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Newer News: June 2012

May 2012 Intelligence News

• Lawmakers nudge spy agencies into anti-drug fight on U.S. public land by Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers, May 31. "The nation's spy agencies are drawn deeper into the fight against illegal-drug production on U.S. public land under an intelligence bill that the House of Representatives approved Thursday."
• Congressional fight gives peek at intelligence spending by Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, May 31. "Most of the recent battles over government spending have been dramatic, bloody and excruciatingly fought in public, but disputes over the approximately $80 billion budgeted every year for the intelligence community has generally been hidden - until now."
• House votes to outspend White House on spy bill by Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press, May 31. "The House voted to give the intelligence community a few billion dollars more Thursday than the White House wanted for next year's budget."
• Statement of Administration Policy on House Version of FY2013 Intelligence Authorization Act, May 30. "The Administration has serious concerns with the amounts authorized in the classified annex, particularly if these funding levels were included in an appropriations bill, because they exceed the President's Budget."
• Leak About Al Qaeda Plot and Double Agent Helps CIA, Could Scare Terrorists by Tara McKelvey, The Daily Beast, May 10. "The disclosure of a covert action and about the double agent involved in the thwarted plot is highly unusual, but the leak gives the impression the CIA has reach--and may help Americans by throwing terrorists off balance."
• Boxes of top secret documents go missing by Aaron Mehta and R. Jeffrey Smith, iWatch News, May 4. "Security lapses blamed on systemic mismanagement at a federal records center."
• Government Surveillance Requests Up In 2011, Report Says by Andrea Stone, Huffington Post, May 4. "The federal government submitted 1,745 applications in 2011 to a secret intelligence court to investigate -- mostly through wiretapping -- suspected cases of terrorism and espionage, a 10.5 percent increase over the year before, according to a Justice Department report released Friday."
• US requests for secret spying warrants rose to nearly 2K in 2011, and not a single one was rejected by Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing, May 3. "The Federation of American Scientists reports today that the US Justice Department made 1,745 requests last year to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for permission to wiretap electronic communications or search for physical evidence in counter-terrorism cases."
• 3 Theories About the Air Force's Mystery Space Plane, X-37B by Sharon Weinberger, Popular Mechanics, May 1. "The U.S. Air Force is planning another flight of its mysterious X-37B spaceplane, but still won't say what it's doing up there. Here, we examine three theories about the X-37B's purpose."
• As White House Choreographs Raid Anniversary, Bin Laden Death Photos Remain Secret by Eric Lach, TPM Muckraker, May 1. "Obama and his re-election campaign have embraced bin Laden's death as one of the president's signature achievements, and are currently using it to bludgeon Mitt Romney, but photographs of that achievement are still considered a national security risk."