FAS | Intelligence | News | 2008 ||||

Newer News: October 2008

September 2008 Intelligence News

• Timor-Leste Signs the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, news release, September 29. "The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on 26 September 2008, bringing the number of State Signatories of the CTBT up to 180 States."
• Burundi Signs the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, news release, September 25. "The Republic of Burundi ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on 24 September 2008. This brings the total number of Treaty ratifications to 145."
• Analysis: Classifying open source intel? by Shaun Waterman, United Press International, September 16. "Intelligence from open sources like the Internet is now recognized as an essential part of the work of U.S. agencies -- but one leading expert in the field says much more of it should be secret."
• Pentagon Researcher Conjures Warcraft Terror Plot by Noah Shachtman, WIRED Danger Room, September 15. "The American military and intelligence communities are increasingly worried that would-be bin Ladens might gather in a virtual world, to plan a real-life attack. But the spies haven't given many details, about how it might be done. Now, a Pentagon researcher has laid out how such a terror plot might unfold. The planning ground is World of Warcraft. The main target of this possibly nuclear strike: the White House."
• Background Briefing with Department of Justice Officials on Consolidated Attorney General Guidelines, September 12. "Approximately 18 months ago, the FBI had a meeting with DOJ and asked DOJ to consider whether it makes sense to combine three basic sets of guidelines, and the three basic sets that we were most interested in having combined are what's called the General Crimes Guidelines, which were promulgated in 2002; the National Security Investigative Guidelines, or NSIG, which were promulgated in 2003; and a set of guidelines that are called the Supplemental Foreign Intelligence Guidelines, which were promulgated in 2006."
• Bin Laden's public statements, revealed, NBC News Deep Background, September 12. "In 2004, the U.S. government compiled a 289-page collection of Osama Bin Laden's earliest interviews and public statements. The texts were translated by the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. The voluminous report has never been approved for public release. But a copy was obtained by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, with a link published in Aftergood's Secrecy News blog."
• Statement of Administration Policy on the 2009 Defense Authorization Act (Senate), September 9. "If S. 3001 were presented to the President, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill, especially if the bill includes the following provisions."
• Report Describes Careless Handling of U.S. Secrets by Carrie Johnson, Washington Post, September 3. "Former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales told investigators that he could not recall whether he took home notes regarding the government's most sensitive national security program and that he did not know they contained classified information, despite his own markings that they were 'top secret -- eyes only,' according to a Justice Department report released yesterday."