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From the Blogs
In 1962, Kennedy was Urged to Take "Drastic Action" Against Leakers:
Fifty years ago, the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
(PFIAB) urged President John F. Kennedy to take “drastic action” against
whoever had leaked classified intelligence information to a New York
Times reporter. The Board also suggested that the CIA be empowered
domestically to track down such leaks. The PFIAB recommendations to
President Kennedy were memorialized in an August 1, 1962 report that
established a template for future efforts to combat leaks, up to the
present
day.
Declassification Proceeds Methodically at Energy Department:
The capacity of gas centrifuges to enrich uranium increased by two
orders of magnitude between 1961 and 1967, from 0.39 kg-SWU/year to 30
kg-SWU/year. That striking fact was declassified by the U.S. Department
of Energy in 2008 and made public this month. Under the terms of the
Atomic Energy Act (section 142), which governs the classification of
nuclear weapons-related information, the Department of Energy is
required to conduct a “continuous review” of its classified information
“in order to determine which
information may be declassified.” And so it does. Slowly and
methodically, the Department has declassified numerous categories of
nuclear information over the last several years.
In Warming U.S.- NZ Relations, Outdated Nuclear Policy Remains Unnecessary Irritant:
Last week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta visited New Zealand to
ease restrictions on New Zealand naval visits to U.S. military bases. In
a new blog post, Hans Kristensen writes that this move shows that
Washington, after nearly 30 years of punishing the small South Pacific
nation for its ban against nuclear weapons, may finally have come to its
senses and decided to end the vendetta in the interest of more
important issues.
DNI Issues Directive on Civil Liberties and Privacy:
In a new Intelligence Community Directive on Civil Liberties and
Privacy signed by DNI James R. Clapper on August 31, 2012, DNI “is
committed to protecting civil liberties and privacy, which are
foundational principles of our Nation’s democratic society, preserved in
the Constitution of the United States, and guaranteed in Federal law.”
Beyond affirming the value of civil liberties, the new directive — ICD
107 — also directs the establishment of oversight mechanisms and of
procedures for redress of
alleged violations.
Reagan Directive on "Pre-emptive Neutralization" of Terrorists:
In 1984, President Reagan ordered the Director of Central Intelligence
to develop “capabilities for the pre-emptive neutralization of
anti-American terrorist groups which plan, support, or conduct hostile
terrorist acts against U.S. citizens, interests, and property overseas.”
Those instructions were contained in National Security Decision
Directive 138, “Combatting Terrorism,” which was issued on April 3,
1984. NSDD 138 remained classified for many years and was not fully
declassified until
two years into the Obama Administration.
Research Reactors and Weapons-Grade Uranium:
The United States and Russia are both working to replace highly
enriched fuel in research reactors (there are 82 around the world at the
moment) with less dangerous materials. Most nations stick with
enriching uranium to 20% – high enough to produce a useful number of
neutrons in the core, but not enough to explode. If a reactor can
sustain with only 3% U-235 then why would we even want to go to the
extra work to make reactor fuel potent enough to explode?
U.S. Foreign Assistance to Central Asia and More from CRS:
Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such
as U.S. military aid to Central Asia, U.S. energy policy, salaries of members of Congress and history of U.S. armed forces abroad.
Senate Judiciary Committee Moves to Amend FISA Amendments Act:
Steven Aftergood writes that the Obama Administration proposal to renew
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act for
another five years would be amended to a three year extension, if the
Senate Judiciary Committee has its way.
DNI Directive Promotes Use of "Tearline Documents": In order to promote improved information sharing, the Director of National Intelligence
told agencies to make use of “tearlines.” This refers to the practice
of segregating and withholding the most sensitive portions of a
document, allowing the remainder to be “torn off,” literally or
figuratively, and widely disseminated. Although the tearline approach
also lends itself to public dissemination of national
security documents, with particularly sensitive material removed, the
new intelligence directive does not explicitly extend to sharing
information with the public.
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