Newer News: December 2013
November 2013 Intelligence News
- Obama's overhaul of spy programs so far cloaked in more secrecy by Anita Kumar, McClatchy Newspapers, November 25. "Obama has been gradually tweaking his vast government surveillance policies. But he is not disclosing those changes to the public. Has he stopped spying on friendly world leaders? He won't say. Has he stopped eavesdropping on the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund? He won't say."
- Want A File From The NSA? You Can Ask, But You Might Not Get It by Emily Siner, National Public Radio, November 23. "Since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information about the agency's intelligence-gathering activities last summer, the NSA has been bombarded with requests for its records."
- White House Orders Massive Review of Security Clearances by Denver Nicks, Time Swampland, November 21. "The Obama administration has ordered a reassessment of the government's process for granting security clearances and a top-to-bottom review of each of the nearly five million people who are currently authorized to see classified information in the United States."
- Is the White House ready to take up classification reform? by Sean Reilly, Federal Times, November 20. "The Public Interest Declassification Board meets publicly tomorrow amid anticipation that the Obama administration may at last take up the panel's recommendations for modernizing the national security classification system."
- DNI Clapper Declassifies Additional Intelligence Community Documents Regarding Collection Under Section 501 of the FISA, news release, November 18. "The information released today includes a number of internal NSA documents, training slides and internal guidance, which demonstrate the care with which NSA's foreign intelligence collection pursuant to Section 501 is run, managed, and overseen."
- Snowden persuaded other NSA workers to give up passwords - sources by Mark Hosenball and Warren Strobel, Reuters, November 7. "Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden used login credentials and passwords provided unwittingly by colleagues at a spy base in Hawaii to access some of the classified material he leaked to the media, sources said."
- In plain sight by Laura Blasey, University of Maryland Diamondback, November 5. "From PRISM and Upstream to programs not yet known to the public, the government has relied on research partnerships with the country's scientists and public universities for years. But critics and supporters alike said reconciling traditionally open lab environments and the need to protect sensitive information is a continuing challenge."
- PCLOB Hearing on Surveillance Under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of the FISA, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, November 4. "The board's primary missions are to review and analyze actions the Executive Branch takes to protect the nation from terrorism and ensuring the need for such actions is balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties and to ensure that liberty concerns are appropriately considered in the development and implementation of law, regulations and policies related to efforts to protect the nation against terrorism."
- Sequester accelerated decline in intel spending by Sean Reilly, Federal Times, November 4. "The fiscal 2013 sequester cost the intelligence community more than $4 billion as it chopped overall spending from $71.9 billion to $67.6 billion, according to newly disclosed figures."
- UK: Snowden reporter's partner involved in 'espionage' and 'terrorism' by Mark Hosenball, Reuters, November 1. "British authorities claimed the domestic partner of reporter Glenn Greenwald was involved in 'terrorism' when he tried to carry documents from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden through a London airport in August, according to police and intelligence documents."
Older News: October 2013
Maintained by Steven Aftergood
Updated December 2, 2013