[Intelforum] Secrecy News -- 07/27/09

Mon Jul 27 14:00:18 EDT 2009

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SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2009, Issue No. 64
July 27, 2009

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

**      ISCAP DIRECTS NSA TO RELEASE COMINT HISTORY
**      CRS ON INNOVATION INDUCEMENTS, POSTAL CLOSURES
**      OTHER NEWS AND RESOURCES

ISCAP DIRECTS NSA TO RELEASE COMINT HISTORY

In 2005, the National Security Agency released a partially declassified
1952 history of communications intelligence prior to Pearl Harbor with
several passages censored.  But this month, the NSA released the complete
text of the document after the Interagency Security Classification Appeals
Panel (ISCAP) determined that there was no justification for continued
classification of the withheld portions.

During World War II, "Collaboration with the BRITISH COMINT organization
got off to a bad start so far as the Navy was concerned...," according to
one newly declassified paragraph from the official history. "For several
months U.S. Navy COMINT personnel thought they had been double-crossed by
the British and were reluctant to go ahead with collaboration in direction
finding and other matters which were greatly to England's advantage
throughout 1941."  Subsequent cooperation, however, proved "harmonious." 
Now it can be told.

The NSA document was released in response to a mandatory declassification
review request, followed by an appeal to ISCAP, submitted by researcher
Michael Ravnitzky.  See "A Brief History of Communications Intelligence in
the United States" by Captain Lawrence Safford, USN, 21-27 March 1952:

	http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/safford-2009.pdf

The new disclosure illustrates once again the efficacy of the ISCAP in
overcoming the reflexive secrecy of executive branch agencies, including
those that are represented on the ISCAP itself.  More often than not, the
ISCAP has released information that one of its own member agencies said
must remain classified.

Fundamentally, the ISCAP's experience over the past decade or so
demonstrates the importance of extending declassification authority beyond
the original classifying agency.  Left to their own devices, agencies will
adhere to past classification practices indefinitely.  But when such
practices are critically examined by others, including others within the
executive branch, they often wither before the scrutiny.

If there is a solution to "the problem of overclassification," as
requested by President Obama in a May 27, 2009 memorandum, it is bound to
involve this kind of independent, external review of agency classification
and declassification practices.

CRS ON INNOVATION INDUCEMENTS, POSTAL CLOSURES

A new report from the Congressional Research Service examines the
government's use of "grand challenges" or monetary prizes to provide
incentives for technological advancement.  In quite a few cases, such
incentives have inspired or accelerated new technology breakthroughs -- in
lightweight power supplies and autonomous unmanned vehicles, for example. 
In other cases, the proffered prizes have gone unclaimed because the
challenge was not met, as in a recent competition to generate breathable
oxygen from simulated lunar soil.  In any case, it seems likely that the
new CRS report is the best thing ever written on the subject.  See
"Federally Funded Innovation Inducement Prizes," June 29, 2009:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40677.pdf

Another new CRS report considers the mundane but significant fact that the
US Postal Service may soon close thousands of post office branches and
stations due to declining demand and volume.  This exhaustive report, once
again, is almost certainly the best, most informative treatment of its
chosen subject.  See "Post Office and Retail Postal Facility Closures:
Overview and Issues for Congress," July 23, 2009:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40719.pdf

Despite the efforts of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Sen. John McCain and a few
others, there appears to be little near-term prospect that Congress will
permit direct public access to CRS reports like these.  Fortunately,
routine unauthorized disclosures of the reports continue to meet the need
fairly well.  See also, lately:

"Issues Regarding a National Land Parcel Database," July 22, 2009:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40717.pdf

"Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2010," July 15, 2009:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40710.pdf

"The U.S. Newspaper Industry in Transition," July 8, 2009

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40700.pdf

"Agricultural Conservation Issues in the 111th Congress," July 7, 2009:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40692.pdf

OTHER NEWS AND RESOURCES

The corrosive tendency of government agencies to classify historical
information that is already in the public domain is made vividly clear in
a collection of erroneously redacted documents compiled by William Burr of
the National Security Archive.  See "More Dubious Secrets: Systematic
Overclassification of Defense Information Poses Challenge for President
Obama's Secrecy Review," July 17, 2009:

	http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb281/index.htm

A 2008 intelligence community policy memorandum on "Connection of United
States and Commonwealth Secure Telephone Systems," which was almost
entirely redacted and withheld from disclosure, is posted here:

	http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/icpm/2008-500-2.pdf

Some 700 classified images of Arctic sea ice have been declassified and
released, the Department of Interior announced in a July 15 news release. 
"It reportedly is the largest release of [imagery] information derived from
classified material since the declassification of CORONA satellite images
during the Clinton Administration," the DOI said.  The release followed a
National Research Council report that said the release of such classified
imagery was needed to support climate change research.

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2009/07/doi071509.html

Persistent concerns over the government's use of the state secrets
privilege to curtail civil litigation were aired at a June 9, 2009 hearing
before Rep. Jerrold Nadler's House Judiciary Subcommittee.  The record of
that hearing, with abundant supporting materials submitted for the record,
has just been published.  See "State Secret Protection Act of 2009":

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2009/statesec.html

_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

See also "Reducing Government Secrecy: Finding What Works" by Steven
Aftergood, Yale Law and Policy Review, vol. 27, no. 2, Spring 2009:
     http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/aftergood.pdf

The Secrecy News Blog is at:
     http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

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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