[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 04/08/10
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 13:05:31 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 10:11:43 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: saftergood@xxxxxxx
Subject: Secrecy News -- 04/08/10 (alt list)
SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 28
April 8, 2010
Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
** FIRST UNCLASSIFIED NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW RELEASED
** NORTH KOREA'S 2009 NUCLEAR TEST, AND MORE FROM CRS
FIRST UNCLASSIFIED NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW RELEASED
In what may be the Obama Administration's single most significant reduction
in national security secrecy to date, the Department of Defense this week
published the first unclassified Nuclear Posture Review.
http://www.defense.gov/npr/
The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) defines U.S. nuclear weapons policy,
strategy and force structure. As such, it is one of the most important
national security policy documents in government. Two previous Reviews
conducted by the Clinton and Bush Administrations in 1994 and 2001 were
classified and were not meant to be made public.
When portions of the Bush NPR nevertheless leaked in 2002, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld furiously condemned the release. "Whoever leaked it
violated federal criminal law," he said. "It seems that there are some
people who simply have a compulsion to seem important, so they take
classified information which can damage U.S. national security and give it
to people who aren't cleared for it," he added. Even after the Bush NPR
report leaked, another official said, "the last administration then found it
difficult ever to talk about the results of the review, because it was
talking about a leaked classified document."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2002/03/dod031302.html
But this week, in a tangible sign of changing national security secrecy
standards, Defense Secretary Robert Gates held a press conference to release
the latest NPR document himself.
"The report of the Nuclear Posture Review will exist only in unclassified
form," a Pentagon official said at a background briefing on April 6. "There
will not be a classified Nuclear Posture Review from which we have redacted
a lot of information and then just put forward an unclassified variant. This
reflected a decision early in the process.... And in an effort to be fully
transparent in our choices and the thinking behind them, we did not want to
leave big open questions about what might be left unsaid because it's in the
classified domain."
http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4598
This is not the end of nuclear weapons secrecy, by any means. For one
thing, the exact size and composition of the U.S. nuclear arsenal remain
classified (wrongly, we would say). Also, "you know there are classified
implementation processes, guidance processes," the unnamed Pentagon briefer
said. "So it's not that it's free of classified aspects, but the [NPR]
report as such and all of the policy findings and recommendations and all of
the logic behind them will be presented at the unclassified level."
Incongruously, even the Obama Presidential Study Directive that initiated
the latest NPR process a year ago remains classified and unavailable. But
with the release of the final Report, that seems like a mere bureaucratic
absurdity of little consequence.
The public release of the NPR report does not guarantee a superior policy
outcome. But it does eliminate a longstanding hurdle to informed debate on
nuclear weapons policy, and it permits the interested public to focus its
attention on the substance of the policy, not on a tiresome pursuit of
undisclosed records.
In December 1993, Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary undertook her Openness
Initiative, releasing all kinds of previously secret records on nuclear
weapons tests, historical production of nuclear materials, and many other
important topics. Borrowing a slogan from an old cigarette ad, a DOE
spokesman at the time said that the Department's new secrecy policy was to
"classify less, and enjoy it more."
In this instance, at least, the Obama Administration seems to be following
the same joyful path.
The White House yesterday announced the release of dozens of executive
branch agency Open Government Plans, which are supposed to guide the
implementation of the President's Open Government Directive. Several of the
Plans deal, directly or indirectly, with declassification of national
security information and records.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/07/open-change
NORTH KOREA'S 2009 NUCLEAR TEST, AND MORE FROM CRS
In May 2009, North Korea announced that it had conducted its second nuclear
explosive test. Although the event generated a seismic signature consistent
with a nuclear explosion, it produced no detectable release of radioactive
gases or particulates (fallout). This either means that North Korea
actually conducted a non-nuclear simulation of a nuclear test, or else it
managed to achieve complete containment of a real nuclear explosion. Since
detection of radioactive emissions provides the most unambiguous
confirmation of a nuclear explosion, the successful containment of a nuclear
test could be problematic for verification of a treaty banning such
explosions.
This conundrum is explored in a new report from the Congressional Research
Service. See "North Korea's 2009 Nuclear Test: Containment, Monitoring,
Implications," April 2, 2010:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R41160.pdf
Congress has refused to make reports like this directly available to the
public. Other noteworthy new CRS products obtained by Secrecy News that
have not been publicly released include the following.
"Judicial Activity Concerning Enemy Combatant Detainees: Major Court
Rulings," April 1, 2010:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41156.pdf
"Federal Building and Facility Security," March 24, 2010:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R41138.pdf
"The U.S. Motor Vehicle Industry: Confronting a New Dynamic in the Global
Economy," March 26, 2010:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41154.pdf
"U.S. Initiatives to Promote Global Internet Freedom: Issues, Policy, and
Technology," April 5, 2010:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41120.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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