FAS | Intelligence | News | 2008 ||||

Newer News: June 2008

May 2008 Intelligence News

• Cyber-Spying for Dummies by Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, June 2. "Congressional experts fear that Defense intelligence agencies are not making wide enough--and smart enough--use of the vast pool of "open source" information now available in cyberspace."
• New judges appointed to secret court, United Press International, May 23. "Chief Justice John Roberts has appointed two new judges to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to the Federation of American Scientists."
• Lawmakers seek curbs on DoD, intel contractors by Elise Castelli, Federal Times, May 19. "In bills to authorize the Defense Department and intelligence agencies, House and Senate lawmakers have called for a three-year ban on outsourcing Defense Department civilian jobs, new boundaries on what work can be outsourced, and new curbs aimed at preventing conflicts of interest when contractors assist agencies with their procurements."
• Keeping Secrets: In Presidential Memo, A New Designation for Classifying Information by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, May 19. "The president declared that the purpose of the new classification is 'to standardize practices and thereby improve the sharing of information, not to classify or declassify new or additional information.' But some critics described it as continuing an expansion of secrecy in government and a potential bureaucratic nightmare."
• Cyber Security Plans Assailed by Bradley Olson, Baltimore Sun, May 18. "In a stinging rebuke, members of Congress from both parties are challenging a $17 billion plan that the Bush administration put on a fast track earlier this year to secure the nation's cyber networks from terror threats and foreign spying."
• Excessive Secrecy Harms National Cyber Defenses, Report Says by Thomas Claburn, Information Week, May 16. "The Senate Armed Services Committee believes the government's new National Cyber Security Initiative is too secret to have much value as deterrence."
• Media Briefing on National Intelligence Civilian Compensation Program (NICCP) (pdf), Office of the Director of National Intelligence, May 15. "We are here to talk today about something called the National Intelligence Civilian Compensation Program. The translation: This is a community-wide effort to modernize the compensation systems that cover our civilian employees across the departments and agencies that comprise the IC."
• House Intelligence Committee Approves Funding for Intelligence Operations and Critical Oversight (pdf), news release, May 8. "Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence approved the Fiscal Year 2009 Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R. 5959), authorizing the largest funding increase in the base Intelligence Budget in history."
• Price-Schakowsky Bill Would Prohibit Intel Contractors From Detainee Operations, May 6. "Specifically, the bill would prohibit the intelligence agencies from outsourcing the following detention-related functions: arrest, interrogation, detention, transfer, and rendition."