[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 09/22/11
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:20:26 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:02:36 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Secrecy News -- 09/22/11
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SECRECY NEWS
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from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 91
September 22, 2011
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Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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** AT CIA, CLIMATE CHANGE IS A SECRET
** UPDATED CRS REPORTS ON SECRECY
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AT CIA, CLIMATE CHANGE IS A SECRET
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When the Central Intelligence Agency established a Center on Climate Change
and National Security in 2009, it drew fierce opposition from congressional
Republicans who disputed the need for an intelligence initiative on this
topic. But now there is a different, and possibly better, reason to doubt
the value of the Center: It has adopted an extreme view of classification
policy which holds that everything the Center does is a national security
secret.
Last week, the CIA categorically denied a request under the Freedom of
Information Act for a copy of any Center studies or reports concerning the
impacts of global warming.
"We completed a thorough search for records responsive to your request and
located material that we determined is currently and properly classified and
must be denied in its entirety...," wrote CIA's Susan Viscuso to requester
Jeffrey Richelson, an intelligence historian affiliated with the National
Security Archive.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2011/09/cia091311.pdf
With some effort, one can imagine records related to climate change that
would be properly classified. Such records might, for example, include
information that was derived from classified collection methods or sources
that could be compromised by their disclosure. Or perhaps such records
might present analysis reflecting imminent threats to national security that
would be exacerbated rather than corrected by publicizing them.
But that's not what CIA said. Rather, it said that all of the Center's work
is classified and there is not even a single study, or a single passage in a
single study, that could be released without damage to national security.
That's a familiar song, and it became tiresome long ago.
But in this case, it is more than an annoyance. The CIA response indicates
a fundamental lack of discernment that calls into question the integrity of
the Center on Climate Change, if not the Agency as a whole. If the CIA
really thinks (or pretends to think) that every document produced by the
Center constitutes a potential threat to national security, who can expect
the Center to say anything intelligent or useful about climate change?
Security robots cannot help us navigate the environmental challenges ahead.
Better to allocate the scarce resources to others who can.
Meanwhile, access by scientists to classified military intelligence data on
the environment has actually been improving lately, reports Geoff Brumfiel
in the latest edition of Nature ("Military surveillance data: Shared
intelligence," 21 September 2011, sub. req'd). Among other things, the
Clinton-Gore era group of cleared scientists known as MEDEA (Measurements of
Earth Data for Environmental Analysis) was reconvened in 2008.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110921/full/477388a.html
A Federation of American Scientists proposal to expand public access to
unclassified open source intelligence products ("Open Up Open Source
Intelligence," Secrecy News, August 24) did not find favor with the White
House. Nothing like it was included in the new U.S. National Action Plan
for the Open Government Partnership, which mostly elaborates and restates
previous commitments.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/obama/nap.pdf
UPDATED CRS REPORTS ON SECRECY
Reports on secrecy-related topics from the Congressional Research Service
that are newly updated (but otherwise not new) include these.
Criminal Prohibitions on the Publication of Classified Defense Information,
September 8, 2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/R41404.pdf
Protection of Classified Information by Congress: Practices and Proposals,
August 31, 2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RS20748.pdf
The State Secrets Privilege: Preventing the Disclosure of Sensitive National
Security Information During Civil Litigation, August 16, 2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/R41741.pdf
Newly updated CRS reports on other topics include these.
Intelligence Issues for Congress, September 14, 2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL33539.pdf
The Palestinians: Background and U.S. Relations, August 30, 2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL34074.pdf
U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians, August 29, 2011
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS22967.pdf
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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/
To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to:
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To UNSUBSCRIBE, go to
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OR email your request to saftergood@xxxxxxx
Secrecy News is archived at:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/index.html
Support the FAS Project on Government Secrecy with a donation:
http://www.fas.org/member/donate_today.html
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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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Other related posts:
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