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September 2006 Intelligence News

• Dept of Energy Counterintelligence Polygraph Policy, Federal Register, September 29. "The question of whether and to what extent DOE should use the polygraph as a tool for screening individuals for access to our most sensitive information is the latest manifestation of this perennial struggle."
• Peek at NSA's Secret Reading List by Ryan Singel, Wired News, September 27. "The tantalizing tables of contents to the best spy magazines you'll probably never get to read have been posted online, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request that pried open four classified National Security Agency publications."
• White House Releases Portion of Security Report by Mary Louise Kelly, National Public Radio, September 27. "A much-debated U.S. intelligence report states that Iraq has become a 'cause célèbre' for Islamic extremists, and that the war there has bred a deep resentment of the United States. The White House made declassified the report's conclusion Tuesday."
• President Bush Comments on the National Intelligence Estimate on Trends in Terrorism, September 26. "I told the DNI to declassify this document. You can read it for yourself. We'll stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy."
• White House: The NIE Reflects Previous Statements About the War on Terror, news release, September 26.
• Justice appeals court order to release NRO documents by Daniel Friedman, Federal Times, September 25. "The Justice Department is appealing a federal court order requiring the National Reconnaissance Office to release unclassified budget documents."
• Rep. Curt Weldon Rejects DoD Report on ABLE DANGER and Harassment on Military Officer, news release, September 21. "I am appalled that the DOD IG would expect the American people to actually consider this a full and thorough investigation. I question their motives and the content of this report, and I reject the conclusions they have drawn."
• Press Briefing on Prisoner Interrogation with National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, White House release, September 21. "I'll try and describe what we accomplished today. The work involved both the issue of Common Article III, which needed to be resolved so that the CIA program of questioning terrorists could go forward. That was addressed. We also needed to address some issues involved in the military commissions so that we would have that instrument for bringing terrorists to justice."
• Conference Call with DNI John D. Negroponte and A Senior Intelligence Official (pdf), September 13. "The purpose of this call is to talk about the current legislation that is being offered by the Senate Armed Services Committee.... And the bottom line that I wanted to convey to you is that if it goes forward as proposed, that this will not allow for the CIA High-Value Terrorist Detention Program, that was described by the President on the 6th of September, to go forward."
• DoD News Briefing on Detainee Interrogation Policy, September 6. "This directive represents the culmination of over a year of discussion and debate within the department and the U.S. government in developing a solid foundation upon which to build future detention operations policy."
• Summary of the High Value Terrorist Detainee Program, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, September 6. "Detainees who have been in the inner circle of al-Qa'ida, occupying some of the most important positions in that organization, hold information that simply cannot be obtained from any other source." (Biographies of the 14 high value detainees)
• Failures of Imagination by Eric Umansky, Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2006. "Reporters and news organizations deserve enormous credit for exposing the abuse and torture of detainees during the U.S. war on terror, more than other institutions or individuals. Without Carlotta Gall, The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, The Washington Post's Dana Priest, and many other reporters, we might well never have learned of the abuse and torture that have occurred in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere. But just as sweeping attacks against 'the media' are too reductive, so too are plaudits."
• Fact Sheet: Department of Justice Anti-Terrorism Efforts Since Sept. 11, 2001, Justice Department news release, September 5. "The ability of the Department to identify and prosecute would-be terrorists, thereby thwarting their deadly plots, has improved dramatically over the past five years thanks to: a core set of structural reforms, the development of new law enforcement tools, and the discipline of a new mindset that values prevention and communication."
• Spy agencies have discretion on reporting by Shaun Waterman, United Press International, September 5. "The directors of U.S. intelligence agencies have discretion over which of their activities are reported to Congress, according to newly disclosed guidelines."
• Study finds fewer terror prosecutions by Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press, September 3. "The federal government has fallen back to prosecuting international terrorists at about the same rate it did before Sept. 11, according to a study based on Justice Department data."