SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2004, Issue No. 86
October 1, 2004
** SENATE APPROVES CLASSIFICATION REVIEW BOARD
** INTELLIGENCE BUDGET FOLLIES
** INFORMATION SHARING FOR HOMELAND SECURITY (CRS)
** U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES (CRS)
** MILITARY ROLE IN SPACE CONTROL (CRS)
** ARKIN ON CODE NAMES
SENATE APPROVES CLASSIFICATION REVIEW BOARD
The U.S. Senate this week approved the establishment of an
Independent National Security Classification Board to review
contested classification decisions and to recommend to the President
that a particular document be declassified if it sees fit. The
President would not be obliged to accept the recommendation.
The amendment creating the new Board, sponsored principally by Sen.
Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), would build upon,
and supersede, the Public Interest Declassification Board that was
created four years ago but never actually convened. Its nine
members would be named by the White House and the Congressional
leadership.
The Board "will have specific authority to hear appeals of
classification decisions from specified congressional committees,"
explained Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "The board would then make a
recommendation to the President, which the President could either
accept or reject. If the President rejects the board's decision,
then the President would have to send a written justification of
that decision to Congress."
"It is a very finely balanced compromise that is substantial, real,
and preserves the President's right as Commander in Chief to have
the final word," said Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT).
The House has not acted on the matter, which was addressed in the
Senate debate on the pending intelligence reform bill. See the
transcript of the Senate action on the Independent National Security
Classification Board here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2004/s092904.html
INTELLIGENCE BUDGET FOLLIES
There are more urgent and important questions than whether the size
of the intelligence budget should be disclosed. But somehow
intelligence budget disclosure cuts to the heart of secrecy policy
and intelligence reform in a way that few other such issues do.
That is why reformers such as the 9/11 Commission singled out budget
disclosure as a remedy for overclassification. And that is why
opponents of the Commission's proposals like Sen. Ted Stevens
(R-Alaska) have singled it out as a recommendation that must be
stopped.
On the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Stevens worked himself into a
lather demanding that the Senate rescind its proposal to declassify
the budget total, and he accused its bipartisan sponsors of
ignorance.
"Listen to me," he said. "You have not lived with how we have
financed the intelligence community. The money is not disclosed. It
is put in parts of the budget and you don't know where it is. It
rests with Senator Inouye and me, to be honest about it, and we make
sure that is what it is. Maybe four people in the House and Senate
know where this is. You are telling us to disclose it."
In fact, it was Sen. Stevens who was confused. The Senate budget
disclosure proposal is predicated on there being a single direct
appropriation for national intelligence. As such, it would not
entail clandestine budgeting practices. In fact, such a direct
appropriation could not effectively be kept secret.
Sen. Stevens' fiercely argued amendment was temporarily set aside.
See:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2004/s093004.html
The persistent notion that budget disclosure even 50 years after the
fact would somehow reveal intelligence methods is "absurd," the
Washington Post noted in an editorial yesterday. See "Intelligence
Failure," September 30:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60982-2004Sep29.html
A sworn affidavit from Acting Director of Central Intelligence John
E. McLaughlin asserting the need to withhold such half-century old
budget data contained material false statements, we alleged in an
ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, and it should therefore
be stricken from the record. See this September 22 Motion to
Strike:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/1947/strike.pdf
"It will be necessary to submit additional declarations in order to
fully and properly address" those allegations, the CIA told the
court yesterday, requesting an extension of time to reply until
October 20:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/1947/cia093004.pdf
Just because the CIA repeatedly disclosed the total intelligence
budgets in 1997 and 1998, that doesn't mean that other annual budget
disclosures can be safely accomplished, a federal court decided this
week. In fact, it doesn't even mean that the budget disclosures in
1997 and 1998 were safe, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled on September
29.
"It is possible that the DCI made a poor decision in deciding to
disclose the intelligence budget totals in 1997 and 1998 and that
those disclosures actually did reveal how and where intelligence
funds are transferred," Judge Urbina imaginatively wrote, upholding
a prior ruling that the 2002 intelligence budget total is exempt
from disclosure.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/2002/rmu092904.pdf
A September 27 report from the Congressional Research Service
entitled "9/11 Commission Recommendations: Intelligence Budget"
is available here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32609.pdf
A September 24 CRS report entitled "The U.S. Intelligence Budget:
A Basic Overview" is available here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS21945.pdf
INFORMATION SHARING FOR HOMELAND SECURITY (CRS)
"Information Sharing for Homeland Security: A Brief Overview,"
Congressional Research Service, updated September 30, 2004, is
available here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32597.pdf
U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES (CRS)
"U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF): Background and Issues for
Congress," Congressional Research Service, updated September 28,
2004, is available here:
http://www.fas.org/man/crs/RS21048.pdf
MILITARY ROLE IN SPACE CONTROL (CRS)
"Military Role in Space Control: A Primer," Congressional Research
Service, September 23, 2004, is available here:
http://www.fas.org/man/crs/RL32602.pdf
ARKIN ON CODE NAMES
In an audacious challenge to government secrecy policy, a forthcoming
new book by independent analyst William M. Arkin exposes and
explains thousands of code names of secret government programs and
activities.
"From ABLE ALLY to ZODIAC BEAUCHAMP, this book identifies more than
3,000 code names and details the plans and missions for which they
stand."
The resulting compilation lays bare for the first time much of the
secret infrastructure of defense and intelligence today.
Arkin, who was once a military intelligence officer, is an
extraordinarily adept researcher with an enviable network of
military and intelligence contacts. Over the past two decades or
so, he has repeatedly expanded the boundaries of public knowledge on
nuclear weapons and national security policy.
His latest book, Code Names, is perhaps the most concentrated act of
defiance of official secrecy policies since Howard Morland wrote
about "The H Bomb Secret" in The Progressive in 1979, drawing a
government injunction to block publication.
"Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations
in the 9/11 World" by William M. Arkin will be published in January
2005 by Steerforth (www.steerforth.com), a small press that
publishes big books of surprising diversity and literary
discernment. See:
http://tinyurl.com/68ya3
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.
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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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