From Secrecy News:
SECRECY OF CYBER THREATS SAID TO CAUSE COMPLACENCY
The American public does not have an accurate sense of the threat posed by attacks in cyberspace because most of the relevant threat information is classified, according to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who introduced legislation last week to raise public awareness of cyber security hazards.
"The damage caused by malicious activity in cyberspace is enormous and unrelenting," Sen. Whitehouse said on April 14. "Every year, cyber attacks inflict vast damage on our Nation's consumers, businesses, and government agencies. This constant cyber assault has resulted in the theft of millions of Americans' identities; exfiltration of billions of dollars of intellectual property; loss of countless American jobs; vulnerability of critical infrastructure to sabotage; and intrusions into sensitive government networks."
"These massive attacks have not received the attention they deserve. Instead, we as a nation remain woefully unaware of the risks that cyber attacks pose to our economy, our national security, and our privacy," he said.
"This problem is caused in large part by the fact that cyber threat information ordinarily is classified when it is gathered by the government or held as proprietary when collected by a company that has been attacked. As a result, Americans do not have an appropriate sense of the threats that they face as individual Internet users, the damage inflicted on our businesses and the jobs they create, or the scale of the attacks undertaken by foreign agents against American interests."
With Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. Whitehouse introduced the "Cyber Security Public Awareness Act" to require government agencies to provide increased public reporting of cyber threat information.
"As of 2011, the level of public awareness of cyber security threats is unacceptably low. Only a tiny portion of relevant cyber security information is released to the public. Information about attacks on Federal Government systems is usually classified. Information about attacks on private systems is ordinarily kept confidential. Sufficient mechanisms do not exist to provide meaningful threat reports to the public in unclassified and anonymized form," the bill stated.
Last year, Sen. Whitehouse chaired a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee task force on cyber security.
"The government keeps the damage we are sustaining from cyber attacks secret because it is classified," he said last November. The private sector keeps the damage they are sustaining from cyber attacks secret so as not to look bad to customers, to regulators, and to investors. The net result of that is that the American public gets left in the dark."
Wrap...
Monday, April 18, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
No Obama Classification...
From Secrecy News:
OBAMA CLASSIFICATION REFORM EFFORT FAILS TO TAKE HOLD
An Obama Administration initiative to curb overclassification of national security information that was announced in December 2009 has produced no known results to date.
The Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, which was mandated by President Obama's executive order 13526 (section 1.9), requires each classifying agency to review all of its existing classification instructions prior to June 2012 and "to identify classified information that no longer requires protection and can be declassified." While more than a year remains to complete the process, it is already behind schedule.
The Department of Defense, the most prolific classifying agency, failed to produce implementing regulations for the executive order in advance of the December 31, 2010 deadline for doing so set by the President. As a result, most DoD components have not even started to review their classification guides, of which there are thousands.
Most recently, U.S. Central Command said that it had no records concerning the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review. "We conducted a thorough and good faith search for responsive information," CENTCOM told us in a March 28 letter (pdf). "Despite our extensive and careful search for documents pertaining to your request, we were unable to locate responsive information."
U.S. European Command, on the other hand, said that it had already completed its Fundamental Review. But it concluded that its existing classification practices were already optimal, so no reductions in classification were required!
"The EUCOM Intelligence Office conducted a review as directed by E.O. 13526 for a Fundamental Classification Guidance Review," EUCOM said (pdf) on January 18. "No inefficiencies were found during the EUCOM review. No documents were produced during the review therefore, EUCOM reports a no records found in response to your FOIA request."
Other agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of State seem to be taking a more diligent approach to the Fundamental Review, though even in those cases no specific elimination of any current classification instruction is known to have occurred thus far.
Some significant reductions in Obama Administration classification policy have occurred, including dramatic changes in intelligence budget secrecy and nuclear stockpile secrecy. But these important developments emerged from issue-specific circumstances, and not from systematic classification reform efforts.
Last January, the director of the Information Security Oversight Office wrote to senior agency officials to emphasize the importance of the Fundamental Review and the need for rigorous implementation.
"The scope of this review needs to be systematic, comprehensive, and conducted with thoughtful scrutiny involving detailed data analysis," wrote ISOO director William J. Bosanko. But Mr. Bosanko has recently moved on from ISOO, which awaits appointment of a new director. Meanwhile the Fundamental Review appears stalled and unproductive in much of the executive branch.
Wrap...
OBAMA CLASSIFICATION REFORM EFFORT FAILS TO TAKE HOLD
An Obama Administration initiative to curb overclassification of national security information that was announced in December 2009 has produced no known results to date.
The Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, which was mandated by President Obama's executive order 13526 (section 1.9), requires each classifying agency to review all of its existing classification instructions prior to June 2012 and "to identify classified information that no longer requires protection and can be declassified." While more than a year remains to complete the process, it is already behind schedule.
The Department of Defense, the most prolific classifying agency, failed to produce implementing regulations for the executive order in advance of the December 31, 2010 deadline for doing so set by the President. As a result, most DoD components have not even started to review their classification guides, of which there are thousands.
Most recently, U.S. Central Command said that it had no records concerning the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review. "We conducted a thorough and good faith search for responsive information," CENTCOM told us in a March 28 letter (pdf). "Despite our extensive and careful search for documents pertaining to your request, we were unable to locate responsive information."
U.S. European Command, on the other hand, said that it had already completed its Fundamental Review. But it concluded that its existing classification practices were already optimal, so no reductions in classification were required!
"The EUCOM Intelligence Office conducted a review as directed by E.O. 13526 for a Fundamental Classification Guidance Review," EUCOM said (pdf) on January 18. "No inefficiencies were found during the EUCOM review. No documents were produced during the review therefore, EUCOM reports a no records found in response to your FOIA request."
Other agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of State seem to be taking a more diligent approach to the Fundamental Review, though even in those cases no specific elimination of any current classification instruction is known to have occurred thus far.
Some significant reductions in Obama Administration classification policy have occurred, including dramatic changes in intelligence budget secrecy and nuclear stockpile secrecy. But these important developments emerged from issue-specific circumstances, and not from systematic classification reform efforts.
Last January, the director of the Information Security Oversight Office wrote to senior agency officials to emphasize the importance of the Fundamental Review and the need for rigorous implementation.
"The scope of this review needs to be systematic, comprehensive, and conducted with thoughtful scrutiny involving detailed data analysis," wrote ISOO director William J. Bosanko. But Mr. Bosanko has recently moved on from ISOO, which awaits appointment of a new director. Meanwhile the Fundamental Review appears stalled and unproductive in much of the executive branch.
Wrap...
Saturday, April 09, 2011
On Not Voting Republican...
Vote Republican? Like Hell I will!
by
Keith Taylor
Icie Taylor was a cantankerous sort -- called herself as independent as a hog on ice no less. Icie's biggest cantanker was her assessment politics. She just never saw anything good in any Republican. I'm sure she never voted for one, not even if he was a good customer in the dilapidated general store she ran in northern Indiana's smallest hamlet, Sevastopol.
Icie was also my Mom. I idolized her, even though for the first eighty years of my life I was sure she was wrong -- dead wrong -- about Republicans. An entire organization could not possibly be that bad.
Now I'm not so sure, especially when I see the parade of fools holding forth on C-SPAN. One after the other they bloviate on the what they perceive to be the evils of sin and socialism on the floor of the House.
Then I have to wonder if, once again, Mom wasn't right. Nary an idea from those right folks varies from wisdom as perceived by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or Bill O'Reilly.
Their virtues would be more evident if they showed the ability to stop yammering about patriotism and showed some. Shutting down the government to protect God's will doesn't do it. Neither did eight years of trying to throw out a very effective president on spurious charges of lying under oath.
As they say in sporting contests, that was a nice try, but lying isn't just for Democrats. The icon of modern conservatism, Ronald Reagan, lied some thirty times under oath.
Some thirty times he smiled, said "by golly," gave us that disarming smile and swore "I don't remember " when he was deposed about the Iran-Contra affair. And in case someone wants to claim the onset of Alzheimers for the record breaking lapse of memory, Ronnie's Veep and successor G. H. W. Bush used the same cop-out. A huge computer couldn't calculate the odds of both forgetting every salient point of the biggest scandal of their administration.
It takes a tremendous leap of imagination to consider lying about a sex act to protect a marriage, a moral equivalency to lying about selling arms to a nation to a belligerent nation in order to help a rebellious one overthrow its own government.
But in a world bounded by lies leaping imaginations abound.
When today's Republicans get going, there is no telling what they will tell us. Truth is what they choose to believe, especially anything that has to do with science. Following the example of that noted climatologist, Rush Limbaugh, they simply choose not to believe climate change is a problem. Research on embryonic stem cells is abortion. So is most birth control.
When they lack proof or empirical evidence, they resort to childish wise cracks. Everybody remember Bush's childish comments about Gore? Ozone head indeed! Limbaugh evokes the same sarcasm with "duddle up duddle up duddle up."
But that was history. How about today?.
Yeah, how about it? It just keeps on getting worse. On the opening of the 112th Congress, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader held a special news conference to take their bows. They paid lip service to the debt, national defense, terrorism, unemployment, and all the rest. But their overriding objective was to get rid of Obama!
And lies, the offense for which Clinton was impeached? The party wallowed in them. Not all Republicans told the most egregious ones, but if it fit the overriding objective, even those with a veneer of common sense sat back and smiled as fanatics repeated tales that Obama is a Muslim, socialist, Kenyan, unpatriotic because he didn't salute properly, or whatever sounds good in their zeal to thwart the democratic process.
Surely there are some good folks in today's Republican Party. Am I not being just cantankerous in refusing to even consider supporting them? Oh yes, but "considering" is as far as it goes. When the voting comes, it is unanimous. No dissent in today's Republican Party!
So Icie Taylor would probably smile if she learned that the baby of her family finally agreed with her about the bad guys. I will not vote for a Republican until we hear some of that loyal opposition stuff from them.
Wrap...
To borrow from one of the more visible ones: "Vote Republican? Like Hell I will!"
//Keith Taylor is a retired Navy officer living in Chula Vista, Ca. He can be reached at krtaylorxyz@aol.com //
by
Keith Taylor
Icie Taylor was a cantankerous sort -- called herself as independent as a hog on ice no less. Icie's biggest cantanker was her assessment politics. She just never saw anything good in any Republican. I'm sure she never voted for one, not even if he was a good customer in the dilapidated general store she ran in northern Indiana's smallest hamlet, Sevastopol.
Icie was also my Mom. I idolized her, even though for the first eighty years of my life I was sure she was wrong -- dead wrong -- about Republicans. An entire organization could not possibly be that bad.
Now I'm not so sure, especially when I see the parade of fools holding forth on C-SPAN. One after the other they bloviate on the what they perceive to be the evils of sin and socialism on the floor of the House.
Then I have to wonder if, once again, Mom wasn't right. Nary an idea from those right folks varies from wisdom as perceived by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or Bill O'Reilly.
Their virtues would be more evident if they showed the ability to stop yammering about patriotism and showed some. Shutting down the government to protect God's will doesn't do it. Neither did eight years of trying to throw out a very effective president on spurious charges of lying under oath.
As they say in sporting contests, that was a nice try, but lying isn't just for Democrats. The icon of modern conservatism, Ronald Reagan, lied some thirty times under oath.
Some thirty times he smiled, said "by golly," gave us that disarming smile and swore "I don't remember " when he was deposed about the Iran-Contra affair. And in case someone wants to claim the onset of Alzheimers for the record breaking lapse of memory, Ronnie's Veep and successor G. H. W. Bush used the same cop-out. A huge computer couldn't calculate the odds of both forgetting every salient point of the biggest scandal of their administration.
It takes a tremendous leap of imagination to consider lying about a sex act to protect a marriage, a moral equivalency to lying about selling arms to a nation to a belligerent nation in order to help a rebellious one overthrow its own government.
But in a world bounded by lies leaping imaginations abound.
When today's Republicans get going, there is no telling what they will tell us. Truth is what they choose to believe, especially anything that has to do with science. Following the example of that noted climatologist, Rush Limbaugh, they simply choose not to believe climate change is a problem. Research on embryonic stem cells is abortion. So is most birth control.
When they lack proof or empirical evidence, they resort to childish wise cracks. Everybody remember Bush's childish comments about Gore? Ozone head indeed! Limbaugh evokes the same sarcasm with "duddle up duddle up duddle up."
But that was history. How about today?.
Yeah, how about it? It just keeps on getting worse. On the opening of the 112th Congress, the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader held a special news conference to take their bows. They paid lip service to the debt, national defense, terrorism, unemployment, and all the rest. But their overriding objective was to get rid of Obama!
And lies, the offense for which Clinton was impeached? The party wallowed in them. Not all Republicans told the most egregious ones, but if it fit the overriding objective, even those with a veneer of common sense sat back and smiled as fanatics repeated tales that Obama is a Muslim, socialist, Kenyan, unpatriotic because he didn't salute properly, or whatever sounds good in their zeal to thwart the democratic process.
Surely there are some good folks in today's Republican Party. Am I not being just cantankerous in refusing to even consider supporting them? Oh yes, but "considering" is as far as it goes. When the voting comes, it is unanimous. No dissent in today's Republican Party!
So Icie Taylor would probably smile if she learned that the baby of her family finally agreed with her about the bad guys. I will not vote for a Republican until we hear some of that loyal opposition stuff from them.
Wrap...
To borrow from one of the more visible ones: "Vote Republican? Like Hell I will!"
//Keith Taylor is a retired Navy officer living in Chula Vista, Ca. He can be reached at krtaylorxyz@aol.com //
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Classifications...and then some...
From Secrecy News...
NEW LEAK PENALTIES PROPOSED IN SENATE INTEL BILL
The Senate Intelligence Committee is proposing to punish leaks of classified information by authorizing intelligence agencies to seize the pension benefits of current or former employees who are believed to have committed an unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
The pending proposal would "provide an additional administrative option for the Intelligence Community to deter leakers who violate the prepublication review requirements of their non-disclosure agreements," the Committee said in its new report (pdf) on the FY2011 Intelligence Authorization Act.
"This option may require individuals to surrender their current and future federal government pension benefits if they knowingly violate the prepublication review requirements in their non-disclosure agreements in a manner that discloses classified information to an unauthorized person or entity," the report said.
But the premises of the new proposal are questionable and it has generated some controversy even within the Senate Committee itself.
The starting point of the Committee proposal is that leakers are rarely if ever punished. "A particular source of frustration has been that leakers are rarely seen to suffer consequences for leaking classified information." In fact, however, the number of ongoing leak-related prosecutions is currently at an all-time high.
Secondly, the Committee believes that existing administrative sanctions that stop short of criminal prosecution -- including "security clearance revocation, suspension, or termination" -- are inadequate and incomplete because they cannot reach persons who are no longer government employees. "Unfortunately, these sanctions are not generally available for use against a key source of leaks, former Intelligence Community employees." But it is not at all clear, and the Committee does not attempt to demonstrate, that former Intelligence Community employees are "a key source of leaks." In practice, the government already has strong legal authority to enforce prepublication review requirements, and the CIA is currently engaged in suing at least one of its former employees ("Ishmael Jones") for an alleged violation of those requirements.
Perhaps for those reasons and others, the Intelligence Community itself did not request the pension seizure authority that the Senate Intelligence Committee now proposes to bestow on it.
But the pending proposal may be worse than unnecessary, said Sen. Ron Wyden in a dissenting statement attached to the new Intelligence Committee report. He said it could discourage whistleblowers and impede congressional access to information.
"My concern is that giving intelligence agency heads the authority to take away the pensions of individuals who haven't been formally convicted of any wrongdoing could pose serious problems for the due process rights of intelligence professionals, and particularly the rights of whistleblowers who report waste, fraud and abuse to Congress or Inspectors General," Sen. Wyden wrote.
"It is unfortunately entirely plausible to me that a given intelligence agency could conclude that a written submission to the congressional intelligence committees or an agency Inspector General is an 'unauthorized publication,' and that the whistleblower who submitted it is thereby subject to punishment under [this provision], especially since there is no explicit language in the bill that contradicts this conclusion."
"Withholding pension benefits from a legitimate whistleblower would be highly inappropriate, but overzealous and even unscrupulous individuals have served in senior government positions in the past, and will undoubtedly do so again in the future. This is why it is essential to have strong protections for whistleblowers enshrined in law, and this is particularly true for intelligence whistleblowers, since, given the covert nature of intelligence operations and activities, there are limited opportunities for public oversight. But reporting fraud and abuse by one's own colleagues takes courage, and no whistleblowers will come forward if they do not believe that they will be protected from retaliation," wrote Sen. Wyden, who voted against the pending bill (pdf).
Another provision of the bill calls for establishment of "an effective automated insider threat detection program for the information resources in each element of the Intelligence Community in order to detect unauthorized access to, or use or transmission of, classified information."
Setting aside the specifics of the proposals, the underlying message from the Senate Committee is that agencies should do even more, not anything less or different, to combat leaks of classified information. The Senate Committee was silent on other aspects of classification policy. In particular, it had no guidance to offer concerning the halting efforts in the Intelligence Community to reduce overclassification.
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
Wrap...
NEW LEAK PENALTIES PROPOSED IN SENATE INTEL BILL
The Senate Intelligence Committee is proposing to punish leaks of classified information by authorizing intelligence agencies to seize the pension benefits of current or former employees who are believed to have committed an unauthorized disclosure of classified information.
The pending proposal would "provide an additional administrative option for the Intelligence Community to deter leakers who violate the prepublication review requirements of their non-disclosure agreements," the Committee said in its new report (pdf) on the FY2011 Intelligence Authorization Act.
"This option may require individuals to surrender their current and future federal government pension benefits if they knowingly violate the prepublication review requirements in their non-disclosure agreements in a manner that discloses classified information to an unauthorized person or entity," the report said.
But the premises of the new proposal are questionable and it has generated some controversy even within the Senate Committee itself.
The starting point of the Committee proposal is that leakers are rarely if ever punished. "A particular source of frustration has been that leakers are rarely seen to suffer consequences for leaking classified information." In fact, however, the number of ongoing leak-related prosecutions is currently at an all-time high.
Secondly, the Committee believes that existing administrative sanctions that stop short of criminal prosecution -- including "security clearance revocation, suspension, or termination" -- are inadequate and incomplete because they cannot reach persons who are no longer government employees. "Unfortunately, these sanctions are not generally available for use against a key source of leaks, former Intelligence Community employees." But it is not at all clear, and the Committee does not attempt to demonstrate, that former Intelligence Community employees are "a key source of leaks." In practice, the government already has strong legal authority to enforce prepublication review requirements, and the CIA is currently engaged in suing at least one of its former employees ("Ishmael Jones") for an alleged violation of those requirements.
Perhaps for those reasons and others, the Intelligence Community itself did not request the pension seizure authority that the Senate Intelligence Committee now proposes to bestow on it.
But the pending proposal may be worse than unnecessary, said Sen. Ron Wyden in a dissenting statement attached to the new Intelligence Committee report. He said it could discourage whistleblowers and impede congressional access to information.
"My concern is that giving intelligence agency heads the authority to take away the pensions of individuals who haven't been formally convicted of any wrongdoing could pose serious problems for the due process rights of intelligence professionals, and particularly the rights of whistleblowers who report waste, fraud and abuse to Congress or Inspectors General," Sen. Wyden wrote.
"It is unfortunately entirely plausible to me that a given intelligence agency could conclude that a written submission to the congressional intelligence committees or an agency Inspector General is an 'unauthorized publication,' and that the whistleblower who submitted it is thereby subject to punishment under [this provision], especially since there is no explicit language in the bill that contradicts this conclusion."
"Withholding pension benefits from a legitimate whistleblower would be highly inappropriate, but overzealous and even unscrupulous individuals have served in senior government positions in the past, and will undoubtedly do so again in the future. This is why it is essential to have strong protections for whistleblowers enshrined in law, and this is particularly true for intelligence whistleblowers, since, given the covert nature of intelligence operations and activities, there are limited opportunities for public oversight. But reporting fraud and abuse by one's own colleagues takes courage, and no whistleblowers will come forward if they do not believe that they will be protected from retaliation," wrote Sen. Wyden, who voted against the pending bill (pdf).
Another provision of the bill calls for establishment of "an effective automated insider threat detection program for the information resources in each element of the Intelligence Community in order to detect unauthorized access to, or use or transmission of, classified information."
Setting aside the specifics of the proposals, the underlying message from the Senate Committee is that agencies should do even more, not anything less or different, to combat leaks of classified information. The Senate Committee was silent on other aspects of classification policy. In particular, it had no guidance to offer concerning the halting efforts in the Intelligence Community to reduce overclassification.
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
Wrap...
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Adult & Children...BOOKS!
From Publishers Lunch Weekly....
Fiction:
General/Other...
#1 NYT bestselling author of The Historian and The Swan Thieves Elizabeth Kostova's untitled new novel, set in the U.S. and Eastern Europe, moving between the past and present and combining elements of suspense, myth and folklore, moves to Libby McGuire for Ballantine, with Jennifer Hershey to edit, for publication in 2013, by Amy Williams at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (NA).
NYT bestselling author Amy Tan's THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT, set in 1890-1940 San Francisco and Shanghai, about a painting called the 'Valley of Amazement' that is passed along through three generations of women of the same family, moves to Dan Halpern at Ecco for the US, by Sandra Dijkstra at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, and to Iris Tupholme at Harper Canada, by John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Sandy Dijkstra.
UK rights sold again to Clare Reihill at Fourth Estate.
Author of THE IMPRESSIONIST, TRANSMISSION and MY REVOLUTIONS, Hari Kunzru's GODS WITHOUT MEN, a multi-stranded narrative set in the Mohave Desert revolving around the disappearance of an autistic little boy whose parents find themselves at the center of a media witch hunt that kicks off a malestrom of events, where the present is connected with the past, before the boy is found mysteriously changed, moving to Carole Baron at Knopf, for publication in spring 2012, by Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown.
NYT bestselling author of COLD MOUNTAIN and THIRTEEN MOONS Charles Frazier's NIGHTWOODS, set in rural North Carolina in the 1950s and telling of a young woman who cares for her murdered sister's twins, to Random House, for release in October 2011, by Amanda Urban at ICM.
Children's/Middle Grade...
Anne Cameron's ANGUS McFANGUS, the first in a four-book series about a boy who learns he is someone with the rare ability to predict catastrophic weather, to Steve Geck at Greenwillow Books, in a pre-empt, by Madeleine Buston at the Darley Anderson.
Children's/Picture Book...
Caldecott-winning author of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and other classic children's books (which have collectively sold nearly 30 million copies in the US) Maurice Sendak's BUMBLE-ARDY, the first book illustrated and written by Sendak since OUTSIDE OVER THERE in 1981, about a mischievous pig who has reached the age of nine without ever having a birthday party -- all that changes when Bumble throws a party for himself and invites all his friends, leading to a wild masquerade that quickly gets out of hand, to Harper Children's, for publication in September 2011.
Children's/Young Adult....
USA Today bestselling self-published ebook phenomenon Amanda Hocking's WATERSONG series, to Rose Hilliard at St. Martin's, for four books, at auction, reportedly for over $2 million, for publication beginning in Fall 2012, by Steven Axelrod at The Axelrod Agency (World English).
Lenore Appelhans's debut YA novel LEVEL 2, a thriller set in the liminal place between our world and heaven, about a 17 year-old girl who spends her days reliving her memories from the security of her pod until she gets broken out by a boy from her past life, to Justin Chanda and Alexandra Cooper at Simon & Schuster Children's, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media.
Film rights sold simultaneously to Wolfgang Hammer at CBS Films, by CAA. Audio rights to Rebecca Waugh at Listening Library, also in a pre-empt.
hgordon@foundrymedia.com
NYT bestselling author Gail Carriger's debut YA historical fantasy series ESPIONAGE AND ETIQUETTE, set in her Soulless Alexia Tarabotti world but 25 years prior, an incorrigible aristocrat is sent off to finishing school to learn how to be lady only to discover that the school trains young ladies alright but for the wrong kind of "finishing," pitched as Ally Carter meets Steampunk, to Kate Sullivan at Little, Brown Children's, in a pre-empt, in a four-book deal, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (NA).
UK & Translation: wlee@fieldingagency.com
Film: macendejas@lynnpleshetteagency.com
Christopher Paolini's INHERITANCE, the fourth and final book in his #1 NYT bestselling Inheritance cycle, to Michelle Frey at Knopf Children's, for simultaneous publication in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on November 8, 2011, by Simon Lipskar at Writers House (World).
Random House Germany imprint CBT will again publish the German edition.
TV...
Robert Egan and Kurt Pitzer's EATING WITH THE ENEMY, a true story about a New Jersey rib joint owner who befriended high-level North Korean officials in New York, improving decades of poor US diplomacy and eventually negotiating with them over nuclear proliferation, to HBO Films for James Gandolfini to star and Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions to produce, by Hotchkiss and Associates, on behalf of Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic and Alice Martell at The Martell Agency.
NONFICTION: Advice/Relationships...
Oscar-nominated filmmaker and novelist Dana Adam Shapiro's YOU CAN BE RIGHT OR YOU CAN BE MARRIED, in which the author intimately interviews dozens of divorced men and women in hopes of understanding what really makes marriages fail so that he can find happiness in a marriage of his own -- pitched as "the most provocative relationship guide couples will ever read," to Nan Graham and Whitney Frick at Scribner, by Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (World English).
efisher@levinegreenberg.com
History/Politics/Current Affairs....
Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels's KEEPING THE REPUBLIC: Limited Government, Unlimited Citizens, addressing America's urgent need for limited but more effective government, fiscal discipline at all levels, increased liberty for individuals, and a restoration of our national greatness, to Adrian Zackheim for Sentinel, for publication in September 2011, by Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly.
Washington, D.C.-based BBC State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas's FROM BEIRUT TO WASHINGTON, the story of Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State, an on-the-ground account of Ghattas's time traveling and reporting as part of Clinton's press corps, using Ghattas's global perspective as a Dutch-Lebanese citizen raised in the crossfire of her country's civil war to explore the larger question of America's place in a rapidly changing global landscape, and drawing on extensive interviews inside the administration, around Washington and further afield, to Serena Jones at Times Books, in a pre-empt, by Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor (NA).
Professor of Egyptology at UCLA and host of Discovery Channel's Out of Egypt Kara Cooney's HATSHEPSUT: THE WOMAN WHO BECAME KING, providing the definitive account of one of the ancient world's most accomplished and audacious rulers who at the age of 25 took on a masculine identity to transform herself into the androgynous ruler (and god on earth) of ancient Egypt, reigning peacefully and successfully for over twenty years, only to have her name and likeness mysteriously erased from monuments throughout the kingdom after her death, to Vanessa Mobley at Crown, for publication in Spring 2014, by Marc Gerald at The Agency Group.
sasharaskin@theagencygroup.com
Humor...
Dan Sinker's THE F***ING EPIC TWITTER QUEST OF @MAYOREMANUEL, an at-the-time anonymous, fake Rahm Emanuel mayoral campaign Twitter feed, annotated and to include Sinker's first-person account of the phenomenon that has attracted loads of followers and media, with a Foreword by co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone, to Brant Rumble at Scribner, by Seth Fishman at The Gernert Company in association with co-agent Johnny Temple (NA).
Memoir...
Founder of SociopathWorld.com M.E. Thomas's HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: Inside the Mind of a Sociopath, the first-ever confession by a high-functioning, non-criminal, diagnosed sociopath and accomplished law professor, a story of cruelty and manipulation followed by redemption and ultimately love and friendship, combining memoir and the latest research on the science of the "empathy-challenged," to Jenna Ciongoli at Broadway, at auction, by Emmanuelle Morgen at Judith Ehrlich Literary Management (NA).
Legendary conductor Maestro James Levine's untitled book, to be written with Harvey Sachs, on his brilliant, more than fifty-year career in music (35 of those at the helm of the Metropolitan Opera), to Jonathan Segal at Knopf, by Denise Shannon at Denise Shannon Literary Agency (World).
Narrative...
Caroline Stoessinger's ALICE'S WORLD, in which the life of 107-year old Alice Herz-Sommer, the world's oldest living Holocaust survivor and concert pianist, is used as a lens not only to show the power of music, but how her refusal to hate brings goodness into the world, to Cindy Spiegel of Spiegel & Grau, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2013, by Marly Rusoff of Marly Rusoff & Associates (World).
Linda Alice Dewey and James Campbell's THE KASSEL MISSION, a dramatic account of survival and unlikely friendships set during World War II, about an elite U.S. Air Force squadron (of which Dewey's father was a member), a secret bombing mission gone disastrously awry, and a daughter's present-day search for the truth, to Bruce Nichols at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in a pre-empt, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (NA).
Wrap....
Fiction:
General/Other...
#1 NYT bestselling author of The Historian and The Swan Thieves Elizabeth Kostova's untitled new novel, set in the U.S. and Eastern Europe, moving between the past and present and combining elements of suspense, myth and folklore, moves to Libby McGuire for Ballantine, with Jennifer Hershey to edit, for publication in 2013, by Amy Williams at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (NA).
NYT bestselling author Amy Tan's THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT, set in 1890-1940 San Francisco and Shanghai, about a painting called the 'Valley of Amazement' that is passed along through three generations of women of the same family, moves to Dan Halpern at Ecco for the US, by Sandra Dijkstra at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, and to Iris Tupholme at Harper Canada, by John Pearce at Westwood Creative Artists on behalf of Sandy Dijkstra.
UK rights sold again to Clare Reihill at Fourth Estate.
Author of THE IMPRESSIONIST, TRANSMISSION and MY REVOLUTIONS, Hari Kunzru's GODS WITHOUT MEN, a multi-stranded narrative set in the Mohave Desert revolving around the disappearance of an autistic little boy whose parents find themselves at the center of a media witch hunt that kicks off a malestrom of events, where the present is connected with the past, before the boy is found mysteriously changed, moving to Carole Baron at Knopf, for publication in spring 2012, by Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown.
NYT bestselling author of COLD MOUNTAIN and THIRTEEN MOONS Charles Frazier's NIGHTWOODS, set in rural North Carolina in the 1950s and telling of a young woman who cares for her murdered sister's twins, to Random House, for release in October 2011, by Amanda Urban at ICM.
Children's/Middle Grade...
Anne Cameron's ANGUS McFANGUS, the first in a four-book series about a boy who learns he is someone with the rare ability to predict catastrophic weather, to Steve Geck at Greenwillow Books, in a pre-empt, by Madeleine Buston at the Darley Anderson.
Children's/Picture Book...
Caldecott-winning author of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and other classic children's books (which have collectively sold nearly 30 million copies in the US) Maurice Sendak's BUMBLE-ARDY, the first book illustrated and written by Sendak since OUTSIDE OVER THERE in 1981, about a mischievous pig who has reached the age of nine without ever having a birthday party -- all that changes when Bumble throws a party for himself and invites all his friends, leading to a wild masquerade that quickly gets out of hand, to Harper Children's, for publication in September 2011.
Children's/Young Adult....
USA Today bestselling self-published ebook phenomenon Amanda Hocking's WATERSONG series, to Rose Hilliard at St. Martin's, for four books, at auction, reportedly for over $2 million, for publication beginning in Fall 2012, by Steven Axelrod at The Axelrod Agency (World English).
Lenore Appelhans's debut YA novel LEVEL 2, a thriller set in the liminal place between our world and heaven, about a 17 year-old girl who spends her days reliving her memories from the security of her pod until she gets broken out by a boy from her past life, to Justin Chanda and Alexandra Cooper at Simon & Schuster Children's, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media.
Film rights sold simultaneously to Wolfgang Hammer at CBS Films, by CAA. Audio rights to Rebecca Waugh at Listening Library, also in a pre-empt.
hgordon@foundrymedia.com
NYT bestselling author Gail Carriger's debut YA historical fantasy series ESPIONAGE AND ETIQUETTE, set in her Soulless Alexia Tarabotti world but 25 years prior, an incorrigible aristocrat is sent off to finishing school to learn how to be lady only to discover that the school trains young ladies alright but for the wrong kind of "finishing," pitched as Ally Carter meets Steampunk, to Kate Sullivan at Little, Brown Children's, in a pre-empt, in a four-book deal, by Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency (NA).
UK & Translation: wlee@fieldingagency.com
Film: macendejas@lynnpleshetteagency.com
Christopher Paolini's INHERITANCE, the fourth and final book in his #1 NYT bestselling Inheritance cycle, to Michelle Frey at Knopf Children's, for simultaneous publication in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on November 8, 2011, by Simon Lipskar at Writers House (World).
Random House Germany imprint CBT will again publish the German edition.
TV...
Robert Egan and Kurt Pitzer's EATING WITH THE ENEMY, a true story about a New Jersey rib joint owner who befriended high-level North Korean officials in New York, improving decades of poor US diplomacy and eventually negotiating with them over nuclear proliferation, to HBO Films for James Gandolfini to star and Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions to produce, by Hotchkiss and Associates, on behalf of Jim Rutman at Sterling Lord Literistic and Alice Martell at The Martell Agency.
NONFICTION: Advice/Relationships...
Oscar-nominated filmmaker and novelist Dana Adam Shapiro's YOU CAN BE RIGHT OR YOU CAN BE MARRIED, in which the author intimately interviews dozens of divorced men and women in hopes of understanding what really makes marriages fail so that he can find happiness in a marriage of his own -- pitched as "the most provocative relationship guide couples will ever read," to Nan Graham and Whitney Frick at Scribner, by Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (World English).
efisher@levinegreenberg.com
History/Politics/Current Affairs....
Governor of Indiana Mitch Daniels's KEEPING THE REPUBLIC: Limited Government, Unlimited Citizens, addressing America's urgent need for limited but more effective government, fiscal discipline at all levels, increased liberty for individuals, and a restoration of our national greatness, to Adrian Zackheim for Sentinel, for publication in September 2011, by Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly.
Washington, D.C.-based BBC State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas's FROM BEIRUT TO WASHINGTON, the story of Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State, an on-the-ground account of Ghattas's time traveling and reporting as part of Clinton's press corps, using Ghattas's global perspective as a Dutch-Lebanese citizen raised in the crossfire of her country's civil war to explore the larger question of America's place in a rapidly changing global landscape, and drawing on extensive interviews inside the administration, around Washington and further afield, to Serena Jones at Times Books, in a pre-empt, by Dorian Karchmar at William Morris Endeavor (NA).
Professor of Egyptology at UCLA and host of Discovery Channel's Out of Egypt Kara Cooney's HATSHEPSUT: THE WOMAN WHO BECAME KING, providing the definitive account of one of the ancient world's most accomplished and audacious rulers who at the age of 25 took on a masculine identity to transform herself into the androgynous ruler (and god on earth) of ancient Egypt, reigning peacefully and successfully for over twenty years, only to have her name and likeness mysteriously erased from monuments throughout the kingdom after her death, to Vanessa Mobley at Crown, for publication in Spring 2014, by Marc Gerald at The Agency Group.
sasharaskin@theagencygroup.com
Humor...
Dan Sinker's THE F***ING EPIC TWITTER QUEST OF @MAYOREMANUEL, an at-the-time anonymous, fake Rahm Emanuel mayoral campaign Twitter feed, annotated and to include Sinker's first-person account of the phenomenon that has attracted loads of followers and media, with a Foreword by co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone, to Brant Rumble at Scribner, by Seth Fishman at The Gernert Company in association with co-agent Johnny Temple (NA).
Memoir...
Founder of SociopathWorld.com M.E. Thomas's HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: Inside the Mind of a Sociopath, the first-ever confession by a high-functioning, non-criminal, diagnosed sociopath and accomplished law professor, a story of cruelty and manipulation followed by redemption and ultimately love and friendship, combining memoir and the latest research on the science of the "empathy-challenged," to Jenna Ciongoli at Broadway, at auction, by Emmanuelle Morgen at Judith Ehrlich Literary Management (NA).
Legendary conductor Maestro James Levine's untitled book, to be written with Harvey Sachs, on his brilliant, more than fifty-year career in music (35 of those at the helm of the Metropolitan Opera), to Jonathan Segal at Knopf, by Denise Shannon at Denise Shannon Literary Agency (World).
Narrative...
Caroline Stoessinger's ALICE'S WORLD, in which the life of 107-year old Alice Herz-Sommer, the world's oldest living Holocaust survivor and concert pianist, is used as a lens not only to show the power of music, but how her refusal to hate brings goodness into the world, to Cindy Spiegel of Spiegel & Grau, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2013, by Marly Rusoff of Marly Rusoff & Associates (World).
Linda Alice Dewey and James Campbell's THE KASSEL MISSION, a dramatic account of survival and unlikely friendships set during World War II, about an elite U.S. Air Force squadron (of which Dewey's father was a member), a secret bombing mission gone disastrously awry, and a daughter's present-day search for the truth, to Bruce Nichols at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in a pre-empt, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (NA).
Wrap....
Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Game...
H/T to Fallen Monk...
Rule: Go to page 56 in nearest book, post 5th sentence:
1)Later as president, Obama abolished the CIA's enhanced interrogation program -- even in its reduced form.
2) "Perhaps he had wanted Hari to understand the man's current plight, to put things in perspective, perhaps to pity him, at least feel something, and not reduce everything to equations and numbers, as Cleon felt was Hari's wont."
Rule: Go to page 56 in nearest book, post 5th sentence:
1)Later as president, Obama abolished the CIA's enhanced interrogation program -- even in its reduced form.
2) "Perhaps he had wanted Hari to understand the man's current plight, to put things in perspective, perhaps to pity him, at least feel something, and not reduce everything to equations and numbers, as Cleon felt was Hari's wont."
Friday, March 25, 2011
Japan: Personal Accounts...
From Keith Taylor...
This was given me by my good friend and dentist, John Yamamoto. Dr. Yamamoto spent the years of 1942 to 1944 in a detention camp in Colorado. He has several relatives in Japan. He and I often discuss three years of his youth in a detention camp. Dr. Yamamoto and I have been discussing the results of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster.
He forwarded this e-mail to me yesterday, March 25th. I don't know the author but understand he or she was in Tokyo and this reflects the condition there.
I sent him a note telling him: I felt your emotion this morning. Now I share it. Each culture has it's own rhythm. What those Japanese people were saying and doing would have sounded mawkish in today's United States, but the simplicity of all it resonated well with what I understand, and remember, of the Japanese culture. I will send it to a friend who runs a blog. Then I will link to it on Facebook. It will help all us understand how the people over there are coping with a disaster.
*******************************
Personal accounts by number of people, on-the-street:
Last night when I was walking home (since all traffic had stopped), I saw an old lady at a bakery shop. It was totally past their closing time, but she was giving out free bread. Even at times like this, people were trying to find what they can do and it made my heart warm.
In the supermarket, where items of all the shelves fell, people were picking up things so neatly together, and then quietly stand in line to buy food. Instead of creating panic and buying as much as needed, they bought as little as they needed. I was proud to be a Japanese.
When I was walking home, for 4 hours, there was a lady holding a sign that said, “Please use our toilet.” They were opening their house for people to go to the restroom. It was hard not to tear up, when I saw the warmth of people.
At Disneyland, they were giving out candies. High school girls were taking so many so I was thinking, “What???” But then the next minute, they ran to the children in the evacuation place and handed it to them. That was a sweet gesture.
My co-worker wanted to help somehow, even if it was just to one person. So he wrote a sign: “If you’re okay with motor cycle, I will drive you to your house.” He stood in the cold with that sign. And then I saw him take one gentleman home, all the way to Tokorozawa! I was so moved. I felt like I wanted to help others too.
A high school boy was saved because he climbed up on top of the roof of a department store during the flood. The flood came so suddenly, that he just saw people below him, trying to frantically climb up the roof and being taken by the flood. To help others, he kept filming them so their loved ones could see. He still hasn’t been able to reach his own parents but he says, “Its nobody’s fault. There is no one to blame. We have to stay strong.”
There is a lack of gas now and many gasoline stations are either closed or haave very loooong lines. I got worried, since I was behind 15 cars. Finally, when it was my turn, the man smiled and said, “Because of this situation, we are only giving $30 worth gas per each person. Is that alright?” “Of course its alright. I’m just glad that we are all able to share,” I said. His smile gave me so much relief.
I saw a little boy thanking a public transit employee, saying, “Thank you so much for trying hard to run the train last night.” It brought tears to the employee’s eyes, and mine.
A foreign friend told me that she was shocked to see a looong queue form so neatly behind one public phone. Everyone waited so patiently to use the phone even though everyone must have been so eager to call their families.
The traffic was horrible!! Only one car can move forward at green light. But everyone was driving so calmly. During the 10 hour drive (which would only take 30 minutes normally) the only horns I heard was a horn of thank you. It was a fearful time — but then again a time of warmth and it made me love Japan more.
When I was waiting at the platform, so tired and exhausted, a homeless person came to us and gave us a cardboard to sit on. Even though we usually ignore them in our daily life, they were ready to serve us.
Suntory (a juice company) is giving out free drinks, phone companies are creating more wi-fi spots, 1,000,000 noodles were given by a food company, and everyone is trying to help the best way they can. We, too, have to stand up and do our best.
Whenever there is a black out, people are working hard to fix it. Whenever the water stops, there are people working to fix that too. And when there is problem with nuclear energy, there are people trying to fix that too. It doesn’t just fix itself. While we are waiting to regain the heat in the cool temperature or have running water, there were people risking their life to fix it for us.
An old woman said, on a train: “Blackouts are no problem for me. I am used to saving electricity for this country, and turning off lights. At least, this time we don’t have bombs flying over our heads. I’m willing to happy to shut off my electricity!” Everyone around couldn’t say a word in response.
In one area, when the electricity returned, people rejoiced. And then someone yelled: “We got electricity because someone else probably conserved theirs! Thank you so much to EVERYONE who saved electricity for us. Thank you everyone!”
An old man at the evacuation shelter said, “What’s going to happen now?” And then a young high school boy sitting next to him said, “Don’t worry! When we grow up, we will promise to fix it back!” While saying this, he was rubbing the old man’s back. And when I was listening to that conversation, I felt hope. There is a bright future, on the other side of this crisis.
Wrap...
This was given me by my good friend and dentist, John Yamamoto. Dr. Yamamoto spent the years of 1942 to 1944 in a detention camp in Colorado. He has several relatives in Japan. He and I often discuss three years of his youth in a detention camp. Dr. Yamamoto and I have been discussing the results of the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster.
He forwarded this e-mail to me yesterday, March 25th. I don't know the author but understand he or she was in Tokyo and this reflects the condition there.
I sent him a note telling him: I felt your emotion this morning. Now I share it. Each culture has it's own rhythm. What those Japanese people were saying and doing would have sounded mawkish in today's United States, but the simplicity of all it resonated well with what I understand, and remember, of the Japanese culture. I will send it to a friend who runs a blog. Then I will link to it on Facebook. It will help all us understand how the people over there are coping with a disaster.
*******************************
Personal accounts by number of people, on-the-street:
Last night when I was walking home (since all traffic had stopped), I saw an old lady at a bakery shop. It was totally past their closing time, but she was giving out free bread. Even at times like this, people were trying to find what they can do and it made my heart warm.
In the supermarket, where items of all the shelves fell, people were picking up things so neatly together, and then quietly stand in line to buy food. Instead of creating panic and buying as much as needed, they bought as little as they needed. I was proud to be a Japanese.
When I was walking home, for 4 hours, there was a lady holding a sign that said, “Please use our toilet.” They were opening their house for people to go to the restroom. It was hard not to tear up, when I saw the warmth of people.
At Disneyland, they were giving out candies. High school girls were taking so many so I was thinking, “What???” But then the next minute, they ran to the children in the evacuation place and handed it to them. That was a sweet gesture.
My co-worker wanted to help somehow, even if it was just to one person. So he wrote a sign: “If you’re okay with motor cycle, I will drive you to your house.” He stood in the cold with that sign. And then I saw him take one gentleman home, all the way to Tokorozawa! I was so moved. I felt like I wanted to help others too.
A high school boy was saved because he climbed up on top of the roof of a department store during the flood. The flood came so suddenly, that he just saw people below him, trying to frantically climb up the roof and being taken by the flood. To help others, he kept filming them so their loved ones could see. He still hasn’t been able to reach his own parents but he says, “Its nobody’s fault. There is no one to blame. We have to stay strong.”
There is a lack of gas now and many gasoline stations are either closed or haave very loooong lines. I got worried, since I was behind 15 cars. Finally, when it was my turn, the man smiled and said, “Because of this situation, we are only giving $30 worth gas per each person. Is that alright?” “Of course its alright. I’m just glad that we are all able to share,” I said. His smile gave me so much relief.
I saw a little boy thanking a public transit employee, saying, “Thank you so much for trying hard to run the train last night.” It brought tears to the employee’s eyes, and mine.
A foreign friend told me that she was shocked to see a looong queue form so neatly behind one public phone. Everyone waited so patiently to use the phone even though everyone must have been so eager to call their families.
The traffic was horrible!! Only one car can move forward at green light. But everyone was driving so calmly. During the 10 hour drive (which would only take 30 minutes normally) the only horns I heard was a horn of thank you. It was a fearful time — but then again a time of warmth and it made me love Japan more.
When I was waiting at the platform, so tired and exhausted, a homeless person came to us and gave us a cardboard to sit on. Even though we usually ignore them in our daily life, they were ready to serve us.
Suntory (a juice company) is giving out free drinks, phone companies are creating more wi-fi spots, 1,000,000 noodles were given by a food company, and everyone is trying to help the best way they can. We, too, have to stand up and do our best.
Whenever there is a black out, people are working hard to fix it. Whenever the water stops, there are people working to fix that too. And when there is problem with nuclear energy, there are people trying to fix that too. It doesn’t just fix itself. While we are waiting to regain the heat in the cool temperature or have running water, there were people risking their life to fix it for us.
An old woman said, on a train: “Blackouts are no problem for me. I am used to saving electricity for this country, and turning off lights. At least, this time we don’t have bombs flying over our heads. I’m willing to happy to shut off my electricity!” Everyone around couldn’t say a word in response.
In one area, when the electricity returned, people rejoiced. And then someone yelled: “We got electricity because someone else probably conserved theirs! Thank you so much to EVERYONE who saved electricity for us. Thank you everyone!”
An old man at the evacuation shelter said, “What’s going to happen now?” And then a young high school boy sitting next to him said, “Don’t worry! When we grow up, we will promise to fix it back!” While saying this, he was rubbing the old man’s back. And when I was listening to that conversation, I felt hope. There is a bright future, on the other side of this crisis.
Wrap...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
CIA's Interrogation Program Review....
From Secrecy News:
REVIEW OF CIA INTERROGATION PROGRAM STILL UNFINISHED
It is nearly a decade since the Central Intelligence Agency embarked on its controversial post-9/11 program of prisoner detention and interrogation, which included "enhanced" procedures that would later be repudiated and that were widely regarded as torture. But even now, an accurate and complete account of that episode remains unavailable.
It is more than two years since the Senate Intelligence Committee belatedly began "a study of the CIA's detention and interrogation program." The Committee reported (pdf) this month that "the CIA has made available to the Committee over 4 million pages of CIA records relating to its detention and interrogation program."
Yet the Committee said that its two year old review of the nearly decade-old program is still not complete: "The review has continued toward the goal of presenting to the Committee, in the [current] 112th Congress, the results of the review of the extensive documentary record that has been provided to the Committee." There was no mention of presenting the results of the review to the public. See "Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence Covering the Period January 3, 2009 to January 4, 2001," Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, March 17, 2011.
The Intelligence Committee report presented a number of other noteworthy statements:
A review of electro-optical intelligence satellite collection systems by members of the Committee's Technical Advisory Group in 2010 "found flawed processes and results from the earliest stage of the requirements process... [and] judged the technical justification for the proposed system fell far short of the standard they expected from an investment of this magnitude."
The Committee staff "found that too many [defense] attaches are not sufficiently conversant in the languages, cultures, and traditions of the countries to which they are assigned."
Intelligence agencies continue to fail to produce financial records that can be independently audited. The National Reconnaissance Office "is the only one of the IC agencies required to produce auditable financial statements that has achieved what appears to be a sustainable opinion with no qualifications from its independent auditors.... The CIA has submitted its financial reports to an independent auditor but has received a disclaimer of opinion due to the inability of the auditor to gather certain relevant facts. The NSA, DIA, and NGA are still not even prepared to submit their financial reports to independent audit," the Senate report said.
Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
Wrap...
REVIEW OF CIA INTERROGATION PROGRAM STILL UNFINISHED
It is nearly a decade since the Central Intelligence Agency embarked on its controversial post-9/11 program of prisoner detention and interrogation, which included "enhanced" procedures that would later be repudiated and that were widely regarded as torture. But even now, an accurate and complete account of that episode remains unavailable.
It is more than two years since the Senate Intelligence Committee belatedly began "a study of the CIA's detention and interrogation program." The Committee reported (pdf) this month that "the CIA has made available to the Committee over 4 million pages of CIA records relating to its detention and interrogation program."
Yet the Committee said that its two year old review of the nearly decade-old program is still not complete: "The review has continued toward the goal of presenting to the Committee, in the [current] 112th Congress, the results of the review of the extensive documentary record that has been provided to the Committee." There was no mention of presenting the results of the review to the public. See "Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence Covering the Period January 3, 2009 to January 4, 2001," Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, March 17, 2011.
The Intelligence Committee report presented a number of other noteworthy statements:
A review of electro-optical intelligence satellite collection systems by members of the Committee's Technical Advisory Group in 2010 "found flawed processes and results from the earliest stage of the requirements process... [and] judged the technical justification for the proposed system fell far short of the standard they expected from an investment of this magnitude."
The Committee staff "found that too many [defense] attaches are not sufficiently conversant in the languages, cultures, and traditions of the countries to which they are assigned."
Intelligence agencies continue to fail to produce financial records that can be independently audited. The National Reconnaissance Office "is the only one of the IC agencies required to produce auditable financial statements that has achieved what appears to be a sustainable opinion with no qualifications from its independent auditors.... The CIA has submitted its financial reports to an independent auditor but has received a disclaimer of opinion due to the inability of the auditor to gather certain relevant facts. The NSA, DIA, and NGA are still not even prepared to submit their financial reports to independent audit," the Senate report said.
Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
Wrap...
Sunday, March 06, 2011
On Sex and Honor....
BRIGHAM YOUNG, HIS WIVES, HIS UNIVERSITY, AND THE HONOR CODE
by
Keith Taylor
Folks in Utah are proud to tell us Utah's founder, Brigham Young, had fifty-five wives. They don't brag too much that many of that fifty-five were children, or that history tells us that Brigham was complicit in the killing of 124 men women and children at Mountain Meadows in 1857. Few Mormons like to review history which doesn't reflect favorably on the founder of Salt Lake City.
The largest university in Utah is named for Brigham. Its 30,000 students must sign an honor code which stipulates that, like him, they must be honest, live a chaste and virtuous life, use clean language and abstain from alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee and drugs. Other prohibitions including cussing and beards have been added and/or deleted from time to time, but premarital chastity has always been on the list.
Despite the prohibition, sex reared its head at BYU and that head had to roll. One of the best players on the high flying Cougar basketball team violated the code by having premarital sex with a co-ed. Brandon Davies was kicked off the team, an act which jeopardized the team's shot at a national championship, and a first place seed in the forthcoming NCAA tournament.
Premarital sex is a common occurrence among students in forty-nine of our states, but not at the university named after a man who routinely married and impregnated teenage girls. Brigham Young University takes a strong stand against lots of things which they choose to believe, and teach, God doesn't allow.
Honor, at least the perception of it, is a big deal with Mormons, and improperly sanctified sex is against their honor code. But all isn't lost for horny young women and men. They can do it a lot if it is sanctified by a proper authority -- one who also teaches that a woman talked to a snake, and native Americans are Israelis who immigrated here from Israel 2800 years ago.
But the thinking at this university with 30 thousand students is that it is decreed that a biological urge followed by two consenting people in the prime of their lives was evil? At BYU, they have more respect for superstitions than they do for science, and the sex act is biological after all.
So far as I can tell science, especially biology and anthropology, aren't strong subjects at BYU? I once talked to a BYU grad and former missionary who told me that a science professor showed a dinosaur fossil to his class. When he told them it was billions of years old, a student asked how that could be when the religion professor told them the earth was no more than 10 thousand years old, he was told "don't ask."
Don't ask! How is a student to learn?
At BYU that seems to be the idea.
***********************
//Keith Taylor is a retired navy guy who lives in Chula Vista. He can be reached at krtaylorxyz@aol.com
by
Keith Taylor
Folks in Utah are proud to tell us Utah's founder, Brigham Young, had fifty-five wives. They don't brag too much that many of that fifty-five were children, or that history tells us that Brigham was complicit in the killing of 124 men women and children at Mountain Meadows in 1857. Few Mormons like to review history which doesn't reflect favorably on the founder of Salt Lake City.
The largest university in Utah is named for Brigham. Its 30,000 students must sign an honor code which stipulates that, like him, they must be honest, live a chaste and virtuous life, use clean language and abstain from alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee and drugs. Other prohibitions including cussing and beards have been added and/or deleted from time to time, but premarital chastity has always been on the list.
Despite the prohibition, sex reared its head at BYU and that head had to roll. One of the best players on the high flying Cougar basketball team violated the code by having premarital sex with a co-ed. Brandon Davies was kicked off the team, an act which jeopardized the team's shot at a national championship, and a first place seed in the forthcoming NCAA tournament.
Premarital sex is a common occurrence among students in forty-nine of our states, but not at the university named after a man who routinely married and impregnated teenage girls. Brigham Young University takes a strong stand against lots of things which they choose to believe, and teach, God doesn't allow.
Honor, at least the perception of it, is a big deal with Mormons, and improperly sanctified sex is against their honor code. But all isn't lost for horny young women and men. They can do it a lot if it is sanctified by a proper authority -- one who also teaches that a woman talked to a snake, and native Americans are Israelis who immigrated here from Israel 2800 years ago.
But the thinking at this university with 30 thousand students is that it is decreed that a biological urge followed by two consenting people in the prime of their lives was evil? At BYU, they have more respect for superstitions than they do for science, and the sex act is biological after all.
So far as I can tell science, especially biology and anthropology, aren't strong subjects at BYU? I once talked to a BYU grad and former missionary who told me that a science professor showed a dinosaur fossil to his class. When he told them it was billions of years old, a student asked how that could be when the religion professor told them the earth was no more than 10 thousand years old, he was told "don't ask."
Don't ask! How is a student to learn?
At BYU that seems to be the idea.
***********************
//Keith Taylor is a retired navy guy who lives in Chula Vista. He can be reached at krtaylorxyz@aol.com
Thursday, February 24, 2011
DOD won't do it...
SECRECY REFORM STYMIED BY THE PENTAGON
The Obama Administration has taken several initial steps to modernize the national security classification system and to combat overclassification. But those halting efforts are being undermined by the Department of Defense, which is not implementing the President's policy.
DoD, which is the government's largest producer of classified information, has failed to update its internal regulation on information security, despite a specific Presidential directive to do so. The result is that military components today are following old, incomplete and misleading guidance on classification policy.
For example, one such component, U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM), said on February 20 that it was unaware of a current requirement to update and correct its classification guidance. It had "no records" pertaining to the performance of a Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, which was required by President Obama's Executive Order 13526. Why? Because, it said, "no Review was required [by] DoD 5200.1-R," the Pentagon's regulation on information security (pdf).
This is a startling misunderstanding and a grievous lapse of responsibility on the part of the Pentagon. The reason that TRANSCOM is unaware of the new requirement to perform a Fundamental Classification Guidance Review is that DoD's internal regulation 5200-1.R on classification policy has not been updated since January 1997! In effect, DoD has been blocking the transmission of the President's instructions to classifiers and declassifiers in the field.
This in itself is an act of defiance, particularly since the President himself ordered senior agency officials to prepare new classification policy regulations. "Such regulations shall be issued in final form within 180 days of ISOO's publication of its implementing directive for the order," President Obama wrote in his December 29, 2009 memorandum that accompanied the issuance of Executive Order 13526.
The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) did publish its implementing directive (pdf) for the Executive Order on June 28, 2010. Therefore, agencies officials were obliged to complete their implementing regulations 180 days later, by the end of December 2010. At the Pentagon, officials failed to comply.
"The promulgation of implementing regulations for [President Obama's] E.O. 13526... is not an optional activity," said William J. Bosanko, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, which oversees the classification system.
"Such regulations serve as the foundation for the implementation of the Order at each agency," he explained. "Failure to update regulations in a timely manner impedes the implementation of the President's direction and risks undermining the confidence in the classification system. It also places classified information at needless risk and otherwise makes it difficult to hold accountable those who fail to meet their responsibilities."
"How can we expect personnel to properly classify, safeguard, and declassify national security information if we do not provide them with the 'rules'? How can we maintain the trust of the American people and our State, local, tribal, private sector, and foreign partners if we don't even comply with the most basic requirements ourselves?"
Mr. Bosanko said that ISOO was pressing for agency compliance with the requirements of the executive order. He said the status of such compliance would be addressed in the forthcoming FY 2010 ISOO Report to the President.
Meanwhile, throughout the Department of Defense, officials are diligently following the wrong instructions. According to the DoD directives website, the 1997 regulation 5200-1.R -- with all of its outdated guidance -- is currently one of the top five most frequently downloaded DoD publications.
Wrap...
The Obama Administration has taken several initial steps to modernize the national security classification system and to combat overclassification. But those halting efforts are being undermined by the Department of Defense, which is not implementing the President's policy.
DoD, which is the government's largest producer of classified information, has failed to update its internal regulation on information security, despite a specific Presidential directive to do so. The result is that military components today are following old, incomplete and misleading guidance on classification policy.
For example, one such component, U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM), said on February 20 that it was unaware of a current requirement to update and correct its classification guidance. It had "no records" pertaining to the performance of a Fundamental Classification Guidance Review, which was required by President Obama's Executive Order 13526. Why? Because, it said, "no Review was required [by] DoD 5200.1-R," the Pentagon's regulation on information security (pdf).
This is a startling misunderstanding and a grievous lapse of responsibility on the part of the Pentagon. The reason that TRANSCOM is unaware of the new requirement to perform a Fundamental Classification Guidance Review is that DoD's internal regulation 5200-1.R on classification policy has not been updated since January 1997! In effect, DoD has been blocking the transmission of the President's instructions to classifiers and declassifiers in the field.
This in itself is an act of defiance, particularly since the President himself ordered senior agency officials to prepare new classification policy regulations. "Such regulations shall be issued in final form within 180 days of ISOO's publication of its implementing directive for the order," President Obama wrote in his December 29, 2009 memorandum that accompanied the issuance of Executive Order 13526.
The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) did publish its implementing directive (pdf) for the Executive Order on June 28, 2010. Therefore, agencies officials were obliged to complete their implementing regulations 180 days later, by the end of December 2010. At the Pentagon, officials failed to comply.
"The promulgation of implementing regulations for [President Obama's] E.O. 13526... is not an optional activity," said William J. Bosanko, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, which oversees the classification system.
"Such regulations serve as the foundation for the implementation of the Order at each agency," he explained. "Failure to update regulations in a timely manner impedes the implementation of the President's direction and risks undermining the confidence in the classification system. It also places classified information at needless risk and otherwise makes it difficult to hold accountable those who fail to meet their responsibilities."
"How can we expect personnel to properly classify, safeguard, and declassify national security information if we do not provide them with the 'rules'? How can we maintain the trust of the American people and our State, local, tribal, private sector, and foreign partners if we don't even comply with the most basic requirements ourselves?"
Mr. Bosanko said that ISOO was pressing for agency compliance with the requirements of the executive order. He said the status of such compliance would be addressed in the forthcoming FY 2010 ISOO Report to the President.
Meanwhile, throughout the Department of Defense, officials are diligently following the wrong instructions. According to the DoD directives website, the 1997 regulation 5200-1.R -- with all of its outdated guidance -- is currently one of the top five most frequently downloaded DoD publications.
Wrap...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Pentagon Papers...
From Secrecy News...
DECLASSIFYING THE PENTAGON PAPERS, FINALLY
The National Declassification Center (NDC) at the National Archives will declassify the full text of the Pentagon Papers as well as the underlying documentation on which they are based, along with investigative material concerning the 1971 leak of the Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, the NDC said yesterday.
"One matter to keep in mind concerning the Pentagon Papers is that there is no complete record of the report in the public domain," the NDC blog said.
The Pentagon Papers Project "is both an interagency and intra-agency effort. NARA is working closely with its partners in the intelligence and defense communities, and the Department of Justice to ensure that we make available as much of this historical collection as possible."
But one wonders why a "project," complete with inter- and intra-agency coordination, is necessary at all to process defense policy records that were mostly made public 40 years ago. A better use of public resources would be to wave a wand and simply declare the records open.
Wrap...
DECLASSIFYING THE PENTAGON PAPERS, FINALLY
The National Declassification Center (NDC) at the National Archives will declassify the full text of the Pentagon Papers as well as the underlying documentation on which they are based, along with investigative material concerning the 1971 leak of the Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, the NDC said yesterday.
"One matter to keep in mind concerning the Pentagon Papers is that there is no complete record of the report in the public domain," the NDC blog said.
The Pentagon Papers Project "is both an interagency and intra-agency effort. NARA is working closely with its partners in the intelligence and defense communities, and the Department of Justice to ensure that we make available as much of this historical collection as possible."
But one wonders why a "project," complete with inter- and intra-agency coordination, is necessary at all to process defense policy records that were mostly made public 40 years ago. A better use of public resources would be to wave a wand and simply declare the records open.
Wrap...
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Air Force and Wikileaks...
From Secrecy News...
AIR FORCE RESCINDS NEW GUIDANCE ON WIKILEAKS
Secrecy News reported Monday on strange new guidance from the Air Force Materiel Command declaring that Air Force employees and even their family members could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for accessing the WikiLeaks web site. On Monday night that new guidance was abruptly withdrawn.
Lt. Col. Richard L. Johnson of Air Force Headquarters released this statement:
"Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) recently published an internal news story that discussed the implications of downloading presumed classified information from WikiLeaks. The release was not previously coordinated with Headquarters Air Force and has been removed from the AFMC website. The Air Force has provided guidance to military members and employees to avoid downloading what could be classified information into Air Force unclassified networks and reminded them that publication of information does not itself constitute declassification of such information. The Air Force guidance did not address family members who are not Air Force members or employees. The Air Force defers to the Department of Justice in all non-military matters related to WikiLeaks."
A copy of the withdrawn release is archived here. See also "US air force backtracks over WikiLeaks ban" by Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, February 8, and "No espionage charges for airmen on Wikileaks" by Scott Fontaine, Air Force Times, February 8.
DER SPIEGEL ON "STAATSFEIND WIKILEAKS"
"Aftergood is too close to the center of power," said Julian Assange. "He is not an independent fighter for freedom of information."
The passing criticism of me (I'm also "jealous") was the first thing that caught my eye in the new book "Staatsfeind WikiLeaks" by Der Spiegel reporters Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark. But the book itself is quite a bit more interesting and perceptive than that.
The authors, who are neither fans nor opponents of WikiLeaks, go out of their way to gather new information about the origins and development of the project. They seek out contrasting perspectives and bring them to bear in interesting and challenging ways. Of course, the story is unfinished.
"WikiLeaks is an organization in transition, with a dialectical relation to the mass media. WikiLeaks has changed journalism, but journalism has also changed WikiLeaks," they write.
See the Spiegel website on "Staatsfeind WikiLeaks" here. An English-language excerpt, published last month, is here.
Wrap...
AIR FORCE RESCINDS NEW GUIDANCE ON WIKILEAKS
Secrecy News reported Monday on strange new guidance from the Air Force Materiel Command declaring that Air Force employees and even their family members could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for accessing the WikiLeaks web site. On Monday night that new guidance was abruptly withdrawn.
Lt. Col. Richard L. Johnson of Air Force Headquarters released this statement:
"Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) recently published an internal news story that discussed the implications of downloading presumed classified information from WikiLeaks. The release was not previously coordinated with Headquarters Air Force and has been removed from the AFMC website. The Air Force has provided guidance to military members and employees to avoid downloading what could be classified information into Air Force unclassified networks and reminded them that publication of information does not itself constitute declassification of such information. The Air Force guidance did not address family members who are not Air Force members or employees. The Air Force defers to the Department of Justice in all non-military matters related to WikiLeaks."
A copy of the withdrawn release is archived here. See also "US air force backtracks over WikiLeaks ban" by Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian, February 8, and "No espionage charges for airmen on Wikileaks" by Scott Fontaine, Air Force Times, February 8.
DER SPIEGEL ON "STAATSFEIND WIKILEAKS"
"Aftergood is too close to the center of power," said Julian Assange. "He is not an independent fighter for freedom of information."
The passing criticism of me (I'm also "jealous") was the first thing that caught my eye in the new book "Staatsfeind WikiLeaks" by Der Spiegel reporters Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark. But the book itself is quite a bit more interesting and perceptive than that.
The authors, who are neither fans nor opponents of WikiLeaks, go out of their way to gather new information about the origins and development of the project. They seek out contrasting perspectives and bring them to bear in interesting and challenging ways. Of course, the story is unfinished.
"WikiLeaks is an organization in transition, with a dialectical relation to the mass media. WikiLeaks has changed journalism, but journalism has also changed WikiLeaks," they write.
See the Spiegel website on "Staatsfeind WikiLeaks" here. An English-language excerpt, published last month, is here.
Wrap...
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Was Honors Honorable?
From Guest Poster, Keith Taylor....
Perfect isn't good enough
by
Keith Taylor
Captain Owen Honors, the recently fired executive officer and presumptive next captain of the USS Enterprise was rated by two of his former commanding officers as being perfect. From his fitness reports we would assume if there had been a category "better than perfect," he'd have been marked up to that status. Now, with the help of both, he's disgraced and out the door.
All he did was what sailors of all ranks have done when their ship slipped over the horizon and out of sight of land. He entertained his shipmates with bawdy jokes crossing every line of propriety.
But these weren't just distasteful jokes on the mess decks or the wardroom. They were in a skit taped and broadcast to the crew on a weekly basis. Now we are told that at least four senior officers, all now admirals, knew of it and had the duty to stop anything untoward. Two were his skippers who both gave him perfect marks in his fitness reports.
Captain Honors claims they not only knew of his skits, they tacitly approved of them.
As a an old sailor and officer who fancied himself quite a wit I learned a lot as I worked his way up through the ranks (stopping far short of captain). I always knew which of my superiors liked my jokes and which were offended by them. You can bet when I was a young white hat if I said something that a chief didn't like, I'd be very skittish about telling the same joke to my the division officer.
And so went, on up the ladder. There's just something about hearing, "Knock it off smart ass" that discourages a wannabe comedian.
For all its whiz bang cyber age electronics and gee whiz gadgetry the Navy is still run by people, and while most know their place in the hierarchy, everybody has to grope his way though the ephemeral and unofficial rules of propriety.
But somehow every sailor from the latest boot camp graduate to Admiral Mullen at the top knows when he has crossed the line. Surely the XO of the USS Enterprise would not have persisted in his "XO Movie Night Skit" if Captains (now rear admirals) Larry Rice and Ron Horton plus Rear Admiral Raymond Spicer, and Vice Admiral Daniel Holloway had said, "Uh. Owen. That's over the line for an executive officer."
He could have got the idea if one of them had merely scowled at him. I was never the executive officer of a huge fighting ship, but I got to know some. Every one had the ability to adjust to the withering scowl of a senior officer.
But for the most part no scowls or "tut tuts" were forthcoming, not even from those who might have been personally offended, the women and gays who were often the subject of the jokes in the skits.
As I understand it, "something was said about it" at time and the skits stopped. The entire thing simply died about four or five years ago. Yet we now have a new brouhaha and a valuable officer is gone -- out the door by request.
Now from outside the system, Captain Honors is naming names while maintaining his presumption of innocence. I'd say he certainly had a right to presume no harm was being done.
Try as I might, the worst thing I could see about it is that the skits were simply not very funny. I know about those things. Some years ago I tried standup comedy. Believe me a night facing a quiet audience is a night nobody wants to face. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, who is very funny if you agree with his politics, agrees. He panned hell out of the tapes.
There's an old saying "you can't unring a bell." Perhaps not, but wouldn't it be better to say we can surely try to correct an overreaction. And ought it not be done by the people who overreacted, not a judge?
In 1998 the Navy learned that the hard way. Despite the wacko "Don't ask/don't tell" law, Senior Chief Timothy McVeigh (not the bomber) was being booted from the Navy for being gay. He fought back and a federal judge reversed the entire thing. McVeigh was awarded $90 thousand, promoted and retired as a master chief, and everybody from his commanding officer up to the commander in chief looked silly.
Who knows if there is a cause here for a lawsuit? But the Navy ought to beware. Standing by your guns can be expensive, especially when you have no ammunition in the first place.
And looking silly is unbecoming to those wearing a uniform.
//Keith Taylor is long retired from the Navy and is a freelance writer and author living in Chula Vista. He can be reached at krtaylorxyz@aol.com //
Wrap...
Perfect isn't good enough
by
Keith Taylor
Captain Owen Honors, the recently fired executive officer and presumptive next captain of the USS Enterprise was rated by two of his former commanding officers as being perfect. From his fitness reports we would assume if there had been a category "better than perfect," he'd have been marked up to that status. Now, with the help of both, he's disgraced and out the door.
All he did was what sailors of all ranks have done when their ship slipped over the horizon and out of sight of land. He entertained his shipmates with bawdy jokes crossing every line of propriety.
But these weren't just distasteful jokes on the mess decks or the wardroom. They were in a skit taped and broadcast to the crew on a weekly basis. Now we are told that at least four senior officers, all now admirals, knew of it and had the duty to stop anything untoward. Two were his skippers who both gave him perfect marks in his fitness reports.
Captain Honors claims they not only knew of his skits, they tacitly approved of them.
As a an old sailor and officer who fancied himself quite a wit I learned a lot as I worked his way up through the ranks (stopping far short of captain). I always knew which of my superiors liked my jokes and which were offended by them. You can bet when I was a young white hat if I said something that a chief didn't like, I'd be very skittish about telling the same joke to my the division officer.
And so went, on up the ladder. There's just something about hearing, "Knock it off smart ass" that discourages a wannabe comedian.
For all its whiz bang cyber age electronics and gee whiz gadgetry the Navy is still run by people, and while most know their place in the hierarchy, everybody has to grope his way though the ephemeral and unofficial rules of propriety.
But somehow every sailor from the latest boot camp graduate to Admiral Mullen at the top knows when he has crossed the line. Surely the XO of the USS Enterprise would not have persisted in his "XO Movie Night Skit" if Captains (now rear admirals) Larry Rice and Ron Horton plus Rear Admiral Raymond Spicer, and Vice Admiral Daniel Holloway had said, "Uh. Owen. That's over the line for an executive officer."
He could have got the idea if one of them had merely scowled at him. I was never the executive officer of a huge fighting ship, but I got to know some. Every one had the ability to adjust to the withering scowl of a senior officer.
But for the most part no scowls or "tut tuts" were forthcoming, not even from those who might have been personally offended, the women and gays who were often the subject of the jokes in the skits.
As I understand it, "something was said about it" at time and the skits stopped. The entire thing simply died about four or five years ago. Yet we now have a new brouhaha and a valuable officer is gone -- out the door by request.
Now from outside the system, Captain Honors is naming names while maintaining his presumption of innocence. I'd say he certainly had a right to presume no harm was being done.
Try as I might, the worst thing I could see about it is that the skits were simply not very funny. I know about those things. Some years ago I tried standup comedy. Believe me a night facing a quiet audience is a night nobody wants to face. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, who is very funny if you agree with his politics, agrees. He panned hell out of the tapes.
There's an old saying "you can't unring a bell." Perhaps not, but wouldn't it be better to say we can surely try to correct an overreaction. And ought it not be done by the people who overreacted, not a judge?
In 1998 the Navy learned that the hard way. Despite the wacko "Don't ask/don't tell" law, Senior Chief Timothy McVeigh (not the bomber) was being booted from the Navy for being gay. He fought back and a federal judge reversed the entire thing. McVeigh was awarded $90 thousand, promoted and retired as a master chief, and everybody from his commanding officer up to the commander in chief looked silly.
Who knows if there is a cause here for a lawsuit? But the Navy ought to beware. Standing by your guns can be expensive, especially when you have no ammunition in the first place.
And looking silly is unbecoming to those wearing a uniform.
//Keith Taylor is long retired from the Navy and is a freelance writer and author living in Chula Vista. He can be reached at krtaylorxyz@aol.com //
Wrap...
Thursday, February 03, 2011
NSA Stands Accused...
From Secrecy News....
ANOTHER WORD ON DIANE ROARK AND INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT
A January 31 Secrecy News item on "Diane Roark and the Drama of Intelligence Oversight" focused on the personal friction and hostility that are sometimes generated by the intelligence oversight process. Unfortunately, what I wrote did an injustice to Ms. Roark, the former House Intelligence Committee staffer, and to Thomas Drake, the former National Security Agency official, as well as to the larger issues involved.
I should have made it clear that I do not endorse the criticism of Ms. Roark that was expressed by Barbara McNamara, another NSA official. On the contrary, under prevailing circumstances the "intrusiveness" that Ms. Roark was accused of is likely to be a virtue, not a defect. It is the NSA, not Ms. Roark, that stands accused of mismanaging billions of dollars and operating in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Ms. Roark together with Thomas Drake and others did exactly what they should have done by bringing their concerns about NSA mismanagement to the attention of the DoD Inspector General, among other things. Significantly, they had nothing to gain for themselves. Their actions did not embody any motive of personal interest or self-aggrandizement, but something more like the opposite. They were acting in the public interest, as they understood it. That they (and especially Mr. Drake, who is now under indictment) are suffering for it is a worrisome sign of a broken system.
I also should not have repeated the insinuation from the Drake indictment which implied that he and Ms. Roark had an intimate relationship. This would be irrelevant in any case, but in this case it is also false.
My apologies to Ms. Roark and Mr. Drake.
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
Wrap...
ANOTHER WORD ON DIANE ROARK AND INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT
A January 31 Secrecy News item on "Diane Roark and the Drama of Intelligence Oversight" focused on the personal friction and hostility that are sometimes generated by the intelligence oversight process. Unfortunately, what I wrote did an injustice to Ms. Roark, the former House Intelligence Committee staffer, and to Thomas Drake, the former National Security Agency official, as well as to the larger issues involved.
I should have made it clear that I do not endorse the criticism of Ms. Roark that was expressed by Barbara McNamara, another NSA official. On the contrary, under prevailing circumstances the "intrusiveness" that Ms. Roark was accused of is likely to be a virtue, not a defect. It is the NSA, not Ms. Roark, that stands accused of mismanaging billions of dollars and operating in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Ms. Roark together with Thomas Drake and others did exactly what they should have done by bringing their concerns about NSA mismanagement to the attention of the DoD Inspector General, among other things. Significantly, they had nothing to gain for themselves. Their actions did not embody any motive of personal interest or self-aggrandizement, but something more like the opposite. They were acting in the public interest, as they understood it. That they (and especially Mr. Drake, who is now under indictment) are suffering for it is a worrisome sign of a broken system.
I also should not have repeated the insinuation from the Drake indictment which implied that he and Ms. Roark had an intimate relationship. This would be irrelevant in any case, but in this case it is also false.
My apologies to Ms. Roark and Mr. Drake.
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
The Secrecy News Blog is at:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
Wrap...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Deliberate Ignorance...
From Keith Taylor...
DARING TO THINK
by
Keith Taylor
I gave a talk to the Atheist Coalition, a group affiliated with American Atheists and headed by one of San Diego's firebrands recently.
It's refreshing to be where we are allowed to call things what they are, and to use the proper name for ourselves. I'm proud to call myself an atheist because that describes me completely. Pretending otherwise is just plain dumb.
Probably if I told you that Americans are really dumb, you'd call me arrogant, and you'd be right. But, maybe, we can agree that Americans do really dumb things. So let's call it deliberately ignorant. Being deliberately ignorant is so democratic. You are not restricted to just one answer. You can choose what to believe, and you can choose to believe as many wrong things each morning as Alice in Wonderland..
And that's what Americans do, especially when it comes to religion. Just confront a theist for his role in any of the excesses of religion such as denying science and trying to prevent its being taught in schools, or for allowing children to die rather than accept scientific medicine and sooner or later you'll hear "I choose to believe.
The Patrick Moyinhan quote: 'Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." doesn't faze them one bit.
By the way did you ever notice that the phrase "I never argue religion" always comes from those who are religious. I submit that's because they have no argument except "I choose to believe?"
Politicians know about this deliberate ignorance. Those candidates who tell the majority of folks what they want to hear get elected, and they make laws, and they make foreign policy, and they choose who we are going to bomb into oblivion, and we've been doing far too much of that.
Turn on C-SPAN and the chances are good you'll see a legislator leading a blind charge into the land of make believe of his own choosing. Some time back, the chair of the Science Climate Change Committee invited a science fiction author, not a scientist, and certainly not a climatologist, to testify.
Then, having heard what he wanted to hear, the Senator joined the sci fi author in declaring that our concern over the looming disaster was a myth. That year was the hottest on record. So was the next and the one after that.
The pattern continues, but thanks in part to the senator and his advisor , the myth about a myth persists, and the folks in Oklahoma are comfortable with that as long as they stay in their air conditioned houses while their air conditioners contribute to the climate change they choose not to believe in.
Americans want their answers from that immutable source, God Almighty! Who gives a damn what a bunch of scientists think when an omniscient being is just waiting to answer all our questions? And be patient. He's thousands of years behind now.
Deliberate ignorance is my rant lately. In fact I have an article upcoming in Skeptical Inquirer with that title. It should be out next issue, but without the histrionics.
According to the book The Faith of George W. Bush, our recent president said "I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for President."
Why, oh why didn't someone hang up that damn telephone?
That president was also quoted as telling a Palestinian foreign minister that god wanted him to bomb Baghdad. The veracity of this is questioned but one thing is certain, he did bomb hell out of a country that presented no danger to ours.
Is this an example of deliberate ignorance or is it blasphemy to say so? "
Deliberate ignorance! Those who take such comfort in it insist we all believe in it. One of the arguments for keeping the cross on Mount Soledad is that it isn't really a cross, and certainly not a religious symbol. It's a war memorial and always has been.
Except when it wasn't like all the years before Howard Kristner and Phil Paulson filed and won a suit to get a religious symbol removed from public property. The confusion may have been caused because The Mt. Soledad Easter Cross was dedicated to "Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" in a dedication bulletin by the grandmother of William J. Kellogg, President of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association on Easter Sunday, 1954.
In fact not one ceremony or plaque or anything mentioned wars or veterans until Howard and Kristner won their case. Then memorials were put up.
And the claim that the unmistakable Christian cross is a secular symbol is an insult to our intelligence, but don't wait on Roger Hedgecock or any politician to apologize.
If you are a Christian you get all incensed at anything except abject reverence in connection to anything symbolic of their belief. That's why San Diego, in debt a billion and half bucks keeps throwing money in their effort to disobey the law and the constitution.
And why not? The same inspiration worked for the guys on the crusades, the inquisition, countless book burnings, beheadings, and torture.
Amazing things happen when people choose what to believe.
Are we wrong in calling it deliberate ignorance?
If so I have a history of writing about it. One of my favorite projects as a freelance writer was Operation Stargate.
During the cold war we had a paranoia of being outdone by the Soviets, even in things paranormal. In the late sixties our intelligence services suspected the commies were keeping tabs on us with remote viewing. Not to be outdone in dumb ideas, our army set up a program headed by the Stanford Research Institute -- no direct connection to the university.
By 1985 no useful information was gleaned by folks sitting around thinking real hard, so the Army ceased funding it. Still when an idea, no matter how wacko, gets the attention of the likes of Senator Claiborne Pell and Representative Charles Rose it's life is extended and the money keeps flowing.
Operation Stargate, as it was sometimes called, was kept alive. It only cost 20 million dollars and had some interesting results which couldn't be denied because they were never tested. In 1996 the Science Applications International Corp, a San Diego Based super think tank -- and super money maker -- conducted some of the experiments. When I called them, they admitted they participated in the program but all results are classified.
I called the FBI and was told they couldn't comment because it was classified. The best I got was from a less reticent source, the grapevine: There I "learned" one remote viewer got a peek inside a Rusky submarine but wasn't able see anything classified. Nor was she able to determine which ocean the U-boat was in.
Is there help in stemming this tide of deliberate ignorance? Not from Texas it seems. In May, the Texas State Board of Education adopted a social studies and history curriculum which undermined much of what we know about science and our past. Evolution would be taught as just a theory. The Civil War was about states rights, not the right of one group of citizens to own another. This even though the constitutions of every seceding state listed the right to own slaves as a reason. Four cited states rights.
I'm telling ya, when we choose to believe anything is possible: often phrased as "in god anything is possible."
Thomas Jefferson warned us, "An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic Self-government . . ." You have to wonder what ol Tom would have to say about a citizenry which elected today's leaders.
I hate to be contrary, but was anybody except me frightened when, at a political debate of would-be presidents, Senator Sam Brownback, Governor Mike Huckabee, and Representative Tom Tancredo admitted they do not believe in evolution.
Who do you suppose elected those people to their offices, and who do you suppose would support them for the job of the most powerful person in the world? And how much different are they from the rest of the candidates who will grudgingly admit they do believe in the most tested scientific theory of all time, but refuse to confront those who choose to deny it?
I devoted fourteen years to this business of fighting deliberate ignorance as president or program chair of SDARI. I quit because I became an octogenarian and was goddamn tired. The deal was sealed when an ambulance hauled me off to a hospital while I cried out in agony with horrific chest pains. I was certain it was a one-way trip, but my knee didn't bend in adulation of a myth.
I'm proud of my affiliation with a skeptics group. It and others like it are needed in this world of superstition and religion, if there is a difference. My one regret is that our group and the larger one in Buffalo tries to draw a line between superstition and religion.
The claim seems to be that religion cannot be falsified therefore it can't be debated. That looks like a nebulous reason to me. The claims of religion may not be falsifiable, but their claim of being enlightened can and should be constantly held up to scrutiny. A candidate wanting to run for the most powerful job in the world should be asked to show his credentials for critical thinking, not a belief in things unproved and extremely unlikely.
So, at SDARI we may have not changed the world or helped thinking candidates get elected,. but I'm sure we caused a few people to think. I just wish we'd done more of that. Thinking is in short supply in this world. and I hope SDARI keeps it's campaign to confront deliberate ignorance.
Whether we made a dent in this deliberate ignorance thing or not, I insist our cause is a noble one. Rather than proclaim "the truth" and demand folks accept it we must continue to demand those who make decisions look for the truth, then test what they find, then have others test it. Then they must be willing to change their minds if their ideas are found to be wrong.
That's what science demands, and it's the right way. And let me quote my favorite scientist, Elie Shneour, in this regard, "Science is not for the scientists." It is for us to understand, use, and defend.
But we have a higher duty than to defend science. It's our patriotic duty to confront credulous and sophistic ideas. The people choosing to believe, and the leaders telling them what they want to hear are making us a third-world nation. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Development shows that our fifteen-year-olds rank in the bottom quarter of the participating countries.
I just pulled that off the internet, but study after study indicates we are lagging terribly. And I doubt studying the bible is going to solve that problem.
Nothing will unless we follow the dictum of my old outfit: DARE TO THINK!
Wrap...
DARING TO THINK
by
Keith Taylor
I gave a talk to the Atheist Coalition, a group affiliated with American Atheists and headed by one of San Diego's firebrands recently.
It's refreshing to be where we are allowed to call things what they are, and to use the proper name for ourselves. I'm proud to call myself an atheist because that describes me completely. Pretending otherwise is just plain dumb.
Probably if I told you that Americans are really dumb, you'd call me arrogant, and you'd be right. But, maybe, we can agree that Americans do really dumb things. So let's call it deliberately ignorant. Being deliberately ignorant is so democratic. You are not restricted to just one answer. You can choose what to believe, and you can choose to believe as many wrong things each morning as Alice in Wonderland..
And that's what Americans do, especially when it comes to religion. Just confront a theist for his role in any of the excesses of religion such as denying science and trying to prevent its being taught in schools, or for allowing children to die rather than accept scientific medicine and sooner or later you'll hear "I choose to believe.
The Patrick Moyinhan quote: 'Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." doesn't faze them one bit.
By the way did you ever notice that the phrase "I never argue religion" always comes from those who are religious. I submit that's because they have no argument except "I choose to believe?"
Politicians know about this deliberate ignorance. Those candidates who tell the majority of folks what they want to hear get elected, and they make laws, and they make foreign policy, and they choose who we are going to bomb into oblivion, and we've been doing far too much of that.
Turn on C-SPAN and the chances are good you'll see a legislator leading a blind charge into the land of make believe of his own choosing. Some time back, the chair of the Science Climate Change Committee invited a science fiction author, not a scientist, and certainly not a climatologist, to testify.
Then, having heard what he wanted to hear, the Senator joined the sci fi author in declaring that our concern over the looming disaster was a myth. That year was the hottest on record. So was the next and the one after that.
The pattern continues, but thanks in part to the senator and his advisor , the myth about a myth persists, and the folks in Oklahoma are comfortable with that as long as they stay in their air conditioned houses while their air conditioners contribute to the climate change they choose not to believe in.
Americans want their answers from that immutable source, God Almighty! Who gives a damn what a bunch of scientists think when an omniscient being is just waiting to answer all our questions? And be patient. He's thousands of years behind now.
Deliberate ignorance is my rant lately. In fact I have an article upcoming in Skeptical Inquirer with that title. It should be out next issue, but without the histrionics.
According to the book The Faith of George W. Bush, our recent president said "I've heard the call. I believe God wants me to run for President."
Why, oh why didn't someone hang up that damn telephone?
That president was also quoted as telling a Palestinian foreign minister that god wanted him to bomb Baghdad. The veracity of this is questioned but one thing is certain, he did bomb hell out of a country that presented no danger to ours.
Is this an example of deliberate ignorance or is it blasphemy to say so? "
Deliberate ignorance! Those who take such comfort in it insist we all believe in it. One of the arguments for keeping the cross on Mount Soledad is that it isn't really a cross, and certainly not a religious symbol. It's a war memorial and always has been.
Except when it wasn't like all the years before Howard Kristner and Phil Paulson filed and won a suit to get a religious symbol removed from public property. The confusion may have been caused because The Mt. Soledad Easter Cross was dedicated to "Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" in a dedication bulletin by the grandmother of William J. Kellogg, President of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association on Easter Sunday, 1954.
In fact not one ceremony or plaque or anything mentioned wars or veterans until Howard and Kristner won their case. Then memorials were put up.
And the claim that the unmistakable Christian cross is a secular symbol is an insult to our intelligence, but don't wait on Roger Hedgecock or any politician to apologize.
If you are a Christian you get all incensed at anything except abject reverence in connection to anything symbolic of their belief. That's why San Diego, in debt a billion and half bucks keeps throwing money in their effort to disobey the law and the constitution.
And why not? The same inspiration worked for the guys on the crusades, the inquisition, countless book burnings, beheadings, and torture.
Amazing things happen when people choose what to believe.
Are we wrong in calling it deliberate ignorance?
If so I have a history of writing about it. One of my favorite projects as a freelance writer was Operation Stargate.
During the cold war we had a paranoia of being outdone by the Soviets, even in things paranormal. In the late sixties our intelligence services suspected the commies were keeping tabs on us with remote viewing. Not to be outdone in dumb ideas, our army set up a program headed by the Stanford Research Institute -- no direct connection to the university.
By 1985 no useful information was gleaned by folks sitting around thinking real hard, so the Army ceased funding it. Still when an idea, no matter how wacko, gets the attention of the likes of Senator Claiborne Pell and Representative Charles Rose it's life is extended and the money keeps flowing.
Operation Stargate, as it was sometimes called, was kept alive. It only cost 20 million dollars and had some interesting results which couldn't be denied because they were never tested. In 1996 the Science Applications International Corp, a San Diego Based super think tank -- and super money maker -- conducted some of the experiments. When I called them, they admitted they participated in the program but all results are classified.
I called the FBI and was told they couldn't comment because it was classified. The best I got was from a less reticent source, the grapevine: There I "learned" one remote viewer got a peek inside a Rusky submarine but wasn't able see anything classified. Nor was she able to determine which ocean the U-boat was in.
Is there help in stemming this tide of deliberate ignorance? Not from Texas it seems. In May, the Texas State Board of Education adopted a social studies and history curriculum which undermined much of what we know about science and our past. Evolution would be taught as just a theory. The Civil War was about states rights, not the right of one group of citizens to own another. This even though the constitutions of every seceding state listed the right to own slaves as a reason. Four cited states rights.
I'm telling ya, when we choose to believe anything is possible: often phrased as "in god anything is possible."
Thomas Jefferson warned us, "An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic Self-government . . ." You have to wonder what ol Tom would have to say about a citizenry which elected today's leaders.
I hate to be contrary, but was anybody except me frightened when, at a political debate of would-be presidents, Senator Sam Brownback, Governor Mike Huckabee, and Representative Tom Tancredo admitted they do not believe in evolution.
Who do you suppose elected those people to their offices, and who do you suppose would support them for the job of the most powerful person in the world? And how much different are they from the rest of the candidates who will grudgingly admit they do believe in the most tested scientific theory of all time, but refuse to confront those who choose to deny it?
I devoted fourteen years to this business of fighting deliberate ignorance as president or program chair of SDARI. I quit because I became an octogenarian and was goddamn tired. The deal was sealed when an ambulance hauled me off to a hospital while I cried out in agony with horrific chest pains. I was certain it was a one-way trip, but my knee didn't bend in adulation of a myth.
I'm proud of my affiliation with a skeptics group. It and others like it are needed in this world of superstition and religion, if there is a difference. My one regret is that our group and the larger one in Buffalo tries to draw a line between superstition and religion.
The claim seems to be that religion cannot be falsified therefore it can't be debated. That looks like a nebulous reason to me. The claims of religion may not be falsifiable, but their claim of being enlightened can and should be constantly held up to scrutiny. A candidate wanting to run for the most powerful job in the world should be asked to show his credentials for critical thinking, not a belief in things unproved and extremely unlikely.
So, at SDARI we may have not changed the world or helped thinking candidates get elected,. but I'm sure we caused a few people to think. I just wish we'd done more of that. Thinking is in short supply in this world. and I hope SDARI keeps it's campaign to confront deliberate ignorance.
Whether we made a dent in this deliberate ignorance thing or not, I insist our cause is a noble one. Rather than proclaim "the truth" and demand folks accept it we must continue to demand those who make decisions look for the truth, then test what they find, then have others test it. Then they must be willing to change their minds if their ideas are found to be wrong.
That's what science demands, and it's the right way. And let me quote my favorite scientist, Elie Shneour, in this regard, "Science is not for the scientists." It is for us to understand, use, and defend.
But we have a higher duty than to defend science. It's our patriotic duty to confront credulous and sophistic ideas. The people choosing to believe, and the leaders telling them what they want to hear are making us a third-world nation. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Development shows that our fifteen-year-olds rank in the bottom quarter of the participating countries.
I just pulled that off the internet, but study after study indicates we are lagging terribly. And I doubt studying the bible is going to solve that problem.
Nothing will unless we follow the dictum of my old outfit: DARE TO THINK!
Wrap...
Thursday, January 20, 2011
More On Wikileaks...
From Secrecy News....
DOD TAKES FLEXIBLE VIEW ON DELETING WIKILEAKS DOCS
Department of Defense employees who downloaded classified documents from Wikileaks onto unclassified government computer systems may delete them without further "sanitizing" their systems or taking any other remedial measures, the Pentagon said in a policy memo (pdf) last week.
The release of classified State Department cables and other classified documents by Wikileaks has produced special consternation among security officers, who have tended to respond "by the book" to this unprecedented breach of security procedures. But "the book," which is the product of an earlier era, is quickly becoming obsolete. And in the worst case, some officials say, the government's unimaginative response to Wikileaks could do more damage than the original disclosures.
But now some tentative signs of flexibility can be detected from Pentagon policy makers.
Under the new guidance, DoD employees and contractors who have downloaded classified documents from the Wikileaks website onto an unclassified government computer or network -- which is still prohibited -- do not need to take any extreme corrective measures in response, the Pentagon said. In particular, there is no need to prepare a formal incident report or to "sanitize" their information systems by overwriting or degaussing them. Instead, the documents can simply be deleted.
"In the case of classified documents inadvertently accessed or downloaded from the WikiLeaks website or other websites posting WikiLeaks-related classified documents, the IAM [information assurance manager] will document each occurrence and delete the affected file(s) by holding down the SHIFT key while pressing the DELETE key for Windows-based systems," said Acting Under Secretary of Defense Thomas A. Ferguson in a January 11 memo.
Using the shift and delete keys simultaneously is a way of "permanently deleting" a document, so that it is removed from the file directory and does not appear in the Trash or Recycle Bin. This action does not, however, physically erase or eliminate the document from the computer's hard drive. In other cases of inadvertent transfer of classified information to an unclassified system, a more rigorous response is often required. But this will now be good enough for the purpose of eliminating classified Wikileaks documents.
"No incident report or further sanitization of government IT systems is required," Under Secretary Ferguson continued.
The new flexibility only extends to Wikileaks-related documents, not to other "spillages" of classified information, he said. "This guidance pertains only to the accessing or downloading of the classified documents described above because of the extent of the compromise and the prohibitive cost of standard sanitization procedures. All other classified spillages must be handled in accordance with existing regulations," according to the Pentagon memo.
See "Notice to DoD Employees and Contractors on Protecting Classified Information and the Integrity of Unclassified Government Information Technology (IT) Systems," memorandum for senior DoD officials from Acting Under Secretary of Defense Thomas A. Ferguson, January 11, 2011.
Wrap...
DOD TAKES FLEXIBLE VIEW ON DELETING WIKILEAKS DOCS
Department of Defense employees who downloaded classified documents from Wikileaks onto unclassified government computer systems may delete them without further "sanitizing" their systems or taking any other remedial measures, the Pentagon said in a policy memo (pdf) last week.
The release of classified State Department cables and other classified documents by Wikileaks has produced special consternation among security officers, who have tended to respond "by the book" to this unprecedented breach of security procedures. But "the book," which is the product of an earlier era, is quickly becoming obsolete. And in the worst case, some officials say, the government's unimaginative response to Wikileaks could do more damage than the original disclosures.
But now some tentative signs of flexibility can be detected from Pentagon policy makers.
Under the new guidance, DoD employees and contractors who have downloaded classified documents from the Wikileaks website onto an unclassified government computer or network -- which is still prohibited -- do not need to take any extreme corrective measures in response, the Pentagon said. In particular, there is no need to prepare a formal incident report or to "sanitize" their information systems by overwriting or degaussing them. Instead, the documents can simply be deleted.
"In the case of classified documents inadvertently accessed or downloaded from the WikiLeaks website or other websites posting WikiLeaks-related classified documents, the IAM [information assurance manager] will document each occurrence and delete the affected file(s) by holding down the SHIFT key while pressing the DELETE key for Windows-based systems," said Acting Under Secretary of Defense Thomas A. Ferguson in a January 11 memo.
Using the shift and delete keys simultaneously is a way of "permanently deleting" a document, so that it is removed from the file directory and does not appear in the Trash or Recycle Bin. This action does not, however, physically erase or eliminate the document from the computer's hard drive. In other cases of inadvertent transfer of classified information to an unclassified system, a more rigorous response is often required. But this will now be good enough for the purpose of eliminating classified Wikileaks documents.
"No incident report or further sanitization of government IT systems is required," Under Secretary Ferguson continued.
The new flexibility only extends to Wikileaks-related documents, not to other "spillages" of classified information, he said. "This guidance pertains only to the accessing or downloading of the classified documents described above because of the extent of the compromise and the prohibitive cost of standard sanitization procedures. All other classified spillages must be handled in accordance with existing regulations," according to the Pentagon memo.
See "Notice to DoD Employees and Contractors on Protecting Classified Information and the Integrity of Unclassified Government Information Technology (IT) Systems," memorandum for senior DoD officials from Acting Under Secretary of Defense Thomas A. Ferguson, January 11, 2011.
Wrap...
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Hmmm...Wikileaks Needed?
From Secrecy News...
AIR FORCE SAP POLICY LIMITS CONGRESSIONAL CONTACTS
The Air Force issued updated guidance (pdf) last week concerning its highly classified special access programs, including new language prohibiting unauthorized communications with Congress.
Special access programs (SAPs) involve access and safeguarding restrictions that are more extensive than those that apply to other classified programs. SAPs are nominally established "to protect the Nation's most sensitive capabilities, information, technologies and operations."
The new Air Force guidance emphatically limits contacts with Congress concerning SAPs.
"It is strictly forbidden for any employee of the Air Force or any appropriately accessed organization or company to brief or provide SAP material to any Congressional Member or staff without DoD SAPCO [Special Access Program Central Office] approval. Additionally, the Director, SAF/AAZ will be kept informed of any interaction with Congress." See Air Force Policy Directive 16-7, "Special Access Programs," December 29, 2010.
Wrap...
AIR FORCE SAP POLICY LIMITS CONGRESSIONAL CONTACTS
The Air Force issued updated guidance (pdf) last week concerning its highly classified special access programs, including new language prohibiting unauthorized communications with Congress.
Special access programs (SAPs) involve access and safeguarding restrictions that are more extensive than those that apply to other classified programs. SAPs are nominally established "to protect the Nation's most sensitive capabilities, information, technologies and operations."
The new Air Force guidance emphatically limits contacts with Congress concerning SAPs.
"It is strictly forbidden for any employee of the Air Force or any appropriately accessed organization or company to brief or provide SAP material to any Congressional Member or staff without DoD SAPCO [Special Access Program Central Office] approval. Additionally, the Director, SAF/AAZ will be kept informed of any interaction with Congress." See Air Force Policy Directive 16-7, "Special Access Programs," December 29, 2010.
Wrap...
Monday, January 03, 2011
Info on Social Security & Disability....
The Social Security and Disability Resource Center website (SSDRC.com) provides a detailed overview of how the federal disability system works (social security disability and SSI) and also provides answers to many questions that applicants typically have, but often have trouble finding answers to. For the most part, the site is based on the author's personal experience as a former disability-medicaid caseworker, and also as a former disability examiner for the social security administration.
Here is a link to the site: http://www.ssdrc.com/
Wrap...
Here is a link to the site: http://www.ssdrc.com/
Wrap...
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Breakin' the Law...
Just disgusted and angry with the Obama admin. They continually break or ignore the laws. And so underhanded. And what the hell are they doing, trading with Iran? They're mighty good at saying one thing and doing another. So is the DOJ doing anything? Hell no.
What's this business with jailing people whenever they want with no trial? Why are those Gitmo prisoners still down there?
What are they doing, paying the Taliban to let trucks cross into Afghanistan? Nice to finance the people we're fighting.
And how much are we giving Pakistan? Something like $900 million a year? So they can protect the Taliban hiding in their territory?
And on and on and on. Scared shitless about what Assange might leak about what? He's right...it's terrorism.
But Obama taught law. Glad I wasn't one of his students. Suppose he taught how to blantantly break the laws? Constitutional? Hell, he doesn't need to be in a classroom. All his students need to do is watch he and his administration in action.
And he gets people like Timmie G in his admin to deal with Wall Street when that s.o.b. was part of that despicable outfit. Really brillant.
Hope he just stays in Hawaii and disappears from our view.
What's this business with jailing people whenever they want with no trial? Why are those Gitmo prisoners still down there?
What are they doing, paying the Taliban to let trucks cross into Afghanistan? Nice to finance the people we're fighting.
And how much are we giving Pakistan? Something like $900 million a year? So they can protect the Taliban hiding in their territory?
And on and on and on. Scared shitless about what Assange might leak about what? He's right...it's terrorism.
But Obama taught law. Glad I wasn't one of his students. Suppose he taught how to blantantly break the laws? Constitutional? Hell, he doesn't need to be in a classroom. All his students need to do is watch he and his administration in action.
And he gets people like Timmie G in his admin to deal with Wall Street when that s.o.b. was part of that despicable outfit. Really brillant.
Hope he just stays in Hawaii and disappears from our view.
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Obama has got to go...
Never thought I'd say this, but Obama has got to go in 2012. I've had it with his bending over for Repub positions. He has no guts. And is not likely to get any either.
So who would be the best candidate to take his place? At this point, he's become so cowardly that almost any Dem would do. And that's all I have to say on the matter.
Wrap...
So who would be the best candidate to take his place? At this point, he's become so cowardly that almost any Dem would do. And that's all I have to say on the matter.
Wrap...
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Fascinating Books On the Way...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION
DEBUT...
Owen Laukkanen's THE PROFESSIONALS, pitched as comparable to the work of John Sandford and Thomas Perry, a state policeman is teamed with an FBI agent to track down four recent college graduates who, facing the worst job market in recent history, decide to create their own jobs as professional kidnappers, to Neil Nyren at Putnam, in a two-book deal, by Stacia Decker at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (World).
Patrick Flanery's THE CENSOR, set in contemporary South Africa, about the relationship between a renowned, elderly female author and the man she has selected to be her official biographer - and the powerful unspoken link between them in the author's daughter, an active member of the anti-apartheid movement, who disappeared without a trace many years ago, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Victoria Hobbs at A M Heath (US).
MYSTERY/CRIME...
William Kent Krueger's two more books in the NYT bestselling Cork O'Connor crime series and the stand-alone ORDINARY GRACE, a coming-of-age story about a tragedy that strikes a Methodist minister in 1961 and what it does to his faith, his family, and the fabric of the small town in which he lives, told forty years later by the minister's son, to Sarah Branham at Atria, by Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates (World).
Film joel@ipglm.com
SCI-FI/FANTASY...
Julianna Baggott's PURE trilogy, a YA/adult crossover dystopian novel about a society of haves, who escaped an apocalypse in a futuristic dome-covered city, and have-nots, who survived the nearly destroyed outside world, to Jaime Levine at Grand Central, in a three-book deal, by Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates (NA).
THRILLER...
Silver Dagger and Hammett winner Dan Fesperman's THE DOUBLE GAME, in which Cold War spy novels and other classic works of espionage become the clues to uncover a possible double agent, to Sonny Mehta at Knopf.
UK rights to Nick Cheetham at Corvus, by Jane Chelius at Jane Chelius Literary Agency.
GENERAL/OTHER...
Spanish novelist VÃctor del Arbol's THE SAMARAI'S GRIEF, about multiple betrayals, personal and political, pitched as evocative of Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, and set alternately in the pro-Nazi Spain of 1941 -- when an aristocrat becomes involved in a plot to kill her Fascist husband, only to be betrayed by her lover -- and during the attempted Fascist coup of 1981, when a young lawyer is accused of plotting the prison escape of the man she successfully prosecuted for attempted murder five years earlier; with the Japanese sword of the title providing -- and ultimately severing -- the link between the two women's lives, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, in a pre-empt, for publication in February 2011, by Thomas Colchie of The Colchie Agency, representing the Spanish publisher Alreves on behalf of principal agent Antonia Kerrigan in Barcelona (world English).
Rachel Hore's A PLACE OF SECRETS, when an auction house appraiser of old books and manuscripts, a woman struggling to come to terms with the death of her young husband, is asked to value a collection belonging to a reclusive 18th century astronomer, she jumps at the chance to escape London to be closer to her sister and niece and begin deciphering the mysteries of the astronomer's world, only to find all sorts of disturbing links with her own family's history, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, for publication in February 2012, by Lisa Bankoff at ICM, on behalf of Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown UK (NA).
CHILDREN'S YOUNG ADULT...
Debut author Marissa Meyer's four-book YA futuristic, fairy-tale inspired series, starting with CINDER, Cinderella is re-envisioned through teen heroine Cinder, part girl and part machine, who must piece together her mysterious past before she can fulfill her destiny and save the kingdom -- and the rest of planet Earth -- from an otherworldly enemy; as Cinder's quest continues through the series, she finds allies loosely based Little Red Riding Hood (SCARLET), Rapunzel (CRESS), and Snow White (WINTER) -- as they join forces to conquer evil and find their happily-ever-afters, to Jean Feiwel of Feiwel and Friends, at auction, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (NA).
BIOGRAPHY...
Coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning AMERICAN PROMETHEUS Kai Bird's THE GOOD SPY, centering on the career and tragic death of CIA legend Robert Ames, whose passing marked a dramatic shift in foreign policy that still haunts America's relationship with the Muslim world, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2013, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency.
With the royal engagement news comes the pre-planned announcement of author of The Day Diana Died Christopher Andersen's WILLIAM AND KATE: The Love Story, about how Prince William and Kate Middleton "defied all odds to forge a storybook romance amidst the scandals, power struggles, tragedies, and general dysfunction that are the hallmarks of Britain's Royal Family," promising "intimate details of their celebrated courtship" and more, to Jennifer Bergstrom at Gallery, with Mitchell Ivers editing, for publication in February 2011, by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group (NA).
Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara's untitled biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, telling the story of the often-overlooked Kennedy who founded the Special Olympics and left behind one of the family's most enduring civil rights legacies, to Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster, by Colleen Mohyde at the Doe Coover Agency (World).
MEMOIR...
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather's SUMMING UP, with the 79-year-old saying "the time had come for me to sum up my career in a candid memoir, and now I feel the time is right. Plus, with the changing climate -- and attitude -- about news and journalists, I feel I can give readers an honest perspective on the present, and, more important, on the future of news," to Rick Wolff at Grand Central, for publication in 2012, by Paul Fedorko at N.S. Bienstock.
NARRATIVE...
NYT bestselling and Emmy Award-winning DESPERADOS Elaine Shannon's LEFT OF BOOM, a narrative of the DEA's mission-critical operations in Afghanistan and what they portend for the future of war fighting, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2012, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency (world).
SPORTS...
Major league catcher and winner of two World Series rings Bengie Molina's PAPI, an account of fathers, sons, and baseball that tells the story Molina's family and specifically his late father, Benjamin Molina Santana, who rose from poverty in Puerto Rico and worked in a factory for thirty years while coaching his three sons (Bengie, Jose, and Yadier) into the major leagues, where they became the first three brothers in history to all win World Series championships, written with Little Girls in Pretty Boxes author Joan Ryan, to Jofie Ferrari-Adler at Simon & Schuster, at auction, by Betsy Lerner at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (World).
Wrap...
FICTION
DEBUT...
Owen Laukkanen's THE PROFESSIONALS, pitched as comparable to the work of John Sandford and Thomas Perry, a state policeman is teamed with an FBI agent to track down four recent college graduates who, facing the worst job market in recent history, decide to create their own jobs as professional kidnappers, to Neil Nyren at Putnam, in a two-book deal, by Stacia Decker at the Donald Maass Literary Agency (World).
Patrick Flanery's THE CENSOR, set in contemporary South Africa, about the relationship between a renowned, elderly female author and the man she has selected to be her official biographer - and the powerful unspoken link between them in the author's daughter, an active member of the anti-apartheid movement, who disappeared without a trace many years ago, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Victoria Hobbs at A M Heath (US).
MYSTERY/CRIME...
William Kent Krueger's two more books in the NYT bestselling Cork O'Connor crime series and the stand-alone ORDINARY GRACE, a coming-of-age story about a tragedy that strikes a Methodist minister in 1961 and what it does to his faith, his family, and the fabric of the small town in which he lives, told forty years later by the minister's son, to Sarah Branham at Atria, by Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller Literary Associates (World).
Film joel@ipglm.com
SCI-FI/FANTASY...
Julianna Baggott's PURE trilogy, a YA/adult crossover dystopian novel about a society of haves, who escaped an apocalypse in a futuristic dome-covered city, and have-nots, who survived the nearly destroyed outside world, to Jaime Levine at Grand Central, in a three-book deal, by Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates (NA).
THRILLER...
Silver Dagger and Hammett winner Dan Fesperman's THE DOUBLE GAME, in which Cold War spy novels and other classic works of espionage become the clues to uncover a possible double agent, to Sonny Mehta at Knopf.
UK rights to Nick Cheetham at Corvus, by Jane Chelius at Jane Chelius Literary Agency.
GENERAL/OTHER...
Spanish novelist VÃctor del Arbol's THE SAMARAI'S GRIEF, about multiple betrayals, personal and political, pitched as evocative of Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind, and set alternately in the pro-Nazi Spain of 1941 -- when an aristocrat becomes involved in a plot to kill her Fascist husband, only to be betrayed by her lover -- and during the attempted Fascist coup of 1981, when a young lawyer is accused of plotting the prison escape of the man she successfully prosecuted for attempted murder five years earlier; with the Japanese sword of the title providing -- and ultimately severing -- the link between the two women's lives, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, in a pre-empt, for publication in February 2011, by Thomas Colchie of The Colchie Agency, representing the Spanish publisher Alreves on behalf of principal agent Antonia Kerrigan in Barcelona (world English).
Rachel Hore's A PLACE OF SECRETS, when an auction house appraiser of old books and manuscripts, a woman struggling to come to terms with the death of her young husband, is asked to value a collection belonging to a reclusive 18th century astronomer, she jumps at the chance to escape London to be closer to her sister and niece and begin deciphering the mysteries of the astronomer's world, only to find all sorts of disturbing links with her own family's history, to Aaron Schlechter at Holt, for publication in February 2012, by Lisa Bankoff at ICM, on behalf of Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown UK (NA).
CHILDREN'S YOUNG ADULT...
Debut author Marissa Meyer's four-book YA futuristic, fairy-tale inspired series, starting with CINDER, Cinderella is re-envisioned through teen heroine Cinder, part girl and part machine, who must piece together her mysterious past before she can fulfill her destiny and save the kingdom -- and the rest of planet Earth -- from an otherworldly enemy; as Cinder's quest continues through the series, she finds allies loosely based Little Red Riding Hood (SCARLET), Rapunzel (CRESS), and Snow White (WINTER) -- as they join forces to conquer evil and find their happily-ever-afters, to Jean Feiwel of Feiwel and Friends, at auction, by Jill Grinberg at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (NA).
BIOGRAPHY...
Coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning AMERICAN PROMETHEUS Kai Bird's THE GOOD SPY, centering on the career and tragic death of CIA legend Robert Ames, whose passing marked a dramatic shift in foreign policy that still haunts America's relationship with the Muslim world, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in 2013, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency.
With the royal engagement news comes the pre-planned announcement of author of The Day Diana Died Christopher Andersen's WILLIAM AND KATE: The Love Story, about how Prince William and Kate Middleton "defied all odds to forge a storybook romance amidst the scandals, power struggles, tragedies, and general dysfunction that are the hallmarks of Britain's Royal Family," promising "intimate details of their celebrated courtship" and more, to Jennifer Bergstrom at Gallery, with Mitchell Ivers editing, for publication in February 2011, by Ellen Levine at Trident Media Group (NA).
Pulitzer Prize winner Eileen McNamara's untitled biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, telling the story of the often-overlooked Kennedy who founded the Special Olympics and left behind one of the family's most enduring civil rights legacies, to Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster, by Colleen Mohyde at the Doe Coover Agency (World).
MEMOIR...
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather's SUMMING UP, with the 79-year-old saying "the time had come for me to sum up my career in a candid memoir, and now I feel the time is right. Plus, with the changing climate -- and attitude -- about news and journalists, I feel I can give readers an honest perspective on the present, and, more important, on the future of news," to Rick Wolff at Grand Central, for publication in 2012, by Paul Fedorko at N.S. Bienstock.
NARRATIVE...
NYT bestselling and Emmy Award-winning DESPERADOS Elaine Shannon's LEFT OF BOOM, a narrative of the DEA's mission-critical operations in Afghanistan and what they portend for the future of war fighting, to Rick Horgan at Crown, in a pre-empt, for publication in early 2012, by Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency (world).
SPORTS...
Major league catcher and winner of two World Series rings Bengie Molina's PAPI, an account of fathers, sons, and baseball that tells the story Molina's family and specifically his late father, Benjamin Molina Santana, who rose from poverty in Puerto Rico and worked in a factory for thirty years while coaching his three sons (Bengie, Jose, and Yadier) into the major leagues, where they became the first three brothers in history to all win World Series championships, written with Little Girls in Pretty Boxes author Joan Ryan, to Jofie Ferrari-Adler at Simon & Schuster, at auction, by Betsy Lerner at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner (World).
Wrap...
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
About Wikileaks...
From Secrecy News...
Sifting Through the Fallout from Wikileaks
December 1st, 2010 by Steven Aftergood
The ongoing release of U.S. diplomatic communications by the Wikileaks organization is “embarrassing” and “awkward,” said Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates yesterday, but its consequences for U.S. foreign policy are likely to be “fairly modest.”
“I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets… Other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another.”
Coming from the Secretary of Defense, that measured statement should help to deflate some of the more extreme reactions to the Wikileaks action.
The Obama Administration should “use all legal means necessary to shut down Wikileaks before it can do more damage by releasing additional cables,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman on November 28.
Wikileaks leader Julian Assange should be designated an enemy combatant, suggested Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on the House floor yesterday. Then he could be “moved over to a place offshore of the United States outside of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts…, and adjudicated under a military tribunal in a fashion that was designed by this Congress and directed by this Congress. That’s what I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to do.”
Such fantastic notions probably cannot survive the judgment of the U.S. Secretary of Defense that what is at stake is “embarrassment” and “awkwardness,” not the defense of the realm.
That does not mean that the policy consequences of the latest Wikileaks release will be insignificant. Information sharing within the government is already being curtailed, and avenues of public disclosure may be adversely affected by the Wikileaks controversy. In a November 28 email message to reporters, the Pentagon spelled out several security measures that have already been implemented to restrict and monitor the dissemination of classification information in DoD networks.
“Bottom line: It is now much more difficult for a determined actor to get access to and move information outside of authorized channels,” wrote Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget ordered (pdf) each agency that handles classified information to perform a security review of its procedures and to reinforce the traditional “need to know” requirements that strictly limit individual access to classified information.
“Any failure by agencies to safeguard classified information pursuant to relevant laws, including but not limited to Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information (December 29, 2009), is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” the OMB memo stated.
The possibility of prosecuting Wikileaks as a criminal enterprise is reportedly under consideration, and has been publicly urged by some members of Congress and others. The feasibility of such a prosecution is uncertain, and nothing quite like it has been attempted before. The most “promising” legal avenue of attack against Wikileaks would seem to be a charge of conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act (under 18 USC 793g), based on the allegation that Wikileaks encouraged and collaborated with others in violating the terms of the Act. But these are dangerous legal waters, fraught with undesirable consequences for other publishers of controversial information.
Wrap...
Sifting Through the Fallout from Wikileaks
December 1st, 2010 by Steven Aftergood
The ongoing release of U.S. diplomatic communications by the Wikileaks organization is “embarrassing” and “awkward,” said Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates yesterday, but its consequences for U.S. foreign policy are likely to be “fairly modest.”
“I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets… Other nations will continue to deal with us. They will continue to work with us. We will continue to share sensitive information with one another.”
Coming from the Secretary of Defense, that measured statement should help to deflate some of the more extreme reactions to the Wikileaks action.
The Obama Administration should “use all legal means necessary to shut down Wikileaks before it can do more damage by releasing additional cables,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman on November 28.
Wikileaks leader Julian Assange should be designated an enemy combatant, suggested Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on the House floor yesterday. Then he could be “moved over to a place offshore of the United States outside of the jurisdiction of the Federal courts…, and adjudicated under a military tribunal in a fashion that was designed by this Congress and directed by this Congress. That’s what I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to do.”
Such fantastic notions probably cannot survive the judgment of the U.S. Secretary of Defense that what is at stake is “embarrassment” and “awkwardness,” not the defense of the realm.
That does not mean that the policy consequences of the latest Wikileaks release will be insignificant. Information sharing within the government is already being curtailed, and avenues of public disclosure may be adversely affected by the Wikileaks controversy. In a November 28 email message to reporters, the Pentagon spelled out several security measures that have already been implemented to restrict and monitor the dissemination of classification information in DoD networks.
“Bottom line: It is now much more difficult for a determined actor to get access to and move information outside of authorized channels,” wrote Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Meanwhile, the Office of Management and Budget ordered (pdf) each agency that handles classified information to perform a security review of its procedures and to reinforce the traditional “need to know” requirements that strictly limit individual access to classified information.
“Any failure by agencies to safeguard classified information pursuant to relevant laws, including but not limited to Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information (December 29, 2009), is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” the OMB memo stated.
The possibility of prosecuting Wikileaks as a criminal enterprise is reportedly under consideration, and has been publicly urged by some members of Congress and others. The feasibility of such a prosecution is uncertain, and nothing quite like it has been attempted before. The most “promising” legal avenue of attack against Wikileaks would seem to be a charge of conspiracy to violate the Espionage Act (under 18 USC 793g), based on the allegation that Wikileaks encouraged and collaborated with others in violating the terms of the Act. But these are dangerous legal waters, fraught with undesirable consequences for other publishers of controversial information.
Wrap...
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Corporations Have Personal Privacy?
From Secrecy News:
Do Corporations Have Personal Privacy Rights?
November 18th, 2010 by Steven Aftergood
The Supreme Court will decide next year whether corporations are entitled to “personal privacy” and whether they may prevent the release of records under the Freedom of Information Act on that basis. FOIA advocates say that assigning personal privacy rights to corporations could deal a crippling blow to the Act.
The case before the Court — known as FCC v. AT&T — arose from a FOIA request to the Federal Communications Commission for records of an investigation of a government contract held by AT&T. The FCC found that the requested records were subject to release under FOIA. But AT&T challenged that decision and won an appeals court ruling that the documents were law enforcement records that were exempt from disclosure because their release would constitute “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” — namely, the “personal privacy” of AT&T.
The appeals court noted that the word “person” is defined in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) to include corporations, and it went on to infer from this that the FOIA exemption for “personal privacy” in law enforcement records must logically extend to corporations as well.
But “that analysis does not withstand scrutiny,” the government argued in its petition (pdf) to the Supreme Court for review of the case. Personal privacy can only apply to individual human beings, it said, and not to other entities. “The court of appeals’ novel construction would erroneously create a new and amorphous ‘privacy’ right not only for corporations but also for local, state, and foreign governments [which also fall under the APA definition of 'person'].”
A concise description of the pending case as well as key case files and amicus briefs filed with the Supreme Court by several FOIA advocacy organizations are conveniently available from the Electronic Privacy Information Center. (EPIC prepared one of the amicus briefs and I was among the signatories to it.)
Corporate information that qualifies as a “trade secret” has long been exempt from disclosure under the FOIA. But prior to this case, no court had ever held that a corporation also has personal privacy rights.
If affirmed by the Supreme Court, the appeals court ruling “could vastly expand the rights of corporations to shield their activities from public view,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy this week, and it “would close a vital window into how our government works.”
“Congress never intended for this [personal privacy] exemption to apply to corporations,” he said. “I also fear that extending this exemption to corporations would permit corporations to shield from public view critical information about public health and safety, environmental dangers, and financial misconduct, among other things — to the great detriment of the people’s right to know and to our democracy.”
“I sincerely hope that our nation’s highest Court… will narrowly construe the personal privacy exemption, consistent with congressional intent,” said Sen. Leahy. “Should the Court decide to do otherwise, I will work with others in the Congress to ensure that FOIA, and specifically the personal privacy exemption for law enforcement records, remains a meaningful safeguard for the American people’s right to know,” he said.
FCC v. AT&T is scheduled to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on January 19, 2011
Wrap...
Do Corporations Have Personal Privacy Rights?
November 18th, 2010 by Steven Aftergood
The Supreme Court will decide next year whether corporations are entitled to “personal privacy” and whether they may prevent the release of records under the Freedom of Information Act on that basis. FOIA advocates say that assigning personal privacy rights to corporations could deal a crippling blow to the Act.
The case before the Court — known as FCC v. AT&T — arose from a FOIA request to the Federal Communications Commission for records of an investigation of a government contract held by AT&T. The FCC found that the requested records were subject to release under FOIA. But AT&T challenged that decision and won an appeals court ruling that the documents were law enforcement records that were exempt from disclosure because their release would constitute “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” — namely, the “personal privacy” of AT&T.
The appeals court noted that the word “person” is defined in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) to include corporations, and it went on to infer from this that the FOIA exemption for “personal privacy” in law enforcement records must logically extend to corporations as well.
But “that analysis does not withstand scrutiny,” the government argued in its petition (pdf) to the Supreme Court for review of the case. Personal privacy can only apply to individual human beings, it said, and not to other entities. “The court of appeals’ novel construction would erroneously create a new and amorphous ‘privacy’ right not only for corporations but also for local, state, and foreign governments [which also fall under the APA definition of 'person'].”
A concise description of the pending case as well as key case files and amicus briefs filed with the Supreme Court by several FOIA advocacy organizations are conveniently available from the Electronic Privacy Information Center. (EPIC prepared one of the amicus briefs and I was among the signatories to it.)
Corporate information that qualifies as a “trade secret” has long been exempt from disclosure under the FOIA. But prior to this case, no court had ever held that a corporation also has personal privacy rights.
If affirmed by the Supreme Court, the appeals court ruling “could vastly expand the rights of corporations to shield their activities from public view,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy this week, and it “would close a vital window into how our government works.”
“Congress never intended for this [personal privacy] exemption to apply to corporations,” he said. “I also fear that extending this exemption to corporations would permit corporations to shield from public view critical information about public health and safety, environmental dangers, and financial misconduct, among other things — to the great detriment of the people’s right to know and to our democracy.”
“I sincerely hope that our nation’s highest Court… will narrowly construe the personal privacy exemption, consistent with congressional intent,” said Sen. Leahy. “Should the Court decide to do otherwise, I will work with others in the Congress to ensure that FOIA, and specifically the personal privacy exemption for law enforcement records, remains a meaningful safeguard for the American people’s right to know,” he said.
FCC v. AT&T is scheduled to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on January 19, 2011
Wrap...
Friday, November 12, 2010
Selection of Interesting Books On the Way....
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION
DEBUT:
I. J. Kay's MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, about a woman newly released from prison and the mystery of who she is and what led her there; taking us from a casino in Bristol to the Ruwenzori mountains of Africa as she bounds backwards, sideways, and ultimately forward with her many selves, to Carole De Santi at Viking, at auction, by Zoe Pagnamenta at the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency on behalf of Anna Webber at United Agents (NA).
UK rights to Dan Franklin at Jonathan Cape, by Anna Webber at United Agents, at auction, and German rights to Helga Frese-Resch at Kiepenheuer & Witsch, by Jessica Craig at United Agents on behalf of Anna Webber.
Dana Gynther's CROSSING ON THE PARIS, chronicling the lives of three women of different generations and classes whose lives intersect on a majestic ocean liner traveling from Paris to New York in the wake of World War I, exploring the power of chance encounters, to Erika Imranyi at Dutton, at auction, by Michelle Brower at Folio Literary Management.
Brandon Jones's ALL WOMAN AND SPRINGTIME, about human trafficking that follows two orphaned girlfriends as they are taken from their factory jobs in North Korea, smuggled across the Demilitarized Zone, and eventually shipped to the United States, to Andra Miller at Algonquin, by Wendy Weil at the Wendy Weil Agency.
THRILLER:
Pulitzer Prize winner and NYT bestselling author of I, SNIPER Stephen Hunter's two untitled thrillers, the first featuring a Marine sniper, to Sarah Knight at Simon & Schuster, in a two-book deal, for publication in Fall 2012 and Fall 2013, by Esther Newberg at ICM.
COLD and THE ANARCHIST author John Smolen's THE SCHOOLMASTER'S DAUGHTER, a tale of historical intrigue featuring a young girl who is caught between family loyalties during the American Revolution as the city of Boston burns, to Claiborne Hancock and Jessica Case at Pegasus, on behalf of Noah Lukeman at Lukeman Literary Management (World).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Charlotte Rogan's THE LIFEBOAT, a story set at the turn of the twentieth century, about a wealthy young woman whose life is forever altered when the ship she is honeymooning on mysteriously explodes and she is cast adrift on an overcrowded lifeboat with thirty-nine strangers, to Andrea Walker at Reagan Arthur Books, in a pre-empt, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (World English).
Past fellow of the NEA and the recipient of the NBCC Citation for Excellence in Reviewing Carol Anshaw's CARRY THE ONE, spanning almost three decades and following four characters whose lives are forever altered and entwined by the events of one night, to Trish Todd for Touchstone, in a nice deal, for publication in spring 2012, by Joy Harris (NA).
Jo-Ann Mapson's MIRACLE OF MIRACLES, in which a woman begins a new life with a man and their adopted daughter, whose sister's kidnapping and disappearance formed the backdrop of the first novel, to Nancy Miller at Bloomsbury, for publication in the US and UK, by Deborah Schneider.
NONFICTION
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Veteran publishing executive, attorney and consultant Martin Levin's ALL I KNOW ABOUT MANAGEMENT I LEARNED FROM MY DOG, a 91-year-old management guru's touching account of the insights he gained from his experiences with a golden retriever named Angel, to Mark Weinstein at Skyhorse, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2011, by Levin (world).
COOKING:
Author of 2010 James Beard Award winner Pasta Sfoglia, Chef Ron Suhanosky's THE FAMILY TABLE, family-style meals featuring Italian-influenced "new traditional" cuisine with an uncomplicated, family-friendly approach, to Anja Schmidt at Kyle Books, by Celeste Fine at Folio Literary Management.
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Journalist Elizabeth Nickson's A SOFT PLACE TO FALL, an expose about the destructive and obsessive side of environmental movement that has run amok, to Adam Bellow at Broadside, by Don Fehr at Trident Media Group.
Daniel Ellsberg's THE AMERICAN DOOMSDAY MACHINE, a memoir of his experiences as a high level nuclear planner for the US Department of Defense and detailing the shocking and untold story, much of it still secret, of the approved US nuclear stategy calculated to kill 600,000,000 people, to Peter Ginna at Bloomsbury Press, in a very nice deal, by Andy Ross at Andy Ross Agency (World)
MEMOIR:
Charlotte Silver's CHARLOTTE AU CHOCOLATE: Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood, tracing the author's childhood through scenes in her mother's famous, sumptuous restaurant, Upstairs at the Pudding, located above Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club: a life of foie gras and Shirley Temples on school nights; of candied violets, pink linens and party dresses; of front room vs. kitchen; and of a rotating cast of eccentric staff members as parental surrogates, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by Emily Forland at the Wendy Weil Agency (World).
NARRATIVE:
NYC-based Guardian writer Emma Brockes's untitled memoir, about something that happened in her mother's family in South Africa fifty years ago, the repercussions it continues to have on her family, and the author's journey, after her mother died, to reconcile the person she had known her mother to be with the person who emerged from the story she uncovered, to Ann Godoff at Penguin Press, at auction, by Zoe Pagnamenta at the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency (NA).
UK rights to Hannah Griffiths at Faber, by Simon Trewin at United Agents, Dutch rights to Arbeiderspers and German rights to DTV, by Jessica Craig at United Agents, all at auction.
Translation: jcraig@unitedagents.co.uk
Film: glewis@unitedagents.co.uk
SCIENCE:
Expert on the scientific study of death and near-death experiences, Dr. Sam Parnia's THE LAZARUS EFFECT: The Science that is Erasing the Boundaries Between Life and Death, a work of narrative nonfiction that brings together compelling stories with the latest research at the frontiers of resuscitation medicine to shed light on the ultimate mystery -- what happens to human consciousness during and after death -- and to show how medical science is rendering previously unthinkable outcomes entirely plausible, to Roger Freet at Harper One, at auction, by Andrew Stuart at The Stuart Agency (World).
UK: Robert Kirby at United Agents
Wrap...
FICTION
DEBUT:
I. J. Kay's MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, about a woman newly released from prison and the mystery of who she is and what led her there; taking us from a casino in Bristol to the Ruwenzori mountains of Africa as she bounds backwards, sideways, and ultimately forward with her many selves, to Carole De Santi at Viking, at auction, by Zoe Pagnamenta at the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency on behalf of Anna Webber at United Agents (NA).
UK rights to Dan Franklin at Jonathan Cape, by Anna Webber at United Agents, at auction, and German rights to Helga Frese-Resch at Kiepenheuer & Witsch, by Jessica Craig at United Agents on behalf of Anna Webber.
Dana Gynther's CROSSING ON THE PARIS, chronicling the lives of three women of different generations and classes whose lives intersect on a majestic ocean liner traveling from Paris to New York in the wake of World War I, exploring the power of chance encounters, to Erika Imranyi at Dutton, at auction, by Michelle Brower at Folio Literary Management.
Brandon Jones's ALL WOMAN AND SPRINGTIME, about human trafficking that follows two orphaned girlfriends as they are taken from their factory jobs in North Korea, smuggled across the Demilitarized Zone, and eventually shipped to the United States, to Andra Miller at Algonquin, by Wendy Weil at the Wendy Weil Agency.
THRILLER:
Pulitzer Prize winner and NYT bestselling author of I, SNIPER Stephen Hunter's two untitled thrillers, the first featuring a Marine sniper, to Sarah Knight at Simon & Schuster, in a two-book deal, for publication in Fall 2012 and Fall 2013, by Esther Newberg at ICM.
COLD and THE ANARCHIST author John Smolen's THE SCHOOLMASTER'S DAUGHTER, a tale of historical intrigue featuring a young girl who is caught between family loyalties during the American Revolution as the city of Boston burns, to Claiborne Hancock and Jessica Case at Pegasus, on behalf of Noah Lukeman at Lukeman Literary Management (World).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Charlotte Rogan's THE LIFEBOAT, a story set at the turn of the twentieth century, about a wealthy young woman whose life is forever altered when the ship she is honeymooning on mysteriously explodes and she is cast adrift on an overcrowded lifeboat with thirty-nine strangers, to Andrea Walker at Reagan Arthur Books, in a pre-empt, by David McCormick at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (World English).
Past fellow of the NEA and the recipient of the NBCC Citation for Excellence in Reviewing Carol Anshaw's CARRY THE ONE, spanning almost three decades and following four characters whose lives are forever altered and entwined by the events of one night, to Trish Todd for Touchstone, in a nice deal, for publication in spring 2012, by Joy Harris (NA).
Jo-Ann Mapson's MIRACLE OF MIRACLES, in which a woman begins a new life with a man and their adopted daughter, whose sister's kidnapping and disappearance formed the backdrop of the first novel, to Nancy Miller at Bloomsbury, for publication in the US and UK, by Deborah Schneider.
NONFICTION
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Veteran publishing executive, attorney and consultant Martin Levin's ALL I KNOW ABOUT MANAGEMENT I LEARNED FROM MY DOG, a 91-year-old management guru's touching account of the insights he gained from his experiences with a golden retriever named Angel, to Mark Weinstein at Skyhorse, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2011, by Levin (world).
COOKING:
Author of 2010 James Beard Award winner Pasta Sfoglia, Chef Ron Suhanosky's THE FAMILY TABLE, family-style meals featuring Italian-influenced "new traditional" cuisine with an uncomplicated, family-friendly approach, to Anja Schmidt at Kyle Books, by Celeste Fine at Folio Literary Management.
HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Journalist Elizabeth Nickson's A SOFT PLACE TO FALL, an expose about the destructive and obsessive side of environmental movement that has run amok, to Adam Bellow at Broadside, by Don Fehr at Trident Media Group.
Daniel Ellsberg's THE AMERICAN DOOMSDAY MACHINE, a memoir of his experiences as a high level nuclear planner for the US Department of Defense and detailing the shocking and untold story, much of it still secret, of the approved US nuclear stategy calculated to kill 600,000,000 people, to Peter Ginna at Bloomsbury Press, in a very nice deal, by Andy Ross at Andy Ross Agency (World)
MEMOIR:
Charlotte Silver's CHARLOTTE AU CHOCOLATE: Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood, tracing the author's childhood through scenes in her mother's famous, sumptuous restaurant, Upstairs at the Pudding, located above Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club: a life of foie gras and Shirley Temples on school nights; of candied violets, pink linens and party dresses; of front room vs. kitchen; and of a rotating cast of eccentric staff members as parental surrogates, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by Emily Forland at the Wendy Weil Agency (World).
NARRATIVE:
NYC-based Guardian writer Emma Brockes's untitled memoir, about something that happened in her mother's family in South Africa fifty years ago, the repercussions it continues to have on her family, and the author's journey, after her mother died, to reconcile the person she had known her mother to be with the person who emerged from the story she uncovered, to Ann Godoff at Penguin Press, at auction, by Zoe Pagnamenta at the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency (NA).
UK rights to Hannah Griffiths at Faber, by Simon Trewin at United Agents, Dutch rights to Arbeiderspers and German rights to DTV, by Jessica Craig at United Agents, all at auction.
Translation: jcraig@unitedagents.co.uk
Film: glewis@unitedagents.co.uk
SCIENCE:
Expert on the scientific study of death and near-death experiences, Dr. Sam Parnia's THE LAZARUS EFFECT: The Science that is Erasing the Boundaries Between Life and Death, a work of narrative nonfiction that brings together compelling stories with the latest research at the frontiers of resuscitation medicine to shed light on the ultimate mystery -- what happens to human consciousness during and after death -- and to show how medical science is rendering previously unthinkable outcomes entirely plausible, to Roger Freet at Harper One, at auction, by Andrew Stuart at The Stuart Agency (World).
UK: Robert Kirby at United Agents
Wrap...
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Thoughts on Veteran's Day...
Today is Veteran's Day...and I'm thinking of my better half, plus all my brothers, uncles, and the rest of the extended family back to 1630 when they first landed on these shores...knowing that in every single war the US has been in since then has had one of my family in the service, including 2 of my sons. That's pretty amazing.
Wrap...
Wrap...
Monday, November 08, 2010
One Unhappy Dem Calls It Like He Sees It....
BITCHING, STRUTTING, AND BRANDISHING
by
Keith Taylor
Okay I've had it. You are Tea Party dudes, Dittoheads, America Firsters, Birthers, Minutemen, and, Republicans from places like Ohio. The names are different, but your message doesn't change. You've bitched, strutted around, brandished your damn fool guns all in the name of . . . uh what was it you wanted?
Oh yeah, you wanted your country back. Or, maybe, you wanted it back like it was. If you get your wish will you be the one to tell your wife she can't vote? That's the way it was. Or did it mean you wanted to own another person? Tell you what go make an offer to buy one of them football players, maybe a guy who makes eight or nine million a year because he can take another guy's head off.
And do you really want our good old religion and no other to provide a wisdom and morality for our country? Thems the guys who gave us the inquisition, crusades, witch burning, countless wars, and priests who rape little boys knowing the worst the holy church will do is move you to another parish where you can find new children for you to rape. Or, maybe, you want to torture those who believe in evolution?
Just what the hell is it you want? You got the megaphones and the signs but you shout so loud it's hard to figure you out!
I know you don't want gays in the military cause we didn't never have none, and by cracky we won all those wars -- uh, most all of them anyhow. Yeah, I know that. I was there for 22 years, 9 months, and 11 days. But is it really that bad? In this new world you protest, the CIA has openly gay people spying for us. So does the outfit where I worked, NSA. Also damn near every police department in the country including the FBI has lifted the restriction. And overseas we see no other country in NATO has a prohibition against them except Turkey. We're in good company there my jingoistic friends.
I also hear from your strutting, shouting, and sign waving you don't want the government to have be involved in your health care. No sir. No socialistic medicine for you! And that's too bad because ours is easily the most expensive in the world. YES THE WORLD!! It consumes nineteen percent of our gross national product and is rising faster than inflation. Ask any high school math teacher where that will lead. That brick building is the school house. Now go ahead, take your stupid gun down there ask for an answer.
The answer ain't good, you dimwit redneck. It means the country can now look down the road and see where keeping folks alive will take more money than we got unless we do something about it except whine.
Maybe we could limit medical care to those who can prove they are able to think good enough to be productive. Wouldn't that be a hoot, unless you are actually as dumb as you act?
And what else? Oh yeah, you don't want no new taxes and you want to eliminate waste. That a way you can pull off a miracle and pay down the national debt without using no money. Sure, you betcha, and good luck. On this weekend's "Meet the Press" Alan Greenspan and Michael Bloomberg, both conservative Republicans, flatly stated that tax cuts will do nothing to reduce the deficit. It seems pretty simple except to them deadheads you just sent to Congress.
But you go right ahead and bellyache about it. And bring your shootin' irons when you do your bellyaching. Those fat bellies you dudes sport will look just dandy, them and those tea bags hanging from your hat and those misspelled signs you wave.
Now I apolygize for mocking your looks, idiotology, signs, and six shooters; but I'm kinda pissed myself right about now. It's been bad enough listening to the idiots in congress shouting "Like Hell I Will," and now you cretins brought us a new bunch of dummies -- no telling what they will do.
The country has been in terrible shape lately, and you just made it worse.
*//Keith Taylor lives in Chula Vista, Ca and can be reached at dipsydmstr@aol.com
Wrap...
by
Keith Taylor
Okay I've had it. You are Tea Party dudes, Dittoheads, America Firsters, Birthers, Minutemen, and, Republicans from places like Ohio. The names are different, but your message doesn't change. You've bitched, strutted around, brandished your damn fool guns all in the name of . . . uh what was it you wanted?
Oh yeah, you wanted your country back. Or, maybe, you wanted it back like it was. If you get your wish will you be the one to tell your wife she can't vote? That's the way it was. Or did it mean you wanted to own another person? Tell you what go make an offer to buy one of them football players, maybe a guy who makes eight or nine million a year because he can take another guy's head off.
And do you really want our good old religion and no other to provide a wisdom and morality for our country? Thems the guys who gave us the inquisition, crusades, witch burning, countless wars, and priests who rape little boys knowing the worst the holy church will do is move you to another parish where you can find new children for you to rape. Or, maybe, you want to torture those who believe in evolution?
Just what the hell is it you want? You got the megaphones and the signs but you shout so loud it's hard to figure you out!
I know you don't want gays in the military cause we didn't never have none, and by cracky we won all those wars -- uh, most all of them anyhow. Yeah, I know that. I was there for 22 years, 9 months, and 11 days. But is it really that bad? In this new world you protest, the CIA has openly gay people spying for us. So does the outfit where I worked, NSA. Also damn near every police department in the country including the FBI has lifted the restriction. And overseas we see no other country in NATO has a prohibition against them except Turkey. We're in good company there my jingoistic friends.
I also hear from your strutting, shouting, and sign waving you don't want the government to have be involved in your health care. No sir. No socialistic medicine for you! And that's too bad because ours is easily the most expensive in the world. YES THE WORLD!! It consumes nineteen percent of our gross national product and is rising faster than inflation. Ask any high school math teacher where that will lead. That brick building is the school house. Now go ahead, take your stupid gun down there ask for an answer.
The answer ain't good, you dimwit redneck. It means the country can now look down the road and see where keeping folks alive will take more money than we got unless we do something about it except whine.
Maybe we could limit medical care to those who can prove they are able to think good enough to be productive. Wouldn't that be a hoot, unless you are actually as dumb as you act?
And what else? Oh yeah, you don't want no new taxes and you want to eliminate waste. That a way you can pull off a miracle and pay down the national debt without using no money. Sure, you betcha, and good luck. On this weekend's "Meet the Press" Alan Greenspan and Michael Bloomberg, both conservative Republicans, flatly stated that tax cuts will do nothing to reduce the deficit. It seems pretty simple except to them deadheads you just sent to Congress.
But you go right ahead and bellyache about it. And bring your shootin' irons when you do your bellyaching. Those fat bellies you dudes sport will look just dandy, them and those tea bags hanging from your hat and those misspelled signs you wave.
Now I apolygize for mocking your looks, idiotology, signs, and six shooters; but I'm kinda pissed myself right about now. It's been bad enough listening to the idiots in congress shouting "Like Hell I Will," and now you cretins brought us a new bunch of dummies -- no telling what they will do.
The country has been in terrible shape lately, and you just made it worse.
*//Keith Taylor lives in Chula Vista, Ca and can be reached at dipsydmstr@aol.com
Wrap...
Friday, November 05, 2010
Controlled Unclassified Info...
From Secrecy News:
A NEW POLICY ON CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFO
The White House today issued an executive order to establish a uniform policy for handling "controlled unclassified information" (CUI), which is information that is restricted from disclosure because it involves personal privacy, proprietary data, law enforcement investigations, or for certain other reasons besides national security.
The new CUI framework will replace the multiplicity of agency markings such as "sensitive but unclassified," "for official use only," and over a hundred more. By prohibiting the use of such improvised markings and by adopting a standard CUI marking which is subject to external approval and oversight across the executive branch, the new policy is expected to facilitate information sharing among agencies without fostering new secrecy.
CUI policy had been an open, unresolved item on the government's information policy agenda for nearly five years, ever since President Bush directed agency heads to "standardize procedures for sensitive but unclassified information" in a December 16, 2005 memorandum.
Significantly, the executive order on CUI does not create any new authority to withhold information from disclosure. It limits the use of the CUI marking to information that is already protected by statute, by regulation or by government-wide policy. Furthermore, it requires agencies to gain the approval of the CUI "Executive Agent" before using the CUI marking on any particular category of information. And it mandates that all such approved categories are to be made public on an official Registry.
In short, the CUI program seems well-crafted to streamline information handling in the executive branch without creating any new obstacles to public access.
But it almost turned out very differently, and one of the most important secrecy policy stories of recent years is what did not happen in the lengthy deliberative process over CUI. What was poised to happen -- but didn't -- is that CUI nearly became an adjunct part of a vastly expanded national security classification system.
As recently as last summer, the proposed CUI concept had all of the essential attributes of classification. Under a July 2010 draft of the executive order (pdf), agencies would have been permitted to impose CUI controls using a loose, undefined standard ("compelling need"). Access to CUI would have been conditional on a form of "need to know." And unauthorized disclosure of CUI would have been subject to administrative or criminal sanctions.
In every significant respect, CUI would have constituted another level of classification, by another name. It would have overwhelmed efforts to rein in and reduce official secrecy.
Fortunately a different path was chosen. To an unusual extent, the Obama Administration consulted with public interest groups on the emerging CUI policy. In response to their comments, the attributes of classification that appeared in previous drafts were not merely modified but were eliminated altogether. The result is a tightly focused executive order that clearly articulates a problem and advances a sensible solution to it.
Wrap...
A NEW POLICY ON CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFO
The White House today issued an executive order to establish a uniform policy for handling "controlled unclassified information" (CUI), which is information that is restricted from disclosure because it involves personal privacy, proprietary data, law enforcement investigations, or for certain other reasons besides national security.
The new CUI framework will replace the multiplicity of agency markings such as "sensitive but unclassified," "for official use only," and over a hundred more. By prohibiting the use of such improvised markings and by adopting a standard CUI marking which is subject to external approval and oversight across the executive branch, the new policy is expected to facilitate information sharing among agencies without fostering new secrecy.
CUI policy had been an open, unresolved item on the government's information policy agenda for nearly five years, ever since President Bush directed agency heads to "standardize procedures for sensitive but unclassified information" in a December 16, 2005 memorandum.
Significantly, the executive order on CUI does not create any new authority to withhold information from disclosure. It limits the use of the CUI marking to information that is already protected by statute, by regulation or by government-wide policy. Furthermore, it requires agencies to gain the approval of the CUI "Executive Agent" before using the CUI marking on any particular category of information. And it mandates that all such approved categories are to be made public on an official Registry.
In short, the CUI program seems well-crafted to streamline information handling in the executive branch without creating any new obstacles to public access.
But it almost turned out very differently, and one of the most important secrecy policy stories of recent years is what did not happen in the lengthy deliberative process over CUI. What was poised to happen -- but didn't -- is that CUI nearly became an adjunct part of a vastly expanded national security classification system.
As recently as last summer, the proposed CUI concept had all of the essential attributes of classification. Under a July 2010 draft of the executive order (pdf), agencies would have been permitted to impose CUI controls using a loose, undefined standard ("compelling need"). Access to CUI would have been conditional on a form of "need to know." And unauthorized disclosure of CUI would have been subject to administrative or criminal sanctions.
In every significant respect, CUI would have constituted another level of classification, by another name. It would have overwhelmed efforts to rein in and reduce official secrecy.
Fortunately a different path was chosen. To an unusual extent, the Obama Administration consulted with public interest groups on the emerging CUI policy. In response to their comments, the attributes of classification that appeared in previous drafts were not merely modified but were eliminated altogether. The result is a tightly focused executive order that clearly articulates a problem and advances a sensible solution to it.
Wrap...
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