FAS | Intelligence | News | 2009 ||||

Newer News: January 2010

December 2009 Intelligence News

• President Obama Announces Members of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, news release, December 23. President Obama said, "Throughout its history, this distinguished board has been used by each President to examine and address the most pressing intelligence challenges that face our nation."
• Obama plan could limit records hidden from public by Pete Yost, Associated Press, December 20. "President Barack Obama plans to deal with a Dec. 31 deadline that automatically would declassify secrets in more than 400 million pages of Cold War-era documents by ordering government-wide changes that could sharply curb the number of new and old government records hidden from the public."
• Former FBI Contract Linguist Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Information to Blogger, news release, December 17. "A former FBI contract linguist pleaded guilty today to unlawfully providing classified documents to the host of an Internet blog who then published information derived from those documents on the blog."
• Inside the Ring by Bill Gertz, Washington Times, December 17. "Taliban insurgents recently posted on the Internet a propaganda video showing their version of a deadly attack on the U.S. military outpost near Kamdesh and the aftermath, according to a U.S. intelligence report."
• Agencies to Ease Sharing of Clues on Threats by Cam Simpson and Siobhan Gorman, Wall Street Journal, December 15. "At issue are the reams of reports, guidelines and advisories produced across the government every day that aren't sensitive enough to get classifications such as "top secret," but are still too sensitive to make immediately available to the public. Right now, government agencies use a tangle of more than 100 categories for this sort of sensitive information. By one count, there are 117. Many of the categories have their own rules for how the information can be shared both inside and among agencies."
• Struggling Spy Satellite Agency Tries to Right Itself by Stew Magnuson, National Defense, January 2010. "The National Reconnaissance Office, the agency responsible for developing and launching the U.S. fleet of spy satellites, is embarking on an ambitious plan to right itself after years of cost overruns and program cancellations."
• Obama team launches its interactive 'openness' policy with online access by Dan Vergano, USA Today, December 8. "In today's directive, OMB Director Peter Orszag orders all federal agencies to 'create and institutionalize a culture of open government.' Orders include reporting how well agencies make data available on a White House site, www.whitehouse.gov/open, within 60 days, releasing three 'high-value' databases within 45 days and allowing public comment on data and openness efforts on department websites.
• TSA to Conduct Full Review After Leak of Sensitive Information by Alex Kingsbury, U.S. News and World Report, December 7. "TSA officials say that a "full review" is underway to determine how a 2008 copy of its standard operating procedures for all airport security checkpoints was released in its entirety on the Internet."