[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 08/27/10
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Net-Gold -- Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Educator Gold <Educator-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Net-Gold <Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NetGold <netgold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Gold <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K-12ADMINLIFE <K12ADMIN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, K12AdminLIFE <K12AdminLIFE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, MediaMentor <mediamentor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Digital Divide Diversity MLS <mls-digitaldivide@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, NetGold <netgold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Net-Platinum <net-platinum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Sean Grigsby <myarchives1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple Gold Discussion Group <TEMPLE-GOLD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Temple University Net-Gold Archive <net-gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:29:10 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:05:19 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: saftergood@xxxxxxx
Subject: Secrecy News -- 08/27/10 (alt list)
SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 68
August 27, 2010
Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
** DNI ADVISORS FAVOR NON-COERCIVE "INTELLIGENCE INTERVIEWING"
** RARE EARTH ELEMENTS: THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN (CRS)
** THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOMBS
DNI ADVISORS FAVOR NON-COERCIVE "INTELLIGENCE INTERVIEWING"
Intelligence personnel who are trying to elicit information from a prisoner
or a detainee can effectively do so in a non-coercive manner, according to
the Intelligence Science Board (ISB), an official advisory group to the
Director of National Intelligence.
"The United States and other democracies can benefit from exploring and
learning more in the area of non-coercive intelligence interviewing," the
Board said in a sequel to its December 2006 report on "Educing Information"
("Intelligence Science Board Views Interrogation," Secrecy News, January 15,
2007). That earlier study found that existing U.S. intelligence
interrogation practices were not scientifically well-founded. "The study
team could not discover an objective scientific basis for the techniques
commonly used by U.S. interrogators."
The newly disclosed follow-on report, dated April 2009, "is written
primarily for individuals concerned with 'high-value' detainees and those
who focus mainly on strategic interrogation." It provides a survey of
behavioral science perspectives on topics relevant to the interrogation
process -- including persuasion, power, stress, resistance, and memory -- as
well as two case studies of actual interrogations.
A copy of the ISB report was obtained by Secrecy News. See "Intelligence
Interviewing: Teaching Papers and Case Studies," A Report from the Study on
Educing Information, Intelligence Science Board, April 2009 (211 pages).
http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/isb/interview.pdf
The ISB report adopted the new term "intelligence interviewing" instead of
"interrogation" in part because it said "interrogation" is freighted with
stereotypes often involving coercion. The report emphasized the utility of
non-coercive interrogation but acknowledged the difficulty of empirically
establishing its superiority to coercive questioning.
"During Phases I and II, contributors could find no studies that compare the
results of 'coercive' interrogations with those of non-coercive intelligence
interviews. It is also difficult to imagine how such studies might be
conducted in a scientifically valid, let alone morally acceptable, manner."
The ISB study notably dissected the "ticking time bomb" scenario that is
often portrayed in television thrillers (and which has "captured the public
imagination"). The authors patiently explained why that hypothetical
scenario is not a sensible guide to interrogation policy or a justification
for torture. Moral considerations aside, the ISB report said, coercive
interrogation may produce unreliable results, foster increased resistance,
and preclude the discovery of unsuspected intelligence information of value
(pp. 40-42).
"There also are no guarantees that non-coercive intelligence interviewing
will obtain the necessary information," the report said. "However, the
United States has important recent examples of effective, non-coercive
intelligence interviewing with high value detainees."
The ISB said its report could "provide experienced and successful
interviewers a more formal understanding of the approaches they may have
used instinctively. It may also help them to communicate their expertise to
their colleagues... This [report] is intended to foster thinking and
discussion and to encourage knowledge-based teaching, research, and
practice. It does not, and cannot, offer doctrine or prescriptions. It is a
start, not an end."
The mission of the Intelligence Science Board is "to provide the
Intelligence Community with outside expert advice and unconventional
thinking, early notice of advances in science and technology, insight into
new applications of existing technology, and special studies that require
skills or organizational approaches not resident within the Intelligence
Community."
RARE EARTH ELEMENTS: THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN (CRS)
Rare earth elements -- of which there are 17, including the 15 lanthanides
plus yttrium and scandium -- are needed in many industrial and national
security applications, from flat panel displays to jet fighter engines. Yet
there are foreseeable stresses on the national and global supply of these
materials.
"The United States was once self-reliant in domestically produced [rare
earth elements], but over the past 15 years has become 100% reliant on
imports, primarily from China," a new report from the Congressional Research
Service observes. "The dominance of China as a single or dominant supplier
[...] is a cause for concern because of China's growing internal demand for
its [own rare earth elements]," the report said.
The CRS report provides background and analysis on the uses of rare earth
elements, existing reserves, national security applications, the global
supply chain and relevant legislation. See "Rare Earth Elements: the Global
Supply Chain," July 28, 2010:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41347.pdf
THE TWILIGHT OF THE BOMBS
In "The Twilight of the Bombs," the fourth and final volume of his epic
history of the nuclear era, author Richard Rhodes examines "how the
dangerous post-Cold War transition was managed, who its heroes were, what we
learned from it, and where it carried us."
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780307267542.html
Covering the years 1990-2010, from the collapse of the Soviet Union onward,
much of the latest history is familiar. But by focusing on nuclear weapons
development, proliferation and testing, Rhodes fashions his own narrative
arc, enriched by new interviews and insights.
In the end, he sees a hopeful trajectory of "nuclear limitation and
foreclosure: from Mikhail Gorbachev's and Ronald Reagan's initiatives to
end the Cold War, to the voluntary disarming of the former Soviet republics
and the security of nuclear materials, to the U.S. and Russia's deepening
mutual arms reduction, to the up-and-down negotiations with North Korea that
have nevertheless prevented another Korean war, to international diplomatic
pressure brought to bear effectively on India and Pakistan, to the
persistent march forward of negotiations toward treaties to limit nuclear
testing and proliferation." (However, Rhodes does not specifically address
the case of Iran's nuclear program, as noted by Tim Rutten in an August 18
review in the Los Angeles Times.)
In the concluding pages of the book, Rhodes posits an analogy between
previous campaigns to eradicate or limit disease and current efforts to
abolish nuclear weapons, which he deems both necessary and feasible. "In
1999, for the first time in human history, infectious diseases no longer
ranked first among causes of death worldwide" thanks to the discipline of
public health. In a similarly efficacious way, he says, the ingredients of
the analogous discipline of public safety against nuclear weapons "have
already begun to assemble themselves: materials control and accounting,
cooperative threat reduction, security guarantees, agreements and treaties,
surveillance and inspection, sanctions, forceful disarming if all else
fails."
"The Twilight of the Bombs" cannot match Rhodes' first volume on "The Making
of the Atomic Bomb" for sheer mythological power, but it is fluidly and
eloquently written. The author's prose ranges widely, sometimes
vertiginously: In the book's Index, Scott Ritter comes right after Rainer
Maria Rilke, the Ayatollah Khomeini is just above Nicole Kidman, and Sig
Hecker of Los Alamos is separated from Jesse Helms by G.W.F. Hegel.
Mr. Rhodes (who I should say has been a consistent supporter of Secrecy
News) ends the book with Acknowledgments, including a valentine to his wife:
"She, not thermonuclear fusion, makes the sun shine."
_______________________________________________
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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