Secrets....Intel and Inventions...

From Secrecy News:

ODNI PLAN SEEKS TO FOSTER INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY INTEGRATION

The U.S. intelligence community can and should form a more integrated whole without its member agencies sacrificing their individual character, according to a Five Year Strategic HumanCapital Plan from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

"A truly integrated IC is the only answer to the myriad threats that we face," the newly disclosed June 2006 Plan states. But "a national intelligence 'service' does not depend on or require a monolithic, homogeneous institutional culture, or a one-size-fits-all set of personnel rules and procedures (although some uniformity will undoubtedly be necessary)."

"I absolutely respect the cultures and traditions of the individual agencies," Ron Sanders, the ODNI Chief Human CapitalOfficer told Secrecy News. "But this is one team, one fight. We have to come together in an integrated way."

The 47 page Human Capital Plan accordingly outlines an approach to achieving what it calls "unity without uniformity. "The term "human capital" (now used in place of "human resources")encompasses all aspects of personnel management, from recruitment, hiring, salary and benefits, to training, promotion and termination. While it is not an intelligence function per se, it cuts to the core of the U.S. intelligence bureaucracy.

The Plan also provides new insight into a host of challenging intelligence community personnel matters, including workforce diversity, competition with the commercial sector, "generation gaps" within the intelligence community and security clearance policy.A copy was released today in response to a request from SecrecyNews.

See "The US Intelligence Community's Five Year Strategic HumanCapital Plan," June 22, 2006 (released October 18, 2006):

http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/humancapital.pdf

PATENT OFFICE REPORTS ON INVENTION SECRECY

Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, the government may impose a secrecy order on patent applications submitted to the Patent Office whenever the disclosure of the inventions described in such applications "might be detrimental to the national security."

At the end of Fiscal Year 2006, there were 4,942 secrecy orders in effect, a slight increase from the previous year's total of 4,915, according to data provided to Secrecy News by the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office under the Freedom of Information Act(and very promptly, too).

During 2006 itself, 108 new invention secrecy orders were imposed, while 81 were rescinded. The precise character of the inventions that were subjected to new controls could not be ascertained,which is the whole point. However, it should be possible, if logistically challenging, to identify inventions that were formerly subject to a secrecy order but are no longer. We haven't tried to do so lately. But they typically involve technologies that have specific military applications.The large majority of invention secrecy orders are imposed on patent applications in which the government has a property interest, perhaps having funded the development of the invention.

But each year, there are also so-called "John Doe" secrecy orders which prohibit the disclosure of inventions created by private inventors or businesses where the government has no property interest, thereby raising thorny First Amendment issues. In 2006, there were 29 new "John Doe" invention secrecy orders.The latest statistics and other background on invention secrecy can be found here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/invention/index.html

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