PATRIOT ACT OVERSIGHT
The House Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Ashcroft
this week to request detailed information on implementation of
the USA Patriot Act, submitting 38 multi-part questions on
domestic surveillance, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,
detention of suspected terrorists, and related topics.
A copy of the 18 page April 1 letter from Judiciary Committee
Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. and Ranking Member John
Conyers, Jr. is posted here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2003_cr/patriot040103.html
CLASSIFICATION MARKING
The simple notion of official secrecy branches out in practice
into a dense jungle of classification markings and access
controls, ranging from "For Official Use Only" to "Cosmic
Top
Secret" to "SIOP Extremely Sensitive Information" and
"Eyes
Only."
These and many other such terms are defined and placed in context
in two Defense Department classification marking manuals.
"DMS GENSER Message Security Classifications, Categories, and
Marking Phrase Requirments," Defense Information Systems Agency,
March 1999:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dod/genser.pdf
"NIMA Guide to Marking Classified Documents,"
National Imagery and
Mapping Agency, October 4, 2001:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/dod/nimaguide.pdf
STATE SECRECY
Nearly half of all states "are closing meetings, sealing records
and restricting the flow of information to the public, all in the
name of homeland security." See "States put a leash on
information" by Mimi Hall, USA Today, April 3:
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030403/5028928s.htm
LEAKS AND TRAPS
At his confirmation hearing last October, CIA General Counsel
Scott W. Muller was asked how he would propose to handle the
"vexatious problem" of leaks of classified intelligence
information.
One solution, he suggested briefly and tantalizingly, would be to
"set a trap" for the leaker.
"I would first analyze what are the legal authorities and, most
importantly, I would try to find a way -- pro-actively rather
than reactively -- to, whether it's set a trap, or set up a
system where I could actually come up with a way to do it. It's
a very difficult problem."
The transcript of Mr. Muller's October 2002 confirmation hearing
was published last week and is posted here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_hr/100902muller.html
_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.
To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, send email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
with "subscribe" in the body of the message.
