONAGE ACT

The section of the Espionage Act that prohibits the unauthorized
disclosure of national defense information is "a difficult
statute to interpret," said Special Prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald. "It's... a statute you ought to carefully apply."

Mr. Fitzgerald, who announced the indictment of Vice Presidential
chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and other
charges last week, acknowledged widespread concerns about using
the Espionage Act to punish leaks to the media of classified
information, such as the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

"I think there are people out there who would argue that you
would never use that [i.e. the Espionage Act] to prosecute the
transmission of classified information because they think that
would convert that statute into what is in England, the Official
Secrets Act."

"I don't buy that theory, but I do know you should be very
careful in applying that law because there are a lot of
interests that could be implicated in making sure that you pick
the right case to charge that statute," Mr. Fitzgerald said at
his October 28 press briefing on the Libby indictment.

Although the Espionage Act has not been invoked in Fitzgerald's
ongoing investigation, using it to punish leaks remains a live
issue in the prosecution of two former officials of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee for allegedly mishandling
classified information. (See Secrecy News, 10/19/05).

The potential use of the Espionage Act to punish leakers was
addressed lately by Morton Halperin, myself and Larry Johnson in
"Complexity of Prosecuting Leakers Stirs Concern" by Larry
Abramson, NPR Morning Edition, October 28:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4979174


SECRET DHS TRANSPORTATION STRATEGY DRAWS FIRE

In an increasingly familiar complaint, the Department of Homeland
Security was criticized for classifying its National Strategy
for Transportation Security, a move which rendered it
inaccessible to state and local governments, emergency
responders and the public.

"What use is it if the people who have to adapt to it don't know
anything about its existence or what it says?" asked former Sen.
Slade Gorton (R-WA) in testimony before a subcommittee of the
Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

"Are there elements in an overall transportation plan that we
shouldn't broadcast to the world?" Sen. Gorton continued. "I'm
sure there are."

"But the existence of the plan and what people who are in the
private sector need to know about the plan in order to carry out
its recommendations-- of course they shouldn't be classified."

"The difficulty here in the United States... is the ease with
which information is classified; the temptation once it's
classified not to share it, often even with other agencies and
the like; and the extreme difficulty of getting declassified.
This is just a particular example," Sen. Gorton said.

The controversy was reported in "U.S. in dark on security plan"
by Lisa Friedman, Los Angeles Daily News, October 27:

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3154426


SASC REPORT ON THE 2006 INTEL AUTHORIZATION ACT

The pending intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 2006
was reviewed and modified by the Senate Armed Service Committee
in a new report on the bill.

Most of the Committee's changes are classified, but the
unclassified report describes several actions that generally
reflect Defense Department interests.

The amended bill would specify that the authority of the Director
of National Intelligence over human intelligence does not extend
to tactical intelligence; would limit the authority of the
inspector general of the intelligence community with respect to
matters within the jurisdiction of the Pentagon inspector
general; and would advance a controversial freedom of
information exemption for operational files of the Defense
Intelligence Agency. It would also shorten the duration of a
pilot program permitting intelligence agency access to official
Privacy Act records from four years to two years.

See the Senate Armed Services Committee report on the 2006
intelligence authorization act, Sen. Rept. 109-173, October 27,
2005, here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_rpt/srpt109-173.html


MISCELLANEOUS RESOURCES

A variety of noteworthy publications, some widely reported and
some not, have been issued in recent days, including these:

The National Intelligence Strategy of the United States, which
incongruously proposes "the growth of democracy" as an
intelligence objective, was issued by the Director of National
Intelligence on October 25:

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/10/dni102505.html

The indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury,
obstruction of justice and other charges was announced in an
October 28 news release:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/10/libby.pdf

A copy of the indictment itself is here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/libby_indict.pdf

U.S. policy towards Africa during the Nixon Administration is the
subject of a new volume of declassified government records
published in the State Department's official Foreign Relations
of the United States series. The full text, published only
online, is here:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/e5/

Foreign language capability and regional expertise shall "be
considered critical competencies essential to the DoD mission,"
a new Department of Defense Directive states. See DoD Directive
5160.41E, "Defense Language Program," October 21, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/d5160_41.pdf

Government access to criminal history records to determine an
individual's suitability for participation in highly classified
special access programs is addressed in DoD Instruction 1304.23,
"Acquisition and Use of Criminal History Record Information for
Military Recruiting Purposes," October 7, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/i1304_23.pdf

The pilots and support personnel who engaged in paramilitary
operations as part of the CIA "proprietary" known as "Civil Air
Transport" and "Air America" from 1946 through 1976 are not
considered to have been "active duty" military personnel for
purposes of benefits provided by the Department of Veterans
Affairs, the Secretary of the Air Force has determined. See
this October 18 Federal Register notice:

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/10/fr101805.html



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 102
November 2, 2005


** SECRECY NEWS NEEDS YOUR HELP
** SENATE MOVES INTO RARE CLOSED SESSION
** A LEXICON OF SECRECY
** AIR FORCE GLOSSARY
** A MILITARY GUIDE TO TERRORISM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY


SECRECY NEWS NEEDS YOUR HELP

The Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy
needs your support.

The FAS government secrecy web site was cited repeatedly yesterday on
Cable News Network after the Senate went into secret session.

You can "learn more about the secret sessions we've been talking
about," reporter Jacki Schechner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer two or
three times throughout the afternoon, "through this website --
FAS.org. This is the Federation of American Scientists. On the left
hand side of the page, there's a link for government
secrecy....It'll tell you everything you need to know about secret
sessions."

It's no secret. On a normal weekday (without prompting from CNN),
more than 70,000 distinct visitors come to the FAS web site to view
hundreds of thousands of archived documents. Over 11,000
individuals now subscribe to Secrecy News directly, and innumerable
others receive it through secondary distribution.

But the future of this enterprise is not assured.

Several of the philanthropic foundations that have provided the
principal support for the FAS Project on Government Secrecy for the
past 15 years have reduced or withdrawn their funding of our work,
or redirected their support for open government advocacy to other
organizations.

If you derive value from our publications and our web site, and if
you wish to do so in the future, please help to sustain our work.

Tax-deductible donations may be made online here:

http://www.fas.org/static/contrib_sec.jsp

Checks (payable to Federation of American Scientists, earmarked for
Secrecy News) may also be mailed to FAS Secrecy News, 1717 K Street
NW, Suite 209, Washington, DC 20036.


SENATE MOVES INTO RARE CLOSED SESSION

In an extraordinary procedural maneuver that exposed partisan
tensions over intelligence oversight, Senate Democrats forced the
Senate into a rare closed session for more than two hours until they
won agreement from the majority to get a progress report on the
status of the Senate Intelligence Committee's long-deferred review
of pre-war intelligence on Iraq.

The Senate floor debate preceding and following the closed session
featured unusually blunt statements on the quality of intelligence
oversight of a sort not usually voiced in official proceedings.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Vice Chair of the Intelligence Committee, said
the Bush White House had orchestrated a deliberate evasion of
oversight responsibilities by the Republican majority.

"It is apparent to me that the White House has sent down the edict to
the majority... that the Congress is not to carry out its oversight
responsibilities in detention, interrogation, and rendition matters,
... as it would bring uncomfortable attention to the legal decisions
and opinions coming from the White House and the Justice Department
in the operation of various programs," Sen. Rockefeller said.

"We have agreed to do what we already agreed to do," replied Sen. Pat
Roberts, the Intelligence Committee Chair, "that is, to complete as
best we can phase II of the Intelligence Committee's review of
prewar intelligence in reference to Iraq."

A task force of six Senators will report by November 14 on the
anticipated completion date of the Intelligence Committee review.

See the full text of the November 1 Senate floor debate before and
after the historic closed session here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_cr/s110105.html

"Since 1929, the Senate has held 53 secret sessions, generally for
reasons of national security," according to a 2004 report on the
subject by the Congressional Research Service, whose availability on
the FAS web site was noted repeatedly on CNN during the course of
the secret Senate session.

See "Secret Sessions of Congress: A Brief Historical Overview,"
updated October 21, 2004:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RS20145.pdf


A LEXICON OF SECRECY

The very words by which official secrecy policy is formulated and
carried out are often obscure to the outsider. They embody a latent
knowledge of statute and regulation, policy and practice that cannot
be inferred from the words themselves.

An excellent new publication helps "the outsider," i.e. the ordinary
citizen of the United States, to comprehend the vocabulary of
government information policy, and to discover its genealogical
roots in official documents.

From "access" and "accountability" to "Yankee White" and "Xn," author
Susan Maret, an adjunct professor of library science at the
University of Denver, provides a concise definition of terms as well
as links to official sources.

Dr. Maret's Lexicon is published for the first time on the FAS web
site.

See "On Their Own Terms: A Lexicon with an Emphasis on
Information-Related Terms Produced by the U.S. Federal Government"
by Susan Maret, Ph.D., November 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/maret.pdf


AIR FORCE GLOSSARY

Another notable contribution to the understanding of official
government language is a newly updated glossary of Air Force
terminology.

"Airmen should be able to clearly articulate their thoughts, ideas,
and commands to each other by using a common operational language,"
according to the glossary, which is published by the U.S. Air Force.

Roger that.

See "Air Force Glossary," Air Force Doctrine Document 1-2, 6
September 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afdd1-2.pdf


A MILITARY GUIDE TO TERRORISM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

A comprehensive military textbook on terrorism has just been reissued
by the U.S. Army.

Based on open sources, the 280 page volume (with four large
supplements), provides a synthetic account of the nature and history
of terrorism, its operational characteristics, the threat it poses
to U.S. military forces, and the future of terrorism.

The publication was prepared "under the direction of the U.S. Army
Training and Doctrine Command, Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for
Intelligence-Threats."

A copy was obtained by Secrecy News.

See "A Military Guide to Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century,"
version 3.0, 15 August 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/terrorism/index.html



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

Court Won't Hear Anonymous Sources Case

Updated 9:10 AM ET November 4, 2005
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pr...8dlmo2o1&src=ap

WASHINGTON (AP) - A divided federal appeals court for a second time has rejected four journalists' appeal of a judge's order directing them to testify about their confidential sources as part of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee's lawsuit against the government.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit refused, by a 4-4 vote, to grant a rehearing of the journalists' case before the full court. A majority of the court's 10 judges was required to grant a rehearing; two judges recused themselves.

One who favored hearing the case, Judge David S. Tatel, wrote in his dissent that Lee's claim for compensation pales in importance to people's right to know about what was believed to be nuclear espionage.

"It's hard to imagine how his (Lee's) interest could outweigh the public's interest in protecting journalists' ability to report without reservation on sensitive issues of national security," Tatel wrote.

There were no written rulings from the judges who voted against hearing the case.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson held the reporters in contempt of court for refusing to identify their sources for stories about Lee, who in 1999 was suspected of spying while he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

A three-judge appellate panel upheld Jackson's ruling in June.

Lee is seeking the identity of the sources for his lawsuit against the departments of Energy and Justice. He alleges the agencies gave reporters private information about him and sug