FAS | Intelligence | News | 2009 ||||

January 2009 Intelligence News

• A ray of sunshine into a dark world: the future declassification of satellite reconnaissance information by Dwayne A. Day, The Space Review, January 26. "Maybe, just maybe, in the next few years we might actually learn more about the amazing machines like the KH-9 that collected intelligence and helped win the Cold War."
• Papers cite Russian torpedo test for Iran, United Press International, January 21. " In 2004 Iranian naval authorities participated in a Russian test of the Shkval torpedo, according to Persian-language documents obtained by Secrecy News."
• Statement of Sen. Feingold on the Decision by the FISA Court of Review, news release, January 16. "The recently declassified decision by the FISA Court of Review in no way validates or bolsters the president's illegal warrantless wiretapping program. The decision, which only addressed surveillance authorized by the Protect America Act (PAA) enacted in August 2007, did not support the President's claim of constitutional authority to violate the law. Nor did the decision uphold the constitutionality of the PAA in all cases, but rather it upheld only the Act's application in this particular case."
• Media Roundtable with Mr. Mike McConnell, DNI (pdf), January 16. "Bureaucracies have cultures, and bureaucracies take, they have a personality and norms of behavior and expectation, and there's another consideration of a bureaucracy. It will defend itself or -- and sometimes even redefine reality in its own self interest to resist change."
• Probe of CIA video destruction winding down by Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters, January 8. "A criminal probe into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects is almost finished, court papers made public this week show."
• Obama's New Intelligence Czar, Agence France-Presse, January 6. "As Obama's director of national intelligence, retired Admiral Dennis Blair will inherit an intelligence community still in the throes of reform following monumental intelligence fiascos in President George W. Bush's first term."
• Government FISA appeal headed to court, United Press International, January 5. "A dormant government appeal of a 2007 ruling that said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is unconstitutional will be argued in court next month."
• Money, Secrets Top DC Watchdog Worries in '09 by Justin Rood and Megan Chuchmach, ABC News The Blotter, January 2. "Call them the three S's: Spending, Secrets and Spying. Those are the major issues good government groups say they will be focused on in 2009, according to an informal poll by ABCNews.com."