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Newer News: April 2018

March 2018 Intelligence News

• Wyden, Paul, Welch, Sensenbrenner Introduce Legislation to Increase Transparency of Intelligence Spending, news release, March 23. "By operating secret programs funded by secret budgets, our national intelligence agencies enjoy a blank check as far as the American taxpayers are concerned," Wyden said. "With little to no public oversight, it is even more important that Americans have at least some sense of whether they're getting what they paid for. Requiring the disclosure of these budget requests is the first step in achieving greater accountability and transparency of these agencies."
• Welch, Wyden Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Increase Transparency of Intelligence Spending, news release, March 23. "Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), joined by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have introduced legislation to force the president to disclose the topline annual budget request for each of the 16 federal agencies conducting intelligence activities."
• DNI Coats and PDDNI Gordon Announce Transformation, Posturing the ODNI To Drive the Intelligence Community Forward, ODNI news release, March 15. "The ODNI has developed a Transformation plan that builds upon the Agency's strengths, including changes to the ODNI's structure, governance, and processes."
• 'A Conceptual Error' -- Why the Pentagon Confuses Spies With Whistleblowers, Sputnik News, March 15. "A newly-available DOD report on the last 70 years of spying against the US includes whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou alongside spies like Robert Hanssen. According to one analyst this is a 'conceptual error' that fails to distinguish between different motives for distributing classified information."
• Did The Dossier Have To Be 'Verified' For FBI To Use It For Carter Page FISA? by Chuck Ross, The Daily Caller, March 4. "National security experts and former FBI officials say that verification of each and every fact mentioned in FISA applications is not necessarily required."
• Chief of staff expresses regret over security protocol by Tara McKelvey, BBC News, March 3. "In an unusually frank conversation with reporters, the White House chief of staff tries to reset the narrative on how the White House wrestle with the issue of security clearances."