Government indicts former CIA officer for leaks of classfied information to journalists

The Justice Department  is charging a former intelligence officer with leaking classified information to a journalist. The leaks included the names of covert officers and their work in apprehending terrorist suspects. The officer is charged with divulging to a New York Times reporter the contact information and details of activities of a covert CIA operative. [...]

Prosecutors seeking testimony of New York Times reporter in national security trial

Prosecutors in the case of a former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling accused of leaking classified information are attempting to reverse a lower court finding that a New York Times reporter James Risen was exempt from disclosing his sources for a story on a CIA program to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program. The government prosecutors claim that [...]

Human rights group seeks interrogation tapes of Guantanamo detainee

The Center for Constitutional Rights wants the responsible government agencies to release the interrogation tapes of accused 9/11 hijacker, the only detainee at Guantanamo the government admits to torturing. Charges that the man plotted to join the 9/11 attacks were dropped by the government in 2008 “without prejudice.” -db From the Courthouse News Service, January [...]

Federal appeals court supports CIA in refusal to confirm or deny that records of grandfather exist

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled that the CIA had the right to refuse to confirm or deny existence of records named in a Freedom of Information Act request. The refusal is called a Glomar response. The CIA had refused to provide information to a US. citizen seeking information on his [...]

CIA changes course, agrees to process request for documents on Open Source Works

The Central Intelligence Agency says it will now consider a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on Open Source Works, a new CIA open source intelligence division. An historian had asked for the charter of Open Source Works with the reply that the CIA could not confirm or deny the existence of the charter. [...]

State Department still says cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified

The Obama administration is still insisting that cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified even though the cables were released by the State Department in compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request. The classified information concerned targeted killings, detention at Guantanamo, torture and rendition. -db From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, [...]

Science board recommends new government group to assess impact of climate change on security interests

The Defense Science Board (DSB) reported that the U.S. intelligence community needs a new organization charged with assessing the impact of climate change on national security interests. The CIA already has an Center on Climate Change and National Security but does not share its information or collaborate with groups outside the government. The DSB said [...]

Secrecy News laments lack of accountability in denying information

Some argue that if government classifiers were required to justify their classifications with clear, precise written explanation, there would be less information consigned to secrecy, writes Steven Aftergood for Secrecy News. As of now, officials get away with saying “it is secret because it’s secret,” but Aftergood thinks that it is not enough to require [...]

Drone strikes out in open but still classified and not subject to discussion

When a U.S. drone strike killed a U.S. citizen in Yemen who was a prominent al Qaeda terrorist, President Barack Obama would not acknowledge the obvious – that a drone had done the task or that the C.I.A. was involved. Nor would the Obama administration provide the public with details on the policy behind an [...]

CIA’s climate change center proclaims all records and activities secret

All requests for CIA reports on the impact of global warming have been denied on national security grounds prompting skepticism from Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News. “The CIA response indicates a fundamental lack of discernment that calls into question the integrity of the Center on Climate Change, if not the Agency as a whole. If [...]

Council of Europe criticizes U.S. ‘cult of secrecy’

The inter-parliamentary  Council of Europe has issued a draft resolution blasting the U.S. for its “cult of secrecy” and said whistleblowers played a vital tole in challenging government secrecy. The resolution pointed up the ill effects of secrecy, “In some countries, in particular the United States, the notion of state secrecy is used to shield [...]

CIA wants to censor book by former FBI agent about 9/11 and terrorism

The Central Intelligence Agency is demanding that a memoir of a former FBI agent be heavily cut before publication. The agent was at the forefront of the fight against Al Qaeda and terrorism and makes some pointed criticisms of CIA errors including the harsh interrogation of the first important captive after 9/11. People close to [...]

Court rules no contempt in CIA destruction of video of interrogations

A federal judge criticized the CIA for ignoring a court order asking the agency to preserve videos of interrogations but did not hold it in contempt. The American Civil Liberties Union had brought the contempt motion in ACLU v. Department of Defense, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit begun in 2004. An ACLU spokesperson said, [...]

New York Times reporter ordered to testify but may protect sources

A federal judge ordered New York Times reporter James Risen to testify in the trial of former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling but may protect the identities of his sources. Risen had published a book about the CIA botches during several presidential administrations. For the Courthouse News Service, Ryan Abbott wrote, “U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema [...]

Blogger files lawsuit to discover if government maintains file on him

A University of Michigan professor, Juan Cole, who suspects he was under investigation by the federal government for his blogs on Mideast issues, is filing a lawsuit to force the government to release any files on him. The lawsuit came about after a former CIA official said his superiors asked what he knew about Cole [...]

Pakistan spy agency implicated in May murder of journalist

The Obama administration has evidence that senior officials in Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence ordered an attack on a journalist, Saleem Shahzad, who had written critical stories about the infiltration of militants in the military. Shahzad was the 37th journalist killed in Pakistan since 9-11. -db From The New York Times, July 4, 2011, by [...]

Student seeking Opus Dei records from CIA

A Ph.D. student is suing the Central Intelligence Agency to obtain its research into the conservative Catholic group, Opus Dei claiming that the agency could not withhold records over 30 years old that would not compromise national security if released. The student is researching the U.S. role in the Franco regime in Spain where Opus [...]

Britain sabotages al Qaeda online magazine after CIA rejects that option

A new online al Qaeda magazine found itself without 64 pages when British intelligence launched a cyber-attack against the publication called Inspire. The CIA had rejected the proposal to block it out of the need to protect CIA sources and methods. The site itself is an important source of intelligence. In response to the controversy [...]

Federal court says FBI and CIA must produce documents on Oklahoma City bombing sought under FOIA

A federal judge has ordered the FBI and CIA to to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed by a attorney seeking documents on the  Oklahoma City bombing. After the bombing, the attorney’s  brother, who sported a dragon tattoo similar to that of an unidentified accomplice in the bombing, was detained in federal [...]

Open government group plans to sue for photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body

Judicial Watch is filing a request under the Freedom of Information act to obtain photos of Osama bin Laden after he was shot dead in a CIA raid in Pakistan. Judical Watch president Tom Fitton says the public’s right to know outweighs President Barack Obama’s reasons for withholding the photos, “We are prepared to sue [...]

Bay of Pigs report still under wraps

The National Security Archive is seeking a Central Intelligence Agency report on the Bay of Pigs fiasco that took nine years to write and was completed in 1983. The archive has been seeking the report for the last five and a half years and claims it is the only one of the major investigative reports [...]

Public interest group sues CIA for violating FOIA

National Security Counselors of Virginia has filed three lawsuits against the Central Intelligence Agency for its failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. The violations include failing to provide unclassified information and treating all training materials, guidelines and reference materials provided by CIA FOIA analysts as exempt regardless of content. -db From a [...]

Espionage Act challenged by defense in trial of former CIA officer

Secrecy News’ Steven Aftergood says the federal government has once again seen how awkward it is to use the Espionage Act to indict its employees, in this case Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former CIA officer, for allegedly disclosing classified information to the press. Aftergood says, “An initial difficulty for the prosecution is that the espionage [...]

A first: Size of budget for National Intelligence Program revealed

For the first time, the Director of National Intelligence disclosed the budget request for the coming year’s budget. For 2012, the amount requested is $55 billion. The call for  transparency has had a long history of contentious debate and litigation with the government arguing that revealing the budget could  hurt national security and compromise intelligence [...]

Federal repeals court denies access to information on Guantanamo ‘high value’ detainees

The American Civil Liberties Union lost a round in federal court when the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled that the government did not have to release information about 14 suspected terrorist leaders and operatives held in Guantanamo. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press January 20, 2011 By Rachel Costello [...]

CIA reports influence of Chinese bloggers on government policy

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency  said Chinese bloggers influenced government policy, citing a December incident in which bloggers expressed outrage at the enslavement of mentally retarded men to work at a building materials plant in Sichuan province. -db Secrecy News January 19, 2011 By Steven Aftergood Chinese bloggers “expressed rage and despondence after learning about [...]

Former CIA officer pleads not guilty to leaking to NYT

The former CIA officer accused of leaking classified documents to The New York Times has pleaded not guilty — and his lawyer lashed out at the government for failing to go after a reporter and publisher. -sdl The Associated Press Jan. 14, 2011 By Matthew Barakat Associated Press

Former CIA officer indicted for leaks to New York Times

The Obama administration indicted a former CIA officer, continuing its campaign to prosecute individuals for leaking classified information. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press January 7, 2011 By Peter Haldis A former CIA officer was indicted last month for allegedly providing a New York Times reporter with classified information. He is the latest in [...]

Author asserts right to publish uncensored memoir on his career in DIA

A former agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) filed a complaint with the federal government contesting the censorship of his memoir, saying that he only used unclassified documents in writing the book. -db Courthouse News Service December 20, 2010 By Ryan Abbott WASHINGTON (CN) – Longtime DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) officer Anthony Shaffer claims [...]

Federal judge orders CIA to produce records of government experiments on soldiers 1950-1975

Three veteran groups and six individual veterans won a judgment in federal court ordering the CIA to produce records about human experiments conducted on soldiers from 1950 to 1975. -db Courthouse News Service November 17, 2010 By Annie Youderian (CN) – A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco ordered the CIA to produce specific records [...]

National Archives challenges CIA on destruction of tapes of brutal interrogations

The National Archives and Records Administration said they plan to investigate whether the CIA’s destruction of tapes showing brutal interrogations of terror suspects constituted improper destruction of federal records. -db NBC News November 10, 2010 By Michael Isikoff The legal inquiries into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing the brutal interrogation of terror suspects may [...]

Valerie Plame movie raises issue of imbalance between transparency and secrecy

An ACLU director at the Center for Democracy says that a new film, Fair Game, about Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, illustrates that government secrecy has become the norm and transparency the exception. -db American Civil Liberties Union Commentary Nov 5, 2010 By Jameel Jaffer Which secrets should be kept, and which should be exposed? [...]

WikiLeaks unveils CIA report on U.S. as an ‘exporter of terrorism’

The CIA has downplayed WikiLeaks’ latest release, a secret CIA analysis showing the extent of U.S. presence as an exporter of terrorism. -db Washington Post August 26, 2010 By Ellen Nakashima The United States has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks. And [...]

Domestic spying: Uncle Sam developing ability to reach wide and deep on Internet

Through its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has revealed that the FBI and CIA are aggressively perfecting their ability to probe social networks and the Internet for intelligence data much of which is outside the law enforcement context. -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Commentary August 16, 2010 By Tim Wayne In the [...]

Judge rejects ACLU’s request for information on detainees

A federal judge in New York has decided that he lacks the authority to order the government to disclose information regarding the treatment of Sept. 11 detainees – even if the government’s actions were unlawful. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press July 20, 2010 By Brian Westley “Courts are not invested with the [...]

Attorney General subpoenas New York Times reporter over book on C.I.A.

A lawyer for New York Times reporter James Risen says he will honor his commitment to keep his sources confidential in resisting a subpoena to provide documents about his 2006 book about the Central Intelligency Agency.  -db The New York Times April 28 2010 By Charlie Savage WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration is seeking [...]

CIA admits destroying tapes of abusive interrogations

The Central Intelligence Agency admitted that the agency’s top officials destroyed hundreds of tapes depicting abusive interrogations of suspects. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press April 16,2010 By Miranda Fleschert The Central Intelligence Agency released email messages on Thursday that reveal the former director of the agency approved of — and joked [...]

Government lawyer argues torture suit too sensitive for public court

Citing national security and state secrets, a Justice Department lawyer argued that the suit involving the CIA and a San Jose company over extraordinary rendition and torture of suspected terrorists cannot proceed in open court. -DB San Francisco Chronicle December 16, 2009 By Bob Egelko SAN FRANCISCO — A lawsuit accusing a Bay Area flight-planning [...]

CIA fears new open government initiative could allow anyone to glean classified information from unclassified documents

Faced with the new open government directive, the Central Intelligence Agency is trying to decide to release online declassified documents and noncopyrighted analyses of foreign news. They fear that information online could be extracted more easily and combined to reveal classified information. -DB NextGov December 11, 2009 By Alicia Sternstein The release of the open government [...]

Secrecy News cites two agencies that need to get with the program on new federal transparency

The director of the Program on Government Secrecy says that key government departments are responding to the new open government directive but that two agencies stand out for blocking public access, the CIA and the Open Source Center. -DB Secrecy News Federation of American Scientists Commentary December 10, 2009 By Steven Aftergood The Obama Administration’s new [...]

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