Secrecy News -- 08/01/12

Wed Aug 1 10:09:11 PDT 2012

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SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2012, Issue No. 78
August 1, 2012

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

**     WHAT IS AN UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE?
**     US ARMS SALES TO PAKISTAN, AND MORE FROM CRS

WHAT IS AN UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE?

The anti-leak provisions proposed by the Senate Intelligence Committee in
the pending FY2013 intelligence authorization act have been widely
criticized as misconceived and ill-suited to achieving their presumed
goals.

	http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/07/press_public.html

But they also suffer from a lack of clarity and an absence of definitions
of crucial terms.

For example, there is no clear definition of "the news media" to whom
unauthorized disclosures are to be prohibited, as noted today by Josh
Gerstein in Politico.  Certainly a reporter for a national news
organization is a member of the news media, but what about a blogger who
produces original reporting?  Or a tweeter who spreads previously
undisclosed information?

Nor is the term "classified information" defined in the new bill as
precisely as one would wish.  By contrast, the Freedom of Information Act,
for example, limits withholding of information on national security grounds
to records that are "properly classified."  Merely being "classified" is
not enough to warrant an exemption from disclosure under FOIA.  (In a
pending lawsuit, a court has ordered the US Trade Representative to
publicly release a classified document that the court said was not properly
classified. The government has so far refused.  Which position is
"authorized"?)

The new Senate bill does not make any practical distinction between
properly and improperly classified information, though it directs the DNI
to address the issue in a report to Congress (section 504).

In fact, the very concept of an "unauthorized disclosure" is not clearly
articulated in the bill.  What is it, exactly?  Though the answer may seem
obvious, it is actually subject to conflicting interpretations.

According to a May 8, 2004 FBI interview with then-Vice President Dick
Cheney, "it is possible to talk about something contained in a classified
document without violating the law regarding declassification [sic]."

	http://www.governmentattic.org/6docs/FBICheneyPlame_2004.pdf

"For example, the Vice President has made numerous public statements about
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction which were based on and, in some cases
tracked, his reading of classified information...," according to the FBI
record of the interview.  

"However, he did not violate any relevant laws or rules in making these
statements because he did not reveal the confidential sources or methods
involved in gathering the classified information," the Vice President told
the FBI (at p. 26).

"Vice President Cheney advised that he believed it was justifiable to rely
on classified information to shape and inform what one says publicly."

This is not a particularly orthodox view of classification policy.  But
would such reliance on classified information in public statements
constitute an unauthorized disclosure in the eyes of the Senate
Intelligence Committee?  It's unclear.

In any event, the Senate Intelligence Committee bill would not apply to
White House officials.  Nor would it penalize unauthorized disclosures
originating in Congress.

The inconsistency in the Senate approach was highlighted today in two
articles:

"Bill to plug leaks doesn't reach White House" by Josh Gerstein, Politico:

	http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/79237.html

and "Senate's anti-leaking bill doesn't address the real sources of
information" by David Ignatius, Washington Post:

	http://wapo.st/N1XQZJ

US ARMS SALES TO PAKISTAN, AND MORE FROM CRS

New products of the Congressional Research Service that have not been made
readily available to the public include these:

Major U.S. Arms Sales and Grants to Pakistan Since 2001, July 25, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/pakarms.pdf

Direct Overt U.S. Aid and Military Reimbursements to Pakistan,
FY2002-FY2013, July 27, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/pakaid.pdf

Georgia [Republic]: Recent Developments and U.S. Interests, July 13, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/97-727.pdf

The Proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: Background and Key
Issues, July 19, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41107.pdf

_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

The Secrecy News Blog is at:
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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web:    www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email:  saftergood at fas.org
voice:  (202) 454-4691
twitter: @saftergood

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