A History of History: The Story of the FRUS Series
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series is the official documentary record of U.S. foreign policy published by the U.S. Department of State. The origins, development and continuing...
View ArticleCIA Cuts Off Public Access to Its Translated News Reports
Beginning in 1974, the U.S. intelligence community provided the public with a broad selection of foreign news reports, updated daily. These were collected and translated by the Central Intelligence...
View ArticleWhite House Releases a Presidential Policy Directive
The White House yesterday issued Presidential Policy Directive 27 on United States Conventional Arms Transfer Policy. The text of the directive was posted on the White House web site. “The new policy...
View ArticleJudge Wants to Examine Censored Book
For more than three years, author Anthony Shaffer has been challenging the government’s contention that hundreds of passages in his Afghanistan memoir “Operation Dark Heart” are classified and should...
View ArticlePrivacy Board Urges New Criteria for Secrecy
The public controversy that erupted over NSA bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records was a clear sign, if one were needed, that the boundaries of government secrecy had been drawn incorrectly,...
View ArticleDNI Clapper: Transparency is the Way Forward
The primary lesson that emerges from the unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence information by Edward Snowden is that U.S. intelligence agencies must be more transparent in their...
View ArticleInspector General Blasts NRO Secrecy Practices
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the agency that builds and operates U.S. intelligence satellites, frequently makes mistakes when it classifies national security information, according to an...
View ArticleDisclosure of FISA Court Opinions: Legal Issues (CRS)
Could Congress legally compel the executive branch to disclose classified opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court? Maybe not, a new analysis from the Congressional Research Service...
View ArticleSome Legislators Seek More Intelligence Budget Disclosure
Now that annual disclosure of the intelligence budget total has become routine, some legislators are seeking more transparency on intelligence spending. As anticipated, the requested U.S. intelligence...
View ArticleU.S. Military Given Secret “Execute Order” on Cyber Operations
Last June, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a classified “execute order” to authorize and initiate a military operation. The nature, scope and duration of the military operation could...
View ArticleCIA’s Refusal to Release Softcopy Records Challenged in Court
Even when the Central Intelligence Agency possesses a releasable document in a softcopy format, the Agency typically refuses to release the softcopy version in response to Freedom of Information Act...
View ArticleODNI Rethinks Secrecy and Openness in Intelligence
By leaking classified intelligence documents, Edward Snowden transformed public awareness of the scale and scope of U.S. intelligence surveillance programs. But his actions are proving to be no less...
View ArticleMissing the Open Source Center / World News Connection
The decision by the Central Intelligence Agency to terminate public access to its translations of foreign news reports at the end of 2013 continues to reverberate among frustrated former consumers. The...
View ArticleClassified Nuclear Weapon Drawings Missing at Labs
Classified design drawings used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons have not been properly and reliably maintained by nuclear weapons labs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration...
View ArticleBook: Secrets and Leaks by Rahul Sagar
Secrets and Leaks: The Dilemma of State Secrecy is the title of a new (2013) book by Princeton political scientist Rahul Sagar. The book has many interesting features and develops some novel arguments...
View ArticleCountering CIA’s Conflict of Interest in Declassification
Last week the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to submit the 480-page executive summary, findings and conclusions of its five-year investigation into the post-9/11 CIA Detention and Interrogation...
View ArticleODNI Seeks to Obscure CIA Role in Human Intelligence
Updated below The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is attempting to conceal unclassified information about the structure and function of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the leading...
View ArticleUsing Classification Challenges to Curb Secrecy
When government employees believe that classified information in their possession is improperly classified, they “are encouraged and expected” to challenge its classification status, according to...
View ArticleODNI Requires Pre-Publication Review of All Public Information
All employees of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are required to obtain authorization before disclosing any intelligence-related information to the public. “All ODNI personnel are...
View ArticleODNI Defends New Pre-publication Review Policy
“Recent media reports have misconstrued ODNI’s policy for pre-publication of information to be publicly released,” according to a May 9 statement that was issued by the Office of the Director of...
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