[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 09/08/11
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 17:31:40 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 11:15:46 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Secrecy News -- 09/08/11
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SECRECY NEWS
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from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 85
September 8, 2011
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Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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** EUROPEAN COUNCIL OFFERS REBUKE TO U.S. SECRECY POLICY
** SCIENTIST STEWART NOZETTE PLEADS GUILTY TO ESPIONAGE
** HOUSE TURNS TO FY2012 INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT
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EUROPEAN COUNCIL OFFERS REBUKE TO U.S. SECRECY POLICY
A draft resolution prepared for the inter-parliamentary Council of Europe
bluntly criticized the "cult of secrecy" in the United States and other
nations and it praised the role of whistleblowers in helping to challenge
the abuse of secrecy authority.
"In some countries, in particular the United States, the notion of state
secrecy is used to shield agents of the executive from prosecution for
serious criminal offences such as abduction and torture, or to stop victims
from suing for compensation," the draft resolution stated.
The draft, written by Dick Marty of Switzerland, was approved September 7 by
the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe. It is to be debated by the full Assembly next month. See "Abuse of
state secrecy and national security: obstacles to parliamentary and judicial
scrutiny of human rights violations," provisional version, September 7.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/marty.pdf
The document criticized various member nations for failing to conduct probes
of detentions and abductions that were reportedly carried out by or in
cooperation with the CIA. The author acknowledged the existence of
legitimate secrets, but stressed the need to enforce legal norms even, or
especially, in the domain of national security.
"The Assembly recognises the need for states to ensure effective protection
of secrets affecting national security. But it considers that information
concerning the responsibility of state agents who have committed serious
human rights violations, such as murder, enforced disappearance, torture or
abduction, should not be subject to secrecy provisions," the draft
resolution said.
The document pointed approvingly to Canada's response to the case of Maher
Arar, a Canadian who was seized in New York, deported to Syria by the CIA
and tortured, though he was guilty of no crime. The government of Canada
apologized for the episode and provided financial compensation to Arar. But
under U.S. law, by contrast, Arar was not permitted even to argue his case
in court and to seek a remedy, after the government invoked the "state
secrets" privilege.
"As Canada demonstrated in the Maher Arar case, it is possible to put in
place special procedures for the supervision of the activities of the
special services guaranteeing both the adequate protection of legitimate
state secrets and the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms," the
draft resolution said. The U.S. government and the American legal system
were incapable of achieving a comparable outcome to the case.
"We are confronted with a real cult of secrecy," the document said. "It is
therefore justified to say that whistleblowers play a key role in a
democratic society and that they contribute to making up the existing
deficit of transparency."
The resolution praised the role of WikiLeaks in publishing "diplomatic
reports confirming the truth of the allegations of secret detentions and
illegal transfers of detainees." But it also stated that "It is essential
that such disclosures are made in such a way as to respect the personal
safety of informers, human intelligence sources and secret service
personnel" -- a condition that WikiLeaks has repeatedly failed to fulfill.
The resolution proposed several "basic principles for judicial and
parliamentary scrutiny of the secret services" in democratic nations, along
with recommendations to improve such oversight.
Most fundamentally, "Breaches of the law and comparable abuses by agents of
the Government are not by their nature legitimate secrets."
SCIENTIST STEWART NOZETTE PLEADS GUILTY TO ESPIONAGE
Stewart Nozette, a space scientist who was deeply involved in many of the
nation's most highly classified technology programs, pleaded guilty to
attempted espionage for providing classified information to an undercover
FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.
http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2011/09/nozette.html
According to a "factual proffer" presented by the government in court
yesterday, "The defendant [Nozette] initially claimed to be wary of
providing any classified information to the UCE [Under Cover Employee of the
FBI]." But with continued encouragement, "the defendant's purported concerns
were soon assuaged," the proffer document stated, and he proceeded to
exchange classified information for cash.
http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/nozette-proffer.pdf
Nozette, who was privy to dozens of special access programs and
compartmented intelligence programs, was also an innovative technologist
with an impressive record of achievement. One of the many unsettling
features of his story is that in the past, when I knew him slightly, he was
not motivated primarily by a desire for money nor was he oblivious to
security. How and why he changed has not been explained. See, relatedly,
"Nozette and Nuclear Rocketry," Secrecy News, October 22, 2009.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/10/nozette.html
HOUSE TURNS TO FY2012 INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT
The House Intelligence Committee issued its report on the FY2012
intelligence authorization act on September 2, and the bill is expected to
go to the House floor on September 9.
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2011_rpt/hrpt112-197.html
The White House issued a veto threat against the bill yesterday based on its
opposition to two provisions: a requirement to produce State Department
cables relating to Guantanamo detainees, and a requirement that the Director
of the National Security Agency be confirmed by the Senate.
http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2011/09/sap090711.pdf
Somewhat oddly, those provisions, which originated in the Senate version of
the bill, did not appear in the version reported by the House Intelligence
Committee. Rather, they were included in a "pre-conferenced" version of the
bill that was intended to expedite handling of the bill by incorporating
some Senate provisions and which was provided to the House Rules Committee.
But Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Mike Rogers told the Rules Committee
yesterday that he would offer a manager's amendment on the House floor to
remove the provisions that are opposed by the White House, mitigating or
eliminating the veto threat.
The most significant features of the pending intelligence bill are contained
in a classified annex that is not publicly available. Among its less
significant features, the unclassified bill would require the CIA to prepare
a classified official report on the killing of Osama bin Laden (as first
reported by Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg News).
"For years to come, Americans will look back at this event as a defining
point in the history of the United States," the House Committee believes,
referring to the bin Laden killing. "It is vitally important that the
United States memorialize all the events that led to the raid so that future
generations will have an official record of the events that transpired
before, during, and as a result of the operation," the Committee report
said.
The House bill would also specify that the Department of Homeland Security's
Office of Intelligence and Analysis, rather than the Department of Homeland
Security as a whole, is a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Coincidentally, in an investigation published this week the Center for
Investigative Reporting found that the DHS Office of Intelligence and
Analysis "has fallen far short of its mission and done little to improve the
accuracy and quality of the nation's intelligence data." See "Homeland
security office creates 'intelligence spam,' insiders claim" by Andrew
Becker and G.W. Schulz, America's War Within, September 5.
http://americaswarwithin.org/
The House Intelligence Committee report is silent regarding the Office's
performance.
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_______________________________________________
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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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_______________________
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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
twitter: @saftergood
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