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Newer News: September 2014

August 2014 Intelligence News

• NRO Joins Facebook, NRO news release, August 28. "The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched its official Facebook page on August 25, 2014, to increase public awareness and understanding of the NRO."
• U.S. Intelligence Can't Stop the Next Snowden for Years by Kimberly Dozier, Daily Beast, August 18. "A new leaker is spilling secrets while the government rushes to build systems to track access to classified info and find potential spies."
• For kitchen staff at federal agencies, background checks are a must-order item by Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, Washington Post, August 9. "Hiring has ground to a crawl because of lengthy waits for security clearances."
• CIA shouldn't get away with redacting torture report by Dana Milbank, Washington Post, August 8. "If the CIA spends half as much energy finding terrorists as it has spent fighting Congress, we should feel very safe."
• White House Must Decide Who Will Be Named in the CIA 'Torture Report' by Josh Rogin and Eli Lake, Daily Beast, August 7. "The CIA and the Senate can't agree on how to mask the identities of those who helped the U.S. in its secret detention. Whose identities will Obama protect?"
• Shrewd Feinstein shows restraint in bid to reverse CIA torture report redactions by Spencer Ackerman, The Guardian, August 6. "As the Senate intelligence committee continues its battle to declassify evidence of CIA torture, two members of the panel have called for Director John Brennan's head. Not among them is the committee chairwoman, and her restraint is striking observers as a shrewd strategic move."
• Feeding the government's hunger for security clearances -- literally by Dan Verton, Fedscoop, August 6. "It's no secret the federal government has a voracious appetite for security clearances. But what many probably don't know is that even if your dream is to prepare and serve lunch to those hard-working analysts at the CIA, you're still going to have to pack a top-secret security clearance with cleared access to sensitive compartmented information."
• Judge John Bates Voices Concerns with USA Freedom Act, letter to Sen. Leahy, August 5. "The significant negative effects that we anticipate from certain provisions in S. 2685 could inadvertently undermine the twin goals of protecting privacy and national security." (via WSJ)
• Pentagon Training Still Says Dissent Is A Threat 'Indicator' by Matt Sledge, Huffington Post, August 4. "A new version of a computer-based cyber-security training course from the Pentagon still classifies disillusionment with U.S. foreign policy as a 'threat indicator' that a federal employee might be a spy."
• DNI Clapper Statement on the Minimal Redactions to Senate RDI Report, ODNI news release, August 1. "More than 85% of the Committee Report has been declassified, and half of the redactions are in footnotes. The redactions were the result of an extensive and unprecedented interagency process, headed up by my office, to protect sensitive classified information."