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Newer News: December 2008

November 2008 Intelligence News

• Potential CIA chief cites critics in ending bid by Pamela Hess, Associated Press, November 26. "President-elect Barack Obama's top pick to head the CIA blamed his sudden withdrawal from consideration on critics who blamed him for harsh Bush administration policies on interrogations, detentions and secret renditions." (Letter from John Brennan to President-Elect Obama)
• Lebanon Ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, CTBTO news release, November 25. "On 21 November 2008, Lebanon ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), bringing the total number of Treaty ratifications to 148."
• Malawi Ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, CTBTO news release, November 24. "On 21 November 2008, Malawi ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans all nuclear explosions on Earth. This brings the total number of Treaty ratifications to 147."
• ODNI Press Briefing on Global 2025 Report, November 20. "Nothing that we have identified in this report is determinative. Nothing in it is inevitable or immutable. These are all trends and developments, drivers that are subject to policy intervention, manipulation, can be deflected from a trajectory with correct policy but also could be accelerated either intentionally or unintentionally."
• Hoekstra Condemns Potential CIA Cover-Up in Death of Bowers Family, news release, November 20. "U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, today strongly criticized rogue CIA employees that a CIA Inspector General's report concluded had attempted to block congressional and federal investigations into the agency�s role in the shoot-down of a plane carrying the Bowers family of Muskegon, Mich."
• Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq On the Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq and the Organization of Their Activities during Their Temporary Presence in Iraq, signed November 17. "This Agreement shall determine the principal provisions and requirements that regulate the temporary presence, activities, and withdrawal of the United States Forces from Iraq."
• Fears over covert DNA database by Stephen Fidler, Financial Times, November 17. "The unfinished work at the database -- part of a classified intelligence partnership of military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies -- has been referred to in public documents but has not been openly discussed by US government officials."
• Feinstein might head secretive intelligence panel by Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers, November 14. "Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California will find both spotlight and shadows if she becomes the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence."
• Obama inheriting broad covert ops policies by Pamela Hess, Associated Press, November 11. "President Bush leaves President-elect Obama broad latitude for covert action in countries with which the United States is not at war, powers that Obama could scale back along with other Bush presidential orders now under consideration for rescinding. But he's not likely to do that."
• Google Earth helps yet worries government by Peter Eisler, USA Today, November 7. "Last month, the most powerful commercial satellite in history sent its first pictures back to Earth, and another with similar capabilities is set for launch in mid-2009. The imagery provided by those and other commercial satellites has transformed global security in fundamental ways, forcing even the most powerful nations to hide facilities and activities that are visible not only to rival nations, but even to their own citizens."
• Mozambique ratifies the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, CTBTO news release, November 6. "On 4 November 2008, Mozambique ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans all nuclear explosions on Earth. This brings the total number of Treaty ratifications to 146. Mozambique signed the CTBT on the day it opened for signature, on 26 September 1996."