FAS Roundup: December 26, 2011

FAS Roundup: December 26, 2011

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New CRS reports, letter to President Obama regarding Iran, U.S. electric power grid vulnerability to severe weather  and much more.  

From the Blogs 

• Congress Approves 2012 Intelligence Authorization: Steven Aftergood writes that before the House and Senate passed the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, there was a conspicuous absence of public debate on any issue of intelligence policy. No dissenting views were expressed.  Nor was there any discussion of or insight into current intelligence controversies.

• U.S. Arms Sales and More from CRS: Secrecy News has obtained new CRS reports regarding arms sales and Pakistan.

•  JASON on Severe Space Weather and the Electric Grid: The U.S. electric power grid is vulnerable to damage from severe electromagnetic solar storms and remedial measures should be taken to reduce that vulnerability, a new study from the JASON scientific advisory panel concluded.

• Libya and War Powers: Steven Aftergood writes that the U.S. government acknowledges that U.S. military forces were involved in “armed conflict” this year in Libya, but it does not acknowledge that they were engaged in “hostilities.”

Publications

• How the reset was upset: Dr. Yousaf Butt, Scientific Consultant to FAS, writes in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists about how Russia could react to a variety of additional foreign policy matters, end future arms reductions talks with the United States, and decrease its assistance with worldwide counter-proliferation efforts.

 Letter to President Obama 

• FAS joins a group of 15 former senior officials, Western diplomats, and nonproliferation experts in signing a letter to President Barack Obama to urge him to pursue renewed discussions with Iranian leaders on a step-by-step process that will lead to more-intrusive International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections and the confidence-building steps that are essential to preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.

FAS in the News  

• Dec 22: New York Times, U.S. Seeks Program to Buy Up Missiles Loose in Libya
• Dec 20: Salon, "The Bradley Manning Treatment"
• Dec 19: Washington Post, "Pyongyang's Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons" (Sources Federation of American Scientists)
• Dec 19: The Orange County Register, "Kim Jong Il's Death Brings Dangers, Opportunities"
• Dec 19: Huffington Post, "U.S. Missile Defense Fantasy is Souring U.S.-Russian Reset"