[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 07/15/10

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Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:07:37 -0400 (EDT)

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Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:45:12 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Secrecy News -- 07/15/10 (alt list)

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 57
July 15, 2010

Secrecy News Blog:

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

**      1968 SENATE SESSIONS ON FOREIGN RELATIONS DECLASSIFIED

**      PROJECT BIOSHIELD LOSES MOMENTUM

1968 SENATE SESSIONS ON FOREIGN RELATIONS DECLASSIFIED

Newly declassified transcripts of closed hearings and executive sessions of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1968 were published by the
Committee yesterday.  The transcripts include an extended inquiry into the
official version of 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which led to the
escalation of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and which became the
object of increasing skepticism, inside and outside of government.

"If this country has been misled, if this committee, this Congress, has been
misled by pretext into a war in which thousands of young men have died, and
many more thousands have been crippled for life, and out of which their
country has lost prestige, moral position in the world, the consequences are
very great," said then-Senator Albert Gore, Sr. (D-TN).

Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) urged the Committee to take a more assertive and
public role in questioning the (Johnson) Administration.

"I hope to God we haven't gone so far that we are now going to operate a
government by secrecy in time of crisis," Senator Morse said.  "I don't know
what has happened to us that we have got the notion that you have got to
operate in time of war a government by secrecy.  I say you are carrying the
very foundations of the Government away if you are continuing this."

See "Executive Sessions of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
(Historical Series)," Volume XX, 1968:

        http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2010_rpt/sfrc-v20.pdf

It has been three years since the Committee published the previous volume of
declassified executive sessions for the preceding year (1967) in April 2007.
At the present rate of production, the complete historical record of
Committee deliberations should be available approximately... never.  On the
other hand, the volume before that (1966) was published in 1993, fourteen
years earlier, so one could say that the pace of publication is accelerating
sharply!

The growing backlog of classified historical congressional records will be
discussed by the Public Interest Declassification Board at a special public
meeting on Thursday, July 22 at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington,
DC.  The subject will be addressed by Porter Goss, the former House
Intelligence Committee chairman and former DCIA, as well as several other
scholars and experts.  In a Thursday morning session, the Board will also
consider the challenges posed by the classification category known as
Formerly Restricted Data, a topic that will be discussed by myself and
others.  For more information and a meeting agenda, see here:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2010/07/pidb072210.pdf

PROJECT BIOSHIELD LOSES MOMENTUM

Project Bioshield, a program that was created by the Bush Administration in
2004 to foster development of new drugs to respond to a potential
bioterrorism attack, now faces significant budget cuts from Congress with
the acquiescence of the Obama Administration.

Supporters of the program argue that the reductions to Project Bioshield are
shortsighted and dangerously unwise.  Critics say the Project is a
boondoggle that has produced little of value.

The budget cut is "an extremely negative development in our overall efforts
to prepare not only for bioterrorism but for other biological events from
nature," former Sen. Bob Graham told the Los Angeles Times.  ("Bioterrorism
experts condemn a move to cut reserve money" by Ken Dilanian, July 13.)

But Project Bioshield reflects a mistaken prioritization of an extreme
scenario, said George Smith of GlobalSecurity.org, who added that even
within the domain of pharmaceuticals, the money involved would be better
spent elsewhere.  "The country needs more antibiotics to fight infectious
bacterial diseases-- magnitudes more than it needs anything BioShield could
theoretically furnish," he said.

A newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service says the cuts
to Project Bioshield are consistent with its actual expenditures, which have
been lower than originally anticipated, and "could be interpreted as
Congress and the President adjusting the amount of funds available so that
they track more closely with the actual ability of HHS to obligate them."
See "Project Bioshield: Authorities, Appropriations, Acquisitions, and
Issues for Congress," July 7, 2010:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/R41033.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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_______________________

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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[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 07/15/10

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