[net-gold] Secrecy News -- 07/19/12
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:10:36 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:37:11 -0400
From: Steven Aftergood <saftergood@xxxxxxx>
To: saftergood@xxxxxxx
Subject: Secrecy News -- 07/19/12
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SECRECY NEWS
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from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy Volume 2012, Issue No. 71 July
19, 2012
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Secrecy News Blog:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
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** PUNISHING LEAKS OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
** MIDNIGHT RULEMAKING, AND MORE FROM CRS
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PUNISHING LEAKS OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
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The first new legislative initiative to combat leaks of classified
information is a bill called the Deterring Public Disclosure of Covert
Actions Act of 2012, which was introduced July 10 by Sen. Richard Burr
(R-NC).
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2012_cr/s3367.html
"This act will ensure that those who disclose or talk about covert actions
by the United States will no longer be eligible for Federal Government
security clearance. It is novel. It is very simple. If you talk about covert
actions you will have your clearance revoked and you will never get another
one," Sen. Burr said.
As justification for the measure, he cited "a series of articles published
in the media that have described and in some cases provided extensive
details about highly classified unilateral and joint intelligence
operations, including covert actions."
But this assumes certain facts that are not in evidence. As Walter Pincus
wrote in the Washington Post today, there are numerous official and
unofficial sources of information about the Stuxnet covert action story, for
example, including private sector companies and foreign sources that do not
hold security clearances. From that point of view, the Burr bill does not
seem well-suited to achieve its intended purpose.
But the most peculiar thing about the new legislation is that it appears to
validate the spurious notion of an "authorized leak."
Thus, the text of the bill would revoke the security clearance of persons
who publicly disclose or discuss classified details of covert actions --
unless they have "prior authorization from an original classification
authority."
This seems to mean that classified information about covert actions need not
be specifically declassified in order to be publicly released, but only that
its disclosure must be "authorized."
The question of imposing criminal penalties for disclosure of classified
information to the press was discussed lately by Morton H. Halperin, who has
been involved as a consultant or an expert witness for the defense in many
or most of the leak prosecutions from the Ellsberg case in the 1970s to the
present.
"Starting from the premise that more information must be made public and
that the government has the right to keep some information secret in the
name of national security, we need a public and congressional dialogue about
what set of measures would be most effective in meeting these two equally
important objectives. Reducing government secrecy must be a key component of
any such measures," he wrote in "Leaks and the Public Right to Know,"
Huffington Post, July 16:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morton-h-halperin/
MIDNIGHT RULEMAKING, AND MORE FROM CRS
New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that
Congress has declined to make publicly available online include these.
Midnight Rulemaking, July 18, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42612.pdf
An Analysis of the Distribution of Wealth Across Households, 1989-2010, July
17, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33433.pdf
Oil Sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline: Background and Selected
Environmental Issues, July 16, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42611.pdf
Defense Surplus Equipment Disposal: Background Information, July 18, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS20549.pdf
Nigeria: Current Issues and U.S. Policy, July 18, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33964.pdf
The United Arab Emirates (UAE): Issues for U.S. Policy, July 17, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS21852.pdf
Timor-Leste: Political Dynamics, Development, and International Involvement,
July 3, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42585.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:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/subscribe.html
To UNSUBSCRIBE, go to
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/unsubscribe.html
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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- » [net-gold] Secrecy News -- 07/19/12 - David P. Dillard
