FAS | Intelligence | News | 2005 ||||

July 2005 Intelligence News

• Deputy chief: National Intelligence agency is 'agile' by John Diamond, USA Today, July 29. "To fight international terrorism, the nation's new intelligence agency will mimic the terrorists themselves by streamlining its bureaucracy and moving more quickly, the agency's No. 2 official said Thursday."
• Intel chair urges secrecy, leaks reform by Shaun Waterman, United Press International, July 27. "The Chairman of the House intelligence committee says there has to be major reform of government secrecy rules before zero tolerance of leaks can be imposed."
• America wrestles with privacy vs. security by Brad Knickerbocker, Christian Science Monitor, July 22. "From driver's licenses to domestic spying, recent debates test public values amid terror war."
• CIA Privacy Act Systems of Records, Federal Register, July 22. "The Central Intelligence Agency completed a zero-based, Agency-wide review of its Privacy Act systems of records. As a result of this review, the Agency determined that its Privacy Act notices required extensive modifications to more accurately describe the records systems currently maintained by the Agency."
• Djibouti Ratifies Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, news release, July 21. "Djibouti has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) with the United Nations Secretary-General on 15 July 2005, bringing the total number of ratifications to 122."
• Former Intelligence Officers Speak Out on Valerie Plame Case, letter to Congress, July 18. "The disclosure of Ms. Plame's name was a shameful event in American history and, in our professional judgment, may have damaged U.S. national security and poses a threat to the ability of U.S. intelligence gathering using human sources."
• Bush says he'll fire any aide who committed a crime in leak case by Jonathan S. Landay, Knight Ridder Newspapers, July 18. "President Bush on Monday narrowed the circumstances under which he would fire subordinates who leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer to journalists in 2003, saying it would have to be a crime."
• Political Parties Reverse Roles in Debate Over CIA Leak by Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, July 18. "The debate over the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity has caused a curious about-face by Washington politicians."
• Rove Did Leak Classified Information by David Corn, The Nation, July 13. "If Cooper's email is accurate then Rove did pass classified information to Cooper. It's possible that Rove did so unwittingly. That is, he did not know Valerie Wilson's employment status at the CIA was classified information. But he and his posse cannot say the information he slipped to Cooper was not classified."
• Bush Adviser Helped Law Firm Land Job Lobbying for CNOOC by Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post, July 12. "China is among the biggest intelligence challenges of the coming decades," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "And one has to wonder whether Mr. Langdon's involvement in Chinese affairs will be tolerated by intelligence agencies that have different interests than those of Mr. Langdon's firm."