FAS | Intelligence | News | 2009 ||||

Newer News: August 2009

July 2009 Intelligence News

• Declassified Briefing Still Classified, Says CIA by Meteor Blades, Daily Kos, July 29. "Since 2000, Secrecy News has been a heavily sourced must-read for any investigative blogger or journalist interested in what the intelligence side of government is hiding."
• Holt Calls for Next Church Committee on CIA by Spencer Ackerman, The Washington Independent, July 27. "After years of examining CIA operations of dubious legality, an important member of the House intelligence committee is exploring an option that many in the intelligence community view with apprehension: a comprehensive investigation of all intelligence-community operations over years and perhaps even decades."
• US report: NKorea preparing for Kim's succession by Foster Klug, Associated Press, July 24. "A U.S. spy agency report says North Korea has restarted a subtle but persistent propaganda campaign to prepare the country's people for a successor to ailing leader Kim Jong Il."
• Group tries to expose intelligence misdeeds by Nedra Pickler, Associated Press, July 22. "A public interest group is trying to use the Freedom of Information Act to crack more than three decades of secrecy surrounding how the government deals with wrongdoing by intelligence agencies."
• Aiming at CIA, NSA misdeeds, free speech group sues for oversight records by Stephen Lee, Washington Examiner, July 22. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation is set to file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit today in Federal court to obtain information from the Intelligence Oversight Board, with the goal of obtaining documentary evidence of intelligence agency misdeeds, reports wired.com's Threat Level blog."
• Former Boeing Engineer Convicted of Economic Espionage in Theft of Space Shuttle Secrets for China, news release, July 16. "A former Rockwell and Boeing engineer from Orange County, Calif., was remanded into custody this morning after a federal judge convicted him of charges of economic espionage and acting as an agent of the People�s Republic of China, for whom he stole restricted technology and Boeing trade secrets, including information related to the Space Shuttle program and Delta IV rocket."
• Drone Attacks Signal CIA's Willingness to Assassinate Terrorists by Spencer Ackerman, The Washington Independent, July 13. "Recently uncovered program wasn't sole approach to agency's targeting killings."
• Wyden Says Bush Policies Were "Harmful to U.S. National Security", news release, July 10. "While former Bush Administration officials continue to argue that their policies made the country safer, I believe this report shows that their obsession with secrecy and their refusal to accept oversight was actually harmful to U.S. national security, not to mention the privacy rights of law-abiding Americans."
• Pelosi, Panetta in new duel over CIA misleading Congress by Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, July 9. "In a closed briefing, did the spy chief acknowledge that the agency had 'concealed significant actions'?"
• With the C.I.A., Is Congress in the Loop? by Eric Etheridge, New York Times The Opinionator, July 9. "New legislation by House Democrats seeks to strengthen Congress�s ability to oversee covert CIA activities, an effort that has in turn prompted a presidential veto threat."
• White House Statement on FY2010 House Intelligence Authorization Act, July 8. "Although the Administration is pleased with the many favorable provisions in the bill, the Administration has serious concerns with a number of provisions that would impede the smooth and efficient functioning of the IC and that would raise a number of policy, management, legal, and constitutional concerns."
• Department of Defense spies bend rules to keep Congress in the dark by Stephen Lee, Washington Examiner, July 6. "The Department of Defense has failed to report intelligence operations and covert actions conducted by special operations forces and DoD intelligence units to the House and Senate intelligence committees, according to the House report on the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010."
• Saint Vincent and Grenadines Signs the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, news release, July 2. "Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is the 181st State to have signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The signing ceremony took place on 2 July 2009 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York."