[Intelforum] Secrecy News -- 08/25/05 (IF)

Thu Aug 25 12:08:53 EDT 2005

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2005, Issue No. 82
August 25, 2005

**	PENTAGON ORDERS "NO COMMENT" ON BRAC
**	DCI GOSS ADDRESSES CIA EMPLOYEES (SEPT 2004)
**	ODDS AND ENDS FROM CRS

PENTAGON ORDERS "NO COMMENT" ON BRAC

Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England directed senior
Pentagon officials this week not to comment on the
recommendations of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure
(BRAC) Commission, which is currently holding its final hearings.

"It's important that Department of Defense personnel refrain from
answering questions or providing comments regarding the
Commission's recommendations," England wrote in an August 23,
2005 memo.  See:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/08/dod082305.pdf

All inquiries should be referred to DoD spokesman Michael Wynne,
Mr. England wrote.

On August 24, Mr. Wynne issued the following statement:  "We will
begin to carefully review the commission's recommendations, and
will have no comment on specific commission actions this week."

DCI GOSS ADDRESSES CIA EMPLOYEES (SEPT 2004)

The text of a speech given by Director of Central Intelligence
Porter Goss at his first meeting with CIA employees last
September was finally approved for public release by the CIA
last month, and disclosed this week.

To the untrained eye, the speech appears to be an awkward attempt
by the new Director to establish rapport with a suspicious
audience, filled out by page after page of hollow rhetoric.

"My plan is very simple.  It's for a dedicated focus on Mission,
Capabilities, and Success," DCI (now DCIA) Goss said.

But the Washington Post, which independently obtained the text of
the speech last October, said then that it "offers the most
extensive insight into [Goss's] plans for the agency since he
took over and all but shut down CIA communications with the
public." (WP, 10/22/04).

A copy of the newly released September 24, 2004 speech to CIA
employees is available here:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/goss092404.pdf

"I know that everything I say, or don't say, today is going to be
interpreted in a lot of ways," Mr. Goss said ambiguously.

ODDS AND ENDS FROM CRS

A few more recent reports of the Congressional Research Service
obtained by Secrecy News include:

"Defense Procurement: Full Funding Policy -- Background, Issues,
and Options for Congress," updated June 28, 2005:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL31404.pdf

"Macedonia (FYROM): Post-Conflict Situation and U.S. Policy,"
updated June 17, 2005:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32172.pdf

"Oman: Reform, Security, and U.S. Policy," updated June 28, 2005:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS21534.pdf

_______________________________________________
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:  saftergood at fas.org
voice:  (202) 454-4691