Much of the continuing controversy over intelligence surveillance policy revolves around whether the sweeping collection of U.S. telephone data by intelligence agencies violates constitutional norms.  But it is also an occasion to assess the quality of intelligence oversight, and to review the performance of oversight mechanisms in representing the public...

Newly updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following. Armed Conflict in Syria: U.S. and International Response, June 14, 2013 Syria’s Chemical Weapons: Issues for Congress, June 14, 2013 U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues, June 14, 2013 The Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Issues for Congress,...

Hundreds of cases of unauthorized disclosures of classified information were under review by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Intelligence Community as of last year, according to a 2012 report that was recently declassified. “The Investigations Division [of the IC Office of the Inspector General] is reviewing...

While almost everyone would agree that national security secrecy has a role to play in an open society, such secrecy must be carefully circumscribed if robust public access to government information is to be preserved.  A set of principles that open societies around the world can use to help guide...

NASA has produced a library of “knowledge bundles” describing how various technical problems that arose in the course of its space technology programs were successfully resolved. Last week, the library was posted online. If you want to know how a solar array was repaired in orbit, or how an astronaut...

New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have been withheld by Congress from public distribution online include the following. The United States and Europe: Responding to Change in the Middle East and North Africa, June 12, 2013 Israel: Background and U.S. Relations, June 12, 2013 U.S.-Mexican Security...

As a new wave of classified documents published by news organizations appeared online over the past week, the Department of Defense instructed employees and contractors that they must neither seek out nor download classified material that is in the public domain. “Classified information, whether or not already posted on public...

New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments, June 10, 2013 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Countries: Comparative Trade and Economic Analysis, June 10, 2013 Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Research, Development,...

“If President Obama really welcomed a debate [on intelligence surveillance policy], there are all kinds of things he could do in terms of declassification and disclosure to foster it. But he’s not doing any of them.” At least that’s my perception. See Debate on Secret Data Looks Unlikely, Partly Due...

In December 1974, when a previous program of secret government surveillance was revealed by Seymour Hersh in the New York Times, the ensuing public uproar led directly to extensive congressional investigations and the creation of new mechanisms of oversight, including intelligence oversight committees in Congress and an intelligence surveillance court....

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) told the Senate Intelligence Committee last March that there are “serious obstacles” that would prevent it from preparing summaries of Court opinions for declassification and public disclosure. The Court was responding to a February 13, 2013 letter from Senators Dianne Feinstein, Jeff Merkley, Ron...

A former CIA employee and NSA contractor named Edward Snowden identified himself as the source of the the serial revelations of classified documents concerning U.S. intelligence surveillance activities that were disclosed last week. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,”...

The Department of Defense this week released the 2012 update of its doctrine on “Peace Operations” including new guidance on so-called Mass Atrocity Response Operations that are designed to prevent or halt genocide or other large-scale acts of violence directed at civilian populations. A mass atrocity consists of “widespread and...

The government declared today that the identity of the reporter to whom accused leaker Stephen Kim allegedly disclosed classified information is James Rosen of Fox News.  Mr. Rosen’s association with the case was publicly known for years.  But it was still classified.  Now it’s not. “The United States hereby gives...

At the request of the FBI, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered a Verizon subsidiary to surrender the telephone records of its U.S. business customers to the National Security Agency for at least a three month period beginning last April 25. The startling disclosure was reported last night by Glenn...