FAS | Intelligence | News | 2002 ||||

October 2002 Intelligence News

• Post-Cold War American Spy Older, More Diverse, by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters, October 29. "Selling U.S. secrets to foreign governments is no longer the domain of young white men, as diversity infiltrates the post-Cold War espionage game."
• Al-Qaida an effective fund-raiser around the world, CIA says, by John Lumpkin, Associated Press, October 29. "The unclassified statement was entered into the congressional record earlier this month and noted on the web site of the Federation of American Scientists, an open-government advocacy group."
• State Department Designates Tunisian Combat Group a Terrorist Organization, Federal Register, October 28.
• Rumsfeld on New DoD Intelligence Team, Pentagon press briefing, October 24. "Any suggestion that it's an intelligence-gathering activity or an intelligence unit of some sort, I think, would be a misunderstanding of it."
• Ashcroft Plans Stiff Punishment for Those Who Leak Secrets, by David Savage, Los Angeles Times, October 24. "Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said Wednesday he plans a new and more aggressive effort to punish those who leak national security secrets, but he told Congress he does not need new legislation to do so."
• State Department Designation of Jemaah Islamiya as a Terrorist Organization, Federal Register, October 23.
• From Tampa to Terror Probe, Eleanor Hill Proves Her Mettle, by Keith Epstein, Tampa Tribune, October 20. "She has been starring in the most important congressional inquiry of recent times."
• Justice Department Invokes State Secrets Privilege, press statement, October 18. "To prevent disclosure of certain classified and sensitive national security information, Attorney General Ashcroft today asserted the state secrets privilege in Sibel Edmonds v. Department of Justice."
• Report on Implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act, Justice Department answers to Congressional questions, July 26, August 26, September 20 (released October 17).
• NIPC loses one of its own to 'Beltway' sniper, by Dan Verton, Computerworld, October 16. "Pentagon officials said yesterday that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had approved a request from the FBI for surveillance support in the form of a U.S. Army intelligence-gathering aircraft."
• Fact Sheet: Updated List of Identified Terrorists and Groups, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, U.S. State Department, October 11.
• Statement by DCI George Tenet on the Iraq Threat, October 8. "There is no inconsistency between our view of Saddam's growing threat and the view as expressed by the President in his speech."
• DCI Tenet Declassifies Further Information on the Iraq Threat, letter to Sen. Bob Graham, October 7. "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or CBW against the United States."
• Scientists Give the Lie to Polygraph Testing, by Charles Piller, Los Angeles Times, October 9. "Polygraph testing for national security screening is little more than junk science, according to a long-awaited report released Tuesday by the National Academy of Sciences."
• Lie-Detector Tests Found Too Flawed to Discover Spies, by William J. Broad, New York Times, October 9. "In a report to the government, a panel of leading scientists said yesterday that polygraph testing was too flawed to use for security screening."
• Long-awaited intelligence IT upgrade taking shape at NSA, by Dan Verton, Computerworld, October 4. "The National Security Agency this week took a major step toward upgrading its IT infrastructure in a way that may bolster its ability to thwart future terrorist attacks."
• Central Intelligence Test, The Washington Post, October 2. "Ever since 1995, Steven Aftergood has been pushing the CIA to declassify and release the aggregate intelligence budgets from, among other years, 1947 and 1948. Why, you might ask, would spending figures from a half-century ago, when the agency was in its cradle, still be sensitive?"
• Chill on the Hill, by Russ Baker, The Nation, October 14. "The intelligence oversight process certainly has its 'moments' (one of which is right now), but its overall performance seems designed to protect a dinosaur."
• Condit silent on Sept. 11 panel, by Michael Doyle, Fresno Bee, October 2. "Congressman Gary Condit is drifting away from the intelligence committee work he once billed as his most sensitive responsibility."
• Remarks of Attorney General Ashcroft, speech before US Attorneys, October 1. "It is our responsibility to consider how those who criticize our actions would have us respond to the terrorism that struck on September 11 and continues to threaten the United States."
• FBI Response to Inspector General Review of FBI Counterterrorism Program, press statement, October 1. "Director Mueller welcomes the report's findings and concurs with the recommendations as constructive guidance."