SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2004, Issue No. 68
July 21, 2004
** CLASSIFIED INTEL BUDGET DOCUMENTS PLACED ON COURT RECORD
** CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PERMANENT BUDGET SECRECY DISPUTED
** CLASSIFICATION COSTS SKYROCKET
** BILL ON CLASSIFICATION REVIEW BOARD INTRODUCED IN HOUSE
** DECLASSIFIED HISTORY OF THE SOVIET LUNAR PROGRAM
** PENTAGON "CONSOLIDATES" ABU GHRAIB DOCUMENT REQUESTS
** MORE CRS ODDS AND ENDS
CLASSIFIED INTEL BUDGET DOCUMENTS PLACED ON COURT RECORD
Classified U.S. intelligence budget documents were placed on the open
record in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in DC district court
yesterday.
The documents, marked "Secret" and "Security Information," are purely
historical in nature and present intelligence appropriations for the
Central Intelligence Agency from Fiscal Years 1953, 1954 and 1955.
Although this information is half a century old, the CIA still
considers it classified.
By introducing the classified budget documents into the record, the
plaintiff in the FOIA lawsuit (that's me) seeks to demonstrate to
the Court that CIA's classification policy on the matter is
erroneous and that historical intelligence budget information
must be released.
The documents were located in the archives of former Congressional
officials by Prof. David Barrett of Villanova University. He
obtained copies of the documents for his own scholarly purposes and
also kindly made them available to the Federation of American
Scientists, which has been pursuing declassification of historical
intelligence budget data under the Freedom of Information Act.
The classified intelligence budget documents are appended to Prof.
Barrett's declaration filed yesterday in the pending FOIA lawsuit
Aftergood v. CIA:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/1947/barrett.pdf
The declaration was filed in support of a Motion for Summary Judgment
against the Central Intelligence Agency seeking disclosure of
historical intelligence budget data from 1947 through 1970. That
Motion is available here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/1947/motion072004.pdf
A response from CIA is due on August 25.
CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PERMANENT BUDGET SECRECY DISPUTED
Budget information is one of only two categories of government
information whose periodic disclosure is guaranteed and required by
the U.S. Constitution (the other is the Journal of the U.S.
Congress). And yet there is a history of confidential and secret
spending that dates back to the earliest days of the Republic.
Constitutional scholar Louis Fisher provided a capsule history of
budget secrecy and its "anomalous" rise in post-World War II
intelligence spending in another declaration that was filed
yesterday in DC District Court in support of our pending FOIA
lawsuit.
He concluded that while secret spending may be permissible for some
period of time, it must eventually be disclosed.
"Intelligence budget secrecy can be reconciled with past practice and
with constitutional publication requirements," Dr. Fisher stated,
"but only if it culminates in a regular, periodic disclosure 'from
time to time' of the budget information that has been withheld."
See the Declaration of Louis Fisher, filed July 20, here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/1947/fisher.pdf
CLASSIFICATION COSTS SKYROCKET
The financial costs of secrecy, including everything from security
clearances to physical security for classified information, grew
dramatically by a billion dollars last year, according to a report
from the Information Security Oversight Office that was released
yesterday.
"The Government cost estimate shows a 14 percent increase above the
cost estimate reported for FY 2002. For the second year in a row,
industry reported an increase in its cost estimate," the ISOO report
stated.
"The total cost estimate for Government and industry for 2003 is $7.5
billion, $1 billion more than the total cost estimate for Government
and industry in 2002."
See the new ISOO report on classification costs here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/isoo/2003costs.pdf
BILL ON CLASSIFICATION REVIEW BOARD INTRODUCED IN HOUSE
"Today's classification system is broken. The Executive Branch exerts
almost total control over what should or should not be classified.
There is no self-correcting mechanism in the system."
So said Rep. Robert E. (Bud) Cramer Jr. (D-Ala.) in introducing new
legislation in the House of Representatives to establish an
Independent National Security Classification Board. The bill is a
companion to legislation introduced in the Senate last week by
Senators Lott and Wyden (SN, 07/16/04).
See Rep. Cramer's July 20 introductory statement here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2004/hr4855-intro.html
DECLASSIFIED HISTORY OF THE SOVIET LUNAR PROGRAM
"Declassification of formerly classified U.S. intelligence imagery,
documents and former Soviet Union/Russian space industry histories
are helping fill in large gaps in the historical record of the
Soviet side of the manned Lunar race," writes Charles P. Vick, an
expert on the Soviet space program.
Some of the first fruits of Vick's multi-year investigation into the
history of the Soviet manned lunar program are now being made
available on the web site of GlobalSecurity.org.
See two chapters by Vick linked from this page:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/2004/index.html
PENTAGON "CONSOLIDATES" ABU GHRAIB DOCUMENT REQUESTS
Freedom of Information Act requests that were sent to the Pentagon
for additional documentation and imagery concerning the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners held in U.S. custody in Iraq (SN, 05/12/04) were
forwarded by the Pentagon to U.S. Central Command for processing.
But now U.S. Central Command is sending them back to the Pentagon.
"We have been instructed to refer all requests for information
referring to detainee abuse to the Department of Defense [Pentagon
FOIA office]," a CENTCOM FOIA officer wrote.
"In order to provide you with as much information as possible, all
detainee requests are now being consolidated and will be answered by
[the Pentagon]." See:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2004/07/centcom071304.pdf
Meanwhile, Congressional efforts to gain access to documents on the
Abu Ghraib case and related issues have been frustrated.
"Time and again attempts by this House to acquire documents related
to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal have been defeated, largely
on party line votes," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) on July 19,
citing several initiatives that had been blocked by the Republican
majority.
MORE CRS ODDS AND ENDS
Not very new, but newly acquired, are these Congressional Research
Service reports:
"Homeland Security: Navy Operations -- Background and Issues for
Congress," updated May 17, 2004:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RS21230.pdf
"Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Import Terminals: Siting, Safety and
Regulation," updated May 27, 2004:
http://www.fas.org/spp/civil/crs/RL32205.pdf
"Jonathan Pollard: Background and Considerations for Presidential
Clemency," updated January 31, 2001:
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS20001.pdf
Even-handed to a fault, the CRS proposed a precisely equal number of
arguments for and against clemency for Pollard, who was convicted of
spying for Israel and who remains incarcerated.
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: [log in to unmask]
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