[Intelforum] Secrecy News -- 04/13/10

Tue Apr 13 11:04:52 EDT 2010

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SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2010, Issue No. 29
April 13, 2010

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

**      EXPERTS ADVISE IC ON CLASSIFIED BIOSECURITY ACTIVITIES
**      FBI INVITES ACADEMICS TO CONFER ON SECURITY
**      OSC ON TURKEY'S "ERGENEKON" UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT

EXPERTS ADVISE IC ON CLASSIFIED BIOSECURITY ACTIVITIES

The Biological Sciences Experts Group (BSEG) is a group of
non-governmental scientists who advise the U.S. Intelligence Community
(IC) on activities to counter biological threats and weapons.  Aside from
the fact of its existence, nearly everything about the group is
classified, but a few details of the enterprise have lately emerged.

The BSEG is supposed to "provide technical advice and counsel on specific
scientific and technical issues relevant to the IC's mission to counter
the threat posed by the potential proliferation of biological weapons and
related technologies," according to an internal account.  See "Biological
Sciences Experts Group Concept Paper" (undated, probably 2006, FOUO):

       http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/bseg-concept.pdf

The BSEG will "strengthen the integration of the life-science and
intelligence communities and facilitate access of the IC to life-science
experts outside of the Federal government."  The BSEG is supposed to help
intelligence agencies design experiments and collection methodologies,
interpret results, and perform other kinds of technical assessments. 
However, "the BSEG shall neither produce analytical intelligence products
nor engage in collection."

According to the original concept, the BSEG was to be comprised of 12
non-governmental individuals, supported by a larger network of experts. 
The membership of the BSEG is not officially disclosed, unless the
individual members choose to make themselves known.  The Group is managed
by the National Counterproliferation Center of the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence, and is subject to a steering committee of IC
agency representatives.

It could not immediately be learned how active the BSEG has been, on what
topics it was consulted, or what it may have accomplished.

For a previous account of the BSEG, see "Panel Provides Peer Review of
Intelligence Research" by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Science, December 7,
2007, p. 1538 (sub. req'd):

       http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/318/5856/1537a.pdf

FBI INVITES ACADEMICS TO CONFER ON SECURITY

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will co-host a conference this month
"to promote positive continuous dialogue between the U.S. Intelligence
Community and the academic community."  The conference will be held at the
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on April 29.

     http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2010/04/fbi-conf.pdf

Topics of discussion will include the National Security Higher Education
Advisory Board, which "has been an invaluable tool in providing advice to
the FBI on the culture of higher education, including the traditions of
openness, academic freedom, and international collaboration, while serving
as a forum for discussion of national security issues."

In 2008, authors from the FBI and the Federation of American Scientists
jointly reported on a survey of attitudes among scientists concerning
interactions with the FBI.  "The attitudes of scientists toward law
enforcement personnel are not vastly different from those of the general
public. However, a larger percentage of scientists indicated cooler
feelings towards the FBI than the general public, suggesting that these
reservations are particular to the scientific community and require
specific solutions with the scientific community in mind," the survey
found. "[S]cientists are suspicious of the FBI and feel that they do not
work well with the scientific community."

"By taking steps to address suspicions early in any interaction and by
treating scientists respectfully and professionally, law enforcement
representatives are more likely to build a foundation of respect with
their interaction and displace existing hostility," the authors
suggested.

See "How Scientists View Law Enforcement" by Nathaniel Hafer, Cheryl J.
Vos, Karen McAllister, Gretchen Lorenzi, Christopher Moore, Kavita M.
Berger and Michael Stebbins, Science Progress, December 22, 2008:

   http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/12/science-and-law-enforcement/

OSC ON TURKEY'S "ERGENEKON" UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT

A new report from the DNI Open Source Center profiles Turkey's subversive
"Ergenekon" movement.

"'Ergenekon' is the name of an alleged illegal neonationalist organization
accused of planning to oust the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party
(AKP) government through a military coup. The organization, in turn, has
been linked to the so-called 'Deep State,' alleged to be a vast,
underground network of secular Turks plotting criminal acts to destabilize
the government," the OSC report said.

"Ergenekon's leader, also referred to as 'Number One,' has not yet been
identified," the OSC remarked.

The OSC does not make its products freely available to the public even
when they are unclassified and not copyrighted.  But a copy of this report
was obtained by Secrecy News.  See "Turkey -- Guide to Ergenekon," Open
Source Center, March 19, 2010:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/world/turkey/ergenekon.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