FAS | Intelligence | News | 2001 ||||

October 2001 Intelligence News

• Secret U.S. court handed new power to fight terror by Scott Shane, Baltimore Sun, October 29. "The judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court rule on requests to tap the phones, bug the rooms and break into the houses of terror suspects on U.S. soil."
• Job Seekers Swamp U.S. Spy Shops by Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, October 27. "Since Sept. 11, the nation's intelligence agencies have seen a wave of applications more earnest and enormous than recruiters once dared to imagine."
• Attorney General Ashcroft Directs Law Enforcement Officials to Implement New Anti-Terrorism Act, Justice Department press release, October 26.
• Treasury Department Designates Additional Terrorist Organizations and Individuals Federal Register, October 26.
• Many potential responses to anthrax attacks, experts say; First, U.S. must determine who did it by Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle, October 18. "As investigators struggled yesterday to find the source of the apparent anthrax attacks on the East Coast, policy experts detailed responses the United States could take."
• White House Welcomes Shutdown of Russian SIGINT Facility at Lourdes, Cuba, press release, October 17.
• Interior officials join Cheney in mountain hideaways by Sabrina Eaton, Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 17. "Vice President Dick Cheney isn't the only federal official who has been lying low as a precaution since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."
• Military Buys Exclusive Rights to Commercial Satellite Pictures of War Zone by John J. Lumpkin, Associated Press, October 15. "The U.S. military is paying for the exclusive rights to commercial satellite imagery of Afghanistan. This could serve two purposes: to provide an extra eye on Afghanistan, and to prevent anyone else from peeking at the war zone."
• Online Secrets: Internet Could Reveal Sensitive Information to Enemies by Josh Gerstein, ABCNews.com, October 15. "The Federation of American Scientists, a group critical of government secrecy, has now taken down about 200 Web pages that contained sensitive information about the White House and other facilities."
• Treasury Department Releases List of 39 Additional Global Terrorists, press release, October 12. "Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has added the names of 39 terrorists to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). Their assets must be blocked immediately."
• Watch the Raids in Afghanistan on the Web by Eric Auchard, Reuters, October 10. "The Internet offers a wealth of information for those willing to filter through the dead links and little-heard languages."
• Most Wanted Terrorists, White House Fact Sheet, October 10.
• Office of Homeland Security: Summary of the President's Executive Order, White House press statement, October 8.
• Intelligence Gets More Funding by Carolyn Skorneck, Associated Press, October 5. "The House, eager to boost the nation's intelligence capabilities to prevent another terrorist attack, approved a 9 percent increase in spending."
• Web Sites Pull Information in Interest of National Security by Sabin Russell, San Francisco Chronicle, October 5. "We need to take a moment to assess the new security environment," said Aftergood.
• Redesignation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations from the US State Department, Federal Register, October 5.
• UK Report on Responsibility for the September 11 Terrorist Attacks issued by the Office of the Prime Minister, October 4. "Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaida, the terrorist network which he heads, planned and carried out the atrocities on 11 September 2001."
• Architects Put On the Alert Over Requests That Are Rare by David Dunlap, New York Times, October 4. "The Federation of American Scientists has removed from its Web site the locations and floor plans of buildings used by American intelligence agencies."
• Web Sites Pull Intelligence Data by Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press, October 3. "Before Sept. 11, the Federation of American Scientists' Web site offered details on obscure or secret U.S. intelligence facilities. No longer."
• Waiver of Nuclear-Related Sanctions on India and Pakistan By the President of the United States, Federal Register, October 2.
• How Overt are Covert Operations?, Slate.com, October 1. What does it mean for government activity to be "covert"?