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From the Blogs
Secrecy System Shows Signs of Contraction: Recently
released government data shows that the creation of new national
security secrets dropped sharply in 2012. While the proper boundaries of
official secrecy remain a matter of intense dispute, the secrecy system
itself is showing surprising new signs of restraint and even
contraction. In 2012, the number of original classification decisions,
or decisions to classify new information, decreased by 42 percent from
the year before to 73,477, which is the lowest reported level of new
classification activity since at least 1989 and
possibly longer.
Patenting Life: The
human genome is the end result of a few billion years of
evolution; many of our genes are shared with other organisms. Only 5% of
our genome is unique to humanity. The Supreme Court recently decided
that companies can't patent a gene, but agreed that synthetic genes, and
that laboratory methods for identifying a specific gene can be
patented. In a new post on the ScienceWonk Blog, Dr. Y investigates
this controversy.
Intelligence Accountability Reviews: An Unused Oversight Tool: In
2007, Congress passed legislation to grant the Director of National
Intelligence “new authority to conduct accountability reviews of
significant failures or deficiencies with the Intelligence Community.”
Up to now, however, that authority has never been exercised. In 2011,
the DNI issued Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 111 on
“Accountability Reviews.” That recently disclosed Directive “establishes
policy and procedures governing the conduct of such reviews.”
In response to a query about how many accountability reviews have been
conducted, and on which topics, Michael G. Birmingham of the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence this week said that “There have
been no accountability reviews conducted under the authorities in ICD
111.”
Science and Technology in the 113th Congress and More from CRS:
Secrecy News has obtained recently released CRS reports on topics such
as next steps in nuclear arms control with Russia, science and
technology issues for Congress and federal laws related to
cybersecurity.
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