FAS | Intelligence | News | 2008 ||||

Newer News: February 2008

January 2008 Intelligence News

• North Korean Human Rights and U.S. National Security remarks of Jay Lefkowitz, U.S. Special Envoy for Human Rights, January 17, 2008. "Much has been learned in the past four years since we entered the current phase of dialogue with North Korea. North Korea has not kept its word. Indeed, proliferation concerns cast a pall over global security, thanks to Pyongyang. It is appropriate now to reevaluate -- to look at what has worked and what has not. We now know what levers work on the North Korean government. We should use them."
• Reprogramming of Funds to Various Intelligence Agencies and Other Programs, Department of Defense Budget Notice, FY08. "This reprogramming action transfers $3,643.577 million from the Iraq Freedom Fund (IFF), 08/09, appropriation to various Defense appropriations for proper execution."
• Malaysia ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, CTBTO news release, January 18. "In ASEAN, Cambodia, the Lao People�s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam have now ratified the CTBT, whereas Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand have yet to ratify it."
• QinetiQ Goes Kinetic: Top Rumsfeld Aide Wins Contracts From Spy Office He Set Up by Tim Shorrock, Corpwatch, January 15. "The problem is not so much a conflict of interest as it is a coincidence of interests -- the Intelligence Community and the contractors are so tightly intertwined at the leadership level that their interests, practically speaking, are identical.�
• Barbados ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, CTBTO news release, January 15. "Barbados signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on 14 January 2008. This brings the total number of Treaty signatures to 178 and the total number of Treaty ratifications to 142."
• U.S. intel official: Secrecy dysfunctional, United Press International, January 14. "A senior counter-intelligence official says the U.S. system for protecting secrets has become 'dysfunctional in the face of current needs of national security'."
• Government Secrecy Guru Reflects on Agee's Death by Laura Rozen, Mother Jones, January 9. "As a long time close CIA watcher, I asked Aftergood to comment on controversial former CIA officer Philip Agee's death, and he obliged."
• Declassified Study Puts Vietnam Events in New Light by Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor, January 9. "US signals intelligence -- the much-vaunted ability of American military and spy units to eavesdrop on the radio calls and other electronic communications of an adversary -- failed at crucial moments during the Vietnam War, according to a just-declassified National Security Agency history of the effort."
• Report reveals Vietnam War hoaxes, faked attacks, Agence-France Presse, January 7. "The report was released by the National Security Agency, responsible for much of the United States' codebreaking and eavesdropping work, in response to a "mandatory declassification" request, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said Monday."
• U.S. Spysat Snapshots Courtesy of Russian Tracking Facility by Leonard David, LiveScience.com, January 7. "Eager to take a look at a super-secret U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite? Now you can thumb through a sourcebook on a Russian satellite tracking facility in Siberia called the Altay Optical Laser Research Center."
• National Security Agency Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS for Power Upgrades at Fort Meade, Federal Register, January 2. "The Power Upgrades Project, an NSA investment and major systems acquisition, was initiated to meet the growth requirements of NSA as well as address aging infrastructure reliability issues."
• ODNI Proposed Privacy Act Regulations, Federal Register, January 2. "This proposed regulation provides the public the guidelines under which the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will implement the Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. 552a, as amended."