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Newer News: October 2010

September 2010 Intelligence News

• How Not to Censor a Book: Pentagon Makes a Best Seller by Claire Suddath, Time, September 30. "The Pentagon said it was the first time it has ever destroyed a printed book because it contained classified information � but it may not have been in time to keep the secrets from circulating."
• Availability of Environmental Impact Statement for Fort Meade, MD, Federal Register, September 29.
• Zeal for Dream Drove Scientist in Secrets Case by William J. Broad, New York Times, September 28. "Many people who know P. Leonardo Mascheroni describe him as a maverick and a technology zealot. Now, the Justice Department will try to prove that he is dangerous, too � a man willing to sell atomic secrets in exchange for a chance to realize his dream." (The 1991 "Risley report")
• Pelosi and White House Reach a Deal on Intelligence Oversight by Massimo Calabresi, Time Swampland, September 27. "In the end, say sources familiar with the deal, the two sides split the difference. The White House backed down on GAO, accepting a directive from Congress to the Director of National Intelligence to work up a plan with GAO for auditing covert programs.
• Loved Lasers, Lost: Venezuelan Nuclear Spy Accused by Dan Charles, NPR All Things Considered, September 24. "Pedro Leo Mascheroni, the former scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who is accused of trying to pass nuclear secrets to Venezuela, makes an unusual spy suspect. He hasn't been hiding from government officials; for 20 years he's been trying to get their attention."
• Lawyers Look to Exploit a Scientific Error by William J. Broad, New York Times, September 24. "The spying indictment filed late last week against a former Los Alamos scientist also contains a glaring scientific error, which is prompting debate among legal and nuclear experts on whether the government�s case could be hurt."
• Alleged rogue nuclear scientist has long and loud past by John Cook, Yahoo News, September 22. "If he has indeed gone rogue, Mascheroni has done it in the most public way imaginable: by suing the federal government, demanding congressional hearings, enlisting a former CIA director as his advocate, and even publicizing an incident in which FBI agents apparently searched his home late last year in the espionage investigation."
• Former Workers at Los Alamos Charged with Transmitting Classified Nuclear Weapons Data, Justice Department news release, September 17. "The Justice Department today announced that a scientist and his wife, who both previously worked as contractors at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, have been indicted on charges of communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official and conspiring to participate in the development of an atomic weapon for Venezuela, among other violations."
• Publisher agrees to drop US spy secrets from book: Pentagon, Agence-France Presse, September 18. "A publisher has agreed to remove US intelligence details from a memoir by a former army officer in Afghanistan after the Pentagon raised last-minute objections, officials said Friday."
• Pentagon Plan: Buying Books to Keep Secrets by Scott Shane, New York Times, September 10. "Defense Department officials are negotiating to buy and destroy all 10,000 copies of the first printing of an Afghan war memoir they say contains intelligence secrets, according to two people familiar with the dispute."
• Pentagon Tries to Buy Up Embarrassing Book by Joshua Hersh, AOL News, September 10. "An 11th-hour attempt by the Pentagon to purchase and destroy the entire print run of an upcoming military memoir has backfired, resulting in an unexpected publicity boon for the book -- and for the classified data it allegedly contains."
• DIA Memo on Harm to National Security from Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information in the book "Operation Dark Heart", August 6, 2010. "DIA's preliminary classification review of this manuscript has identified significant classified information, the release of which I have determined could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security."
• Obama uses Bush plan for terror war by Eli Lake, Washington Times, September 10. "As the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, much of President Obama's counterterrorism policies and his understanding of executive power closely hew to the last administration, which he criticized as a candidate for the White House."
• GAO access to intel in dispute by Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post Top Secret America, September 1. "There's a showdown expected this fall between the White House and Congress as to just how much access the Government Accountability Office will receive to do oversight investigations of the country's most secretive intelligence agencies."