[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 04/26/10
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:59:15 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:34:17 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: saftergood@xxxxxxx
Subject: Secrecy News -- 04/26/10
SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 33
April 26, 2010
Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
** EXPORT CONTROL POLICY AS A GUIDE TO SECRECY REFORM
** A LOOK AT CHINA'S USE OF AIRSHIPS
EXPORT CONTROL POLICY AS A GUIDE TO SECRECY REFORM
"The problem we face," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said last week, "is
that the current system, which has not been significantly altered since the
end of the Cold War, originated and evolved in a very different era with a
very different array of concerns in mind." He was talking about the U.S.
export control process, but with minor differences he might just as well
have been speaking about the national security classification system, since
an increasingly obsolete model of security underlies both policy regimes.
"America's decades-old, bureaucratically labyrinthine system does not serve
our 21st century security needs or our economic interests," Secretary Gates
said April 20 at an event hosted by Business Executives for National
Security. "Our security interests would be far better served by a more
agile, transparent, predictable and efficient regime. Tinkering around the
edges of the current system will not do."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2010/04/gates-export.html
The White House expressed a similar view in an April 20 fact sheet. The
current U.S. export control system, it said, "is overly complicated,
contains too many redundancies, and tries to protect too much." The scope
of export controls is so broad that it "dilutes our ability to adequately
control and protect those key items and technologies that must be protected
for our national security. The goal of the reform effort is 'to build high
walls around a smaller yard' by focusing our enforcement efforts on our
'crown jewels'," the White House said.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2010/04/wh-export.html
In fact, the export control system is so messed up, senior defense officials
told reporters at an April 19 press briefing, that "the system itself poses
a threat to national security."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2010/04/dod-export.html
The Administration's proposed solution for export control policy is based on
principles of simplification, consolidation and a focus on the highest value
items to be controlled. This translates into a single export control list,
a single licensing agency, a single enforcement agency, and a single
information technology system for the entire export control program.
A similar approach could be applied to classification policy, perhaps in the
following way.
A single classification system: Currently there are two parallel
classification systems, one for general national security information, based
on executive order, and one for nuclear weapons-related information, based
on the Atomic Energy Act. In many areas of defense and foreign policy, the
two systems overlap, generating unnecessary complexity and confusion. The
dual classification systems also significantly complicate the
declassification process. Moving to a single classification system would
simplify the classification process, facilitate training of personnel, and
increase declassification productivity. A useful interim step would be to
transfer the nuclear weapons classification category known as "Formerly
Restricted Data" (FRD) into the general national security classification
system so that FRD records -- on topics such as stockpile size and weapon
storage locations abroad -- could be handled and declassified just like
other records containing national security information.
A consolidated set of classification guides: Currently there are nearly
three thousand classification guides in government that prescribe what
information is to be classified and at what level. Instead there could be
maybe three-- one for defense operations and technology, one for
intelligence, and one for foreign policy (and perhaps one more for nuclear
weapons information if the two classification systems are combined). This
kind of consolidation would help promote standardization across agencies,
including ease of correction and change of classification policies. It
would also facilitate oversight and enforcement of proper classification
practices.
An enhanced oversight mechanism: If there is going to be increased
uniformity and consistency in classification across the government, then a
strong oversight mechanism will be needed to adjudicate and resolve the
inevitable conflicts that will arise among individual agencies, and the
deviations between policy and practice. The existing Information Security
Oversight Office could help fulfill this role if the President grants it the
power and the responsibility to overrule erroneous or unwise classification
decisions.
A drastic reduction in scope of classification: Just as the export control
system "tries to protect too much," the same is true in spades of the
classification system. (Random example: The total dollar cost of the CIA's
CORONA satellite program, which ended in 1972, is still considered
classified information.) "Frederick the Great's famous maxim that he who
defends everything defends nothing certainly applies to export control,"
Secretary Gates said last week. The corresponding view in classification
policy is Justice Potter Stewart's familiar statement that "when everything
is classified, then nothing is classified...." The forthcoming Fundamental
Classification Guidance Review that was required by executive order 13526
should help to reverse the growth of the classification system over the next
two years. But other targeted measures may also be needed to achieve the
optimum classification state of "high walls around narrow areas."
"The proposition that a more focused and streamlined system actually helps
our national security can go against conventional wisdom," Secretary Gates
said. Nevertheless, "I believe it is the right approach, and it is urgently
needed, given the harmful effects of continuing with the existing set of
outdated processes, institutions and assumptions."
The Obama Administration is just beginning to consider the possible outlines
of a future classification system that is "fundamentally transformed."
"I... look forward to reviewing recommendations from the study that the
National Security Advisor will undertake in cooperation with the Public
Interest Declassification Board to design a more fundamental transformation
of the security classification system," President Obama wrote when the
latest executive order on classification policy was issued on December 29.
A LOOK AT CHINA'S USE OF AIRSHIPS
China's interest in the use of airships -- balloons, blimps and various
other lighter-than-air aircraft -- was discussed in a new report from the
National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC).
Airships have been used in China for disaster relief, since they were able
to reach distant areas when ordinary transportation was impaired, and for
construction in mountainous or unstable areas, the report said. High
altitude airships may also be considered for wide area surveillance, early
warning detection, or other military applications.
See "Current and Potential Applications of Chinese Aerostats (Airships),"
NASIC OSINT Topic Report, March 23, 2010 (For Official Use Only):
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/china/aerostat.pdf
The U.S. has deployed airships along the border with Mexico to aid in drug
interdiction, and in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. See
"Potential Military Use of Airships and Aerostats" by the late Christopher
Bolkcom, Congressional Research Service, September 1, 2006:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RS21886.pdf
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation
of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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Support the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation:
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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@xxxxxxx
voice: (202) 454-4691
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