FAS | Intelligence | News | 2006 ||

May 2006 Intelligence News

• President's Remarks at Swearing-In of General Michael V. Hayden as Director of CIA, May 31. "This agency remains the principal provider of intelligence analysis to the President, to the Director of National Intelligence, and to senior national security officials in my administration."
• Treat reporters like spies? by Jacob Sullum, Washington Times, May 30. "When the executive branch decides what information is secret and whether any given person should be prosecuted for discussing it, the potential chilling effect on reporting and public debate is enormous."
• Panel Requires Annual Disclosure of Intelligence Budget by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, May 28. "The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has approved language in the fiscal 2007 authorization bill that calls on the president to annually make public what the National Intelligence Program costs."
• Cheney keeps classification activity secret by Mark Silva, Chicago Tribune, May 27. "Despite an executive order signed by President Bush in 2003..., the vice president's office maintains that it has no legal obligation to report on its classification decisions."
• New judge appointed to secret FISA court, United Press International, May 24. "U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson is the newest member of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court."
• Web site posts documents alleging AT&T chamber for 'government spy operation' by Matthew B. Stannard and Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, May 23. "Documents purportedly at the heart of a lawsuit accusing AT&T of collaborating with the National Security Agency to snoop on Americans appeared Monday on the Web."
• House Intelligence to Hold Open Hearing on the Media's Role and Responsibilities in Leaks of Classified Information, HPSCI news release, May 23. "The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will convene an open hearing to gain a variety of perspectives from public witnesses on the role and responsibilities of the media in national security reporting."
• Old-fashioned spying is a hard thing to find by Susan Taylor Martin, St. Petersburg Times, May 20. "U.S. spy agencies, though still enamored with high-tech gadgetry, are putting renewed emphasis on human intelligence or HUMINT -- the old-fashioned art of using spies on the ground to collect valuable information."
• Judge Rejects Call to Release AT& T Papers by Karen Gullo and Joel Rosenblatt, Bloomberg News/Washington Post, May 18. "A federal judge yesterday rejected a privacy group's request to release documents that it claims show AT&T Inc. helped the National Security Agency spy on Americans by providing access to customers' phone calls. U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker said at a hearing in San Francisco that the documents may contain AT&T trade secrets."
• DNI Announces Classified Meeting for Industry on Future Intelligence Collection Architecture, Federal Register, May 12. "The Office of the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection will hold an information meeting to discuss the process by which it is working with Intelligence Community agencies to develop an Integrated Collection Architecture and a budgetary roadmap."
• Administration cites state secrets in bid to derail spy lawsuit by David Kravets, Associated Press, May 12. "As lawmakers demand answers about warrantless electronic eavesdropping on Americans, the Bush administration says its secretive program's constitutionality cannot be challenged."
• Data mining: Commonly used in business to find patterns, it rarely focuses on individuals by Matthew B. Stannard, San Francisco Chronicle, May 12. "And data mining of some type, experts agree, is almost certainly what is behind the National Security Agency's reportedly successful efforts to obtain the phone records of tens of millions of Americans from private telecommunications companies."
• Press Briefing by DNI Negroponte on the Nomination of General Hayden for CIA Director, May 8. "In nominating Mike Hayden to serve as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, I believe that the President has selected the best person, civilian or military, to lead the CIA during this critical period."
• President Nominates General Michael Hayden as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, White House release, May 8. "Today I'm pleased to nominate General Mike Hayden as the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mike Hayden is supremely qualified for this position."
• Fact Sheet: General Michael V. Hayden: The Right Leader for the CIA, White House release, May 8. "After More Than 20 Years Of Experience In The Intelligence Business, General Hayden Has Extensive Experience As Both A Provider And Customer Of Intelligence."
• Chilling free speech by Nat Hentoff, Washington Times, May 8. "This espionage case -- United States of America v. Lawrence Anthony Franklin, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman -- is the first in which the federal government is charging violations of the Espionage Act by American citizens -- who are not government officials -- for being involved in what until now have been regarded as First Amendment-protected activities engaged in by hundreds of American journalists."
• Spy Czar, Rumsfeld in a Turf War by Doyle McManus and Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times, May 6. "Negroponte faces a larger and much more difficult challenge: a struggle with Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Department of Defense, which runs more than 80% of the nation's intelligence budget and is busy expanding its role even further."
• CIA Director Porter Goss Announces Resignation, CIA news release, May 5. "This morning, I notified the President that I will be stepping aside as Director of CIA."
• Feds Go All Out to Kill Spy Suit by Ryan Singel, Wired News, May 2. "When the government told a court Friday that it wanted a class-action lawsuit regarding the National Security Agency's eavesdropping on Americans dismissed, its lawyers wielded one of the most powerful legal tools available to the executive branch -- the state secrets privilege."
• Government's use of secret warrants climbed 18 pct in 2005, Reuters, May 1. "The number of court-approved warrants allowing the Bush administration to conduct intelligence searches and electronic surveillance inside the United States climbed 18 percent to 2,072 in 2005, the Justice Department said on Monday."