FAS | Intelligence | News | 2005 ||||

March 2005 Intelligence News

• Commission Offers Scathing Appraisal of US Intelligence by Gary Thomas, Voice of America, March 31. "What comes across in the 601-page report of the commission is a picture of an intelligence community resistant to change, slow to adapt to the new threats of the post-Cold War world and lacking in imagination and innovation."
• White House Press Briefing on the WMD Commission Report, White House news briefing, March 31. "Fran Townsend is here to talk to you a little bit about the process and how we move forward on reviewing the recommendations and then implementing the recommendations."
• President Bush Comments on the WMD Commission Report, March 31. "This morning the commission presented me with their recommendations, which are thoughtful and extremely significant. The central conclusion is one that I share: America's intelligence community needs fundamental change to enable us to successfully confront the threats of the 21st century."
• Ask This: The WMD Commission and intelligence reform by Steven Aftergood, Nieman Watchdog, March 28. "A new commission report on the failures of U.S. intelligence should raise questions about government accountability and the feasibility of intelligence reform, writes Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists."
• National Security Council Staff Reorganization, White House memo, March 28. "Attached is a revised organizational chart, reflecting changes to the NSC Staff...."
• What a blast! 1962 nuclear test still shaking things up, half a world away by Mike M. Ahlers, CNN.com, March 11. "The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. charge d'affaires in Khartoum and demanded an explanation about the supposedly secret nuclear tests in the east African country."
• That '62 Sedan Was a Real Bomb by Al Kamen, Washington Post, March 11. "Sudan's foreign minister told Al Jazeera television Wednesday that his government wanted to know more about a U.S. nuclear test in Sudan in 1962 that was disclosed last week at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing."
• US Senate ends probe into prewar intelligence on Iraq by Edward Alden, Financial Times, March 11. "The Senate committee overseeing US intelligence has shut down its investigation into whether top administration officials distorted intelligence evidence to build the case for war on Iraq."
• US nuclear confusion, British food scare reveal testy Sudanese diplomacy, Sudan Tribune (AFP), March 11. "A typo in the transcript of the US Congress' Armed Services Strategic Services Subcommittee's March 2 session had the unforeseen consequence of triggering Sudanese accusations the US had carried out nuclear tests in Sudan."
• Sihanouk Launches 'News From Cambodia' Blog, FBIS Report, March 10. "FBIS first observed the blog in late February at http://www.norodomsihanouk.info. Since then it has evolved into a daily report on a range of current issues, including some with political content."
• Sudan: US Envoy Summoned Over House Remarks on US Nuclear Tests in Sudan, Al Jazirah, March 9. "The Sudanese Foreign Ministry has summoned the US charge d'affaires in Khartoum and requested clarification regarding statements that the United States had carried out nuclear tests in Sudan."
• The National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States, speech by Michelle Van Cleave, National Counterintelligence Executive, March 5 (PDF). "It is my privilege today to share with you the principles set forth in the National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States. The official document, which will be issued later this month by President Bush, will be the first unclassified national strategy for U.S. counterintelligence."
• PRC Views The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004, by the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, March 3. "In 2004 the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark side of human rights performance of the United States."