[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 03/14/11
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:37:34 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:40:47 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Secrecy News -- 03/14/11
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SECRECY NEWS
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from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 24
March 14, 2011
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Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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** P.J. CROWLEY AND THE LIMITS OF OPENNESS
** AGENCIES BOOST SURVEILLANCE OF CLASSIFIED NETWORKS
** SUNSHINE WEEK, AND VARIOUS ITEMS
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P.J. CROWLEY AND THE LIMITS OF OPENNESS
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State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley resigned yesterday facing an Obama
Administration backlash against his remarks declaring the treatment of
suspected leaker Pfc. Bradley E. Manning "ridiculous and counterproductive
and stupid."
The conditions of Private Manning's detention became the subject of
controversy when his lawyer complained that Manning was being involuntarily
forced to surrender his clothing to his Quantico military guards each night,
supposedly in order to protect him from self-injury. Neither Manning, his
attorney, nor any competent medical authority had requested any such
"protection." Instead, the compulsory nudity was widely perceived as a
punitive measure, prompting protests from Amnesty International, among
others. (We urged the DoD Inspector General to investigate the matter, to
no known effect.)
Mr. Crowley, an uncompromising critic of leaks of classified information, is
no friend of Private Manning who, he said, "is in the right place" (i.e., in
jail). It was the gratuitous abuse of the prisoner that he deemed
"ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."
He was right. In America, the pre-trial detention of any person who has not
been convicted of a crime should be beyond reproach. In the Manning case
(and in too many others), it hasn't been.
Though in criticizing Defense Department detention policy Mr. Crowley was
clearly outside of his bureaucratic "lane," he deserves credit for speaking
out on a matter of principle. In an intelligent system of government, such
views would be freely aired and honestly attended to. But it seems that
there is not much place for such speech in the current Administration.
To its credit, the State Department did publish Mr. Crowley's non-retraction
on its website. "My recent comments regarding the conditions of the
pre-trial detention of Private First Class Bradley Manning were intended to
highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discrete actions undertaken
by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global
standing and leadership," Mr. Crowley said. "The exercise of power in
today's challenging times and relentless media environment must be prudent
and consistent with our laws and values."
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/03/158240.htm
That is to say, the exercise of power today is not always prudent or
consistent with our laws and values. Sadly, Crowley's departure under these
circumstances makes corrective action more difficult.
However, the Defense Department reportedly rescinded its forced nudity
policy towards Manning. "On Friday, officials said they are again providing
him with sleeping garments," the Washington Post reported.
In a new sign of public dissent from the Obama Administration's intensive
pursuit of suspected leakers, former NSA official Thomas Drake, who is
accused of unlawful retention of classified information, was designated as
the recipient of an award for "truth-telling."
Named for the late Ron Ridenhour, who brought the My Lai massacre to public
attention, "The Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling is presented to a citizen,
corporate or government whistleblower, investigative journalist, or
organization for bringing a specific issue of social importance to the
public's attention." (In previous years, but not this year, I was involved
in the Award selection process.) The award to Mr. Drake will be presented
in Washington, DC on April 13. Mr. Drake's Espionage Act trial is scheduled
to begin on April 25.
http://www.ridenhour.org/
AGENCIES BOOST SURVEILLANCE OF CLASSIFIED NETWORKS
In the wake of the ongoing publication of large volumes of classified U.S.
government information by WikiLeaks, executive branch agencies are taking
new steps to deter, detect and prevent the unauthorized transfer of
information from classified government networks, officials said at a hearing
of the Senate Homeland Security Committee last week.
In the majority of terminals connected to the DoD SIPRNet, the classified
defense network, the capability to write to removable media has now been
disabled. (Bradley Manning is suspected of downloading State Department
cables and other classified materials from SIPRNet and writing them to a
compact disk.)
"For those few machines where writing is allowed [newly installed security
software] will report, in real time, each write operation," said Teresa
Takai and Thomas Ferguson of the Department of Defense. "It will also
report every attempt of an unauthorized write operation."
"DoD has begun to issue a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based identity
credential on a hardened smart card... [that] will provide very strong
identification of the person accessing the network and requesting data. It
will both deter bad behavior and require absolute identification of who is
accessing data and managing that access," they said.
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2011_hr/031011takai.pdf
Likewise, "the IC [intelligence community] plans to increase access control
to critical IC information resources," said Corin R. Stone of the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence. "Technology can be used to control
usage and limit user capabilities to perform activities such as copying,
printing, or exporting data to a device."
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2011_hr/031011stone.pdf
As voluminous as the WikiLeaks disclosures are, they represent only a
minuscule fraction of similar records. Even when it comes to the State
Department cables, WikiLeaks didn't get everything, Amb. Patrick Kennedy
told the Senate Committee. "During the period of time [that] we posted...
some 250,000 cables... to the DOD SIPRNet, we [also] disseminated 2.4
million cables, 10 times as many, through other systems."
The fact is that more than 99.9% of classified documents don't leak. Now
they will all be subject to enhanced security measures.
SUNSHINE WEEK, AND VARIOUS ITEMS
* This is Sunshine Week (www.sunshineweek.org), an annual celebration
of open government. A National Security Archive survey of agency compliance
with the Freedom of Information Act found mixed and uneven progress over the
past year.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB338/index.htm
* With the promotion of Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO)
director William J. Bosanko to the new position of NARA Agency Services
Executive, the ISOO director slot -- with its responsibilities for oversight
of classification and declassification policy -- is open. "We have recently
begun a search effort for the ISOO Director position and are committed to
filling the vacancy with someone who will maintain the balance between
secrecy and openness for which ISOO is known," wrote National Archivist
David S. Ferriero in a March 7 memorandum.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/isoo/ag_services.pdf
* Last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
released its latest (2010) unclassified annual report to Congress on the
acquisition of technology relating to weapons of mass destruction and
advanced conventional munitions. Unfortunately, the report is minimally
informative, with little new information, and less information than is
available from other sources (such as the latest IAEA report on Iran). The
section on conventional weapons, included in the 2009 report, is missing
altogether.
http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/wmd-acq2010.pdf
* Contributions in support of disaster relief in Japan can be made
through the Red Cross and other organizations.
http://www.redcross.org/
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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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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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