Secrecy News -- 07/05/12
Steven Aftergood
saftergood at fas.org
Thu Jul 5 07:37:11 PDT 2012
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SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2012, Issue No. 63
July 5, 2012
Secrecy News Blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/
** PROSECUTORS DISPUTE CLAIMS OF SELECTIVE ANTI-LEAK PROSECUTION
** NSA TELLS FORMER ISOO DIRECTOR TO FILE A FOIA REQUEST
** AIR FORCE POLICY ON CONGRESSIONAL RELATIONS
** AN OVERVIEW OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AND MORE FROM CRS
** COVERT ACTION IS PROMINENT IN CARTER ADMIN HISTORY
PROSECUTORS DISPUTE CLAIMS OF SELECTIVE ANTI-LEAK PROSECUTION
Last month, former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who is accused of unlawfully
disclosing classified information to two reporters, said in pre-trial
motions that he had been wrongly and unfairly singled out for prosecution,
particularly since he had criticized the U.S. practice of waterboarding.
("Kiriakou Calls Leak Prosecution Selective, Vindictive," Secrecy News,
June 22).
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/06/kiriakou_selective.html
This week, prosecutors unsurprisingly rejected such claims while affirming
that they intend to vigorously pursue their case against Mr. Kiriakou.
"The genesis of this prosecution has nothing to do with waterboarding, the
national conversation about its wrongness or rightness, the defendant's
opinions, or other public statements he may or may not have made," the July
2 government response states.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/kiriakou/070212-resp50.pdf
The new government filing presents a series of legal arguments against the
defense motions for dismissal, explaining why prosecutors believe the
Intelligence Identities Protection Act and the Espionage Act statutes under
which Mr. Kiriakou is charged are sufficiently clear and specific to be
constitutional. Beyond that, the new government response makes a couple of
noteworthy points.
"The government does not intend to seek the testimony of either journalist
to whom Kiriakou made the charged disclosures," prosecutors wrote. By
refraining from subpoenaing the two unnamed reporters -- believed to be
Matthew Cole, formerly of ABC News, and Scott Shane of the New York Times
-- prosecutors will steer clear of the controversies and difficulties
facing the prosecution of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, which is
currently suspended while the government appeals the right to subpoena New
York Times reporter James Risen, to whom Sterling allegedly provided
classified information.
Prosecutors also suggest at one point that their obligation to prove at
trial that Mr. Kiriakou had specific "reason to believe" his alleged
disclosures would damage national security would be satisfied by "the
non-disclosure agreements signed by Kiriakou," since those agreements
include boilerplate language affirming that unauthorized disclosures could
cause injury to the United States. This approach seems calculated to
enable prosecutors to overcome the otherwise daunting hurdle of
demonstrating the defendant's intent to harm the country. It is unclear if
it would be found legally satisfactory by the court or persuasive to a
jury.
In a critical account of the Kiriakou case to date, Dan Froomkin wrote
that "The bitterest irony of the case is that if Kiriakou had actually
tortured, rather than talked about it, he almost certainly wouldn't be in
trouble." See "Squelching Secrets: Why Are Obama's Prosecutors Pursuing
John Kiriakou?", Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com), July 4.
NSA TELLS FORMER ISOO DIRECTOR TO FILE A FOIA REQUEST
William Leonard, the former director of the Information Security Oversight
Office, served as an expert witness for the defense in the misconceived
prosecution of Thomas Drake, in which all felony charges against Mr. Drake
were dismissed. (Mr. Drake pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count.)
Now Mr. Leonard is seeking permission from the trial judge in the Drake
case to publicly disclose and discuss certain National Security Agency
documents cited in the charges against Mr. Drake that he says were
classified in violation of national policy.
"I believe the Government's actions in the Drake case served to undermine
the integrity of the classification system and as such, have placed
information that genuinely requires protection in the interest of national
security at increased risk," Mr. Leonard wrote in a May affidavit seeking
permission from Judge Richard D. Bennett to reveal the now-declassified
(but still undisclosed) documents. Attorneys for Mr. Drake asked the court
to release Mr. Leonard from the protective order that restricts disclosure
of the documents, so that he could publicly pursue his criticism of their
original classification by NSA. See "Former Secrecy Czar Asks Court to
Release NSA Document," Secrecy News, May 23, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2012/05/drake_leonard.html
But government attorneys said that Mr. Leonard has no standing to request
relief from the protective order that was imposed on the NSA documents.
They added that if he wants the documents to be publicly disclosed he
should request them under the Freedom of Information Act.
"The problem with Leonard's claim is that it relies not on injury to him,
but instead on a general desire to complain to the press and the public,"
the government said in a June 22 response to Mr. Leonard. Instead of
court-ordered release, "the proper alternative... is for Leonard to file a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the National Security Agency
(NSA), which is prepared to act expeditiously upon the request."
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/drake/062212-opp188.pdf
As it happens, I requested one of those documents under FOIA last year,
and NSA has not acted on it expeditiously, or at all.
But the government said "The NSA has already prepared FOIA-approved
versions of the documents at issue" which involve only minimal redactions.
"The government has no animus toward Leonard or his desire to express his
opinion about the documents in question -- only an interest in
appropriately protecting the sensitive nature of the material and to
prevent a flood of similar claims by non-parties in other completed cases,"
the government response said.
See also "Complaint Seeks Punishment for Classification of Documents" by
Scott Shane, New York Times, August 1, 2011:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/us/02secret.html
AIR FORCE POLICY ON CONGRESSIONAL RELATIONS
The U.S. Air Force says its policy is to provide information to Congress
as needed, but with preference given to members of the Armed Services
Committees over other Committees, and to the Chairman and the Ranking
Member of the Armed Services Committees over other members.
"Per OSD Policy, Congressional Member clearances are automatic once the
Member is elected into their current position in the United States Senate
or U.S. House of Representatives. Once a Member is elected as a seated
member of Congress, the Member is automatically read into SCI [sensitive
compartmented information] and any other classification needed," a newly
revised Air Force Instruction explains.
"Members of Congress assigned to the defense committees (and to the
intelligence committees only for intelligence SAPs) are accessed to all DoD
SAPs, except for a limited number of programs judged to be of extreme
sensitivity, referred to as waived SAPs." SAPs stands for "special access
programs" which are classified programs involving access controls that are
more restrictive than for other classified information. "Waived SAPs" are
a subset of SAPs that are briefed to only a select group of congressmen.
"Members of Congress not assigned to the defense committees (and to the
intelligence committees only for intelligence SAPs) will be granted access
to DoD SAPs (non-waived SAPs only) with the concurrence of the DoD after
consultation with the Chairman and Ranking Member of the defense
committees."
"Air Force officials may not disclose classified information to the
Congress for release to a congressional constituent."
Remarkably, Members of Congress who seek information for their own
legislative purposes enjoy no special treatment from the Air Force,
according to the Air Force.
"Requests from Members of Congress not seeking records on behalf of a
Congressional Committee, Subcommittee, either House sitting as a whole, or
made on behalf of their constituents shall be considered the same as any
other requester."
See "Air Force Relations With Congress," Air Force Instruction 90-401, 14
June 2012:
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/usaf/afi90-401.pdf
AN OVERVIEW OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, AND MORE FROM CRS
Updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has
not made readily available to the public include the following.
ACA: A Brief Overview of the Law, Implementation, and Legal Challenges,
July 3, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41664.pdf
Individual Mandate and Related Information Requirements under ACA, July 2,
2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41331.pdf
Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt, July 3, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22331.pdf
Mexico's Free Trade Agreements, July 3, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R40784.pdf
Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Program: Background and Issues
for Congress, July 2, 2012:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL33745.pdf
COVERT ACTION IS PROMINENT IN CARTER ADMIN HISTORY
Covert action was a particularly prominent feature of U.S. foreign policy
during the Jimmy Carter Administration, according to a report last month
from the State Department Historical Advisory Committee. Covert action or
other intelligence activities are said to figure in at least half of the
volumes that will constitute the official record of the Carter
Administration's foreign affairs.
The Historical Advisory Committee reported to the Secretary of State on
June 13 regarding progress (or lack thereof) in the production of the
official Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), which is the
documentary record of U.S. foreign policy. Although there is a statutory
requirement that FRUS be published no later than 30 years after the events
it records, the series has never yet met that mandatory benchmark.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/advisory/state/hac2011.html
One of the obstacles to timely publication has been the need for a
so-called High-Level Panel (HLP) composed of State, CIA and NSC officials
to review documents related to covert action and other sensitive
intelligence activities. Since the early 1990s, "more than 40 covert
intelligence activities have now been acknowledged for publication in the
[FRUS] series," the Committee report noted. However, any FRUS volume
requiring HLP review "will spend at least one additional year, and often
many more than one, in the declassification pipeline."
The Committee report said that the challenge to timely publication will
only increase because "at least half of the Carter volumes will require
resolution of HLP issues."
In other words, of the 28 projected FRUS volumes for the Carter
Administration, at least half involve covert action or other sensitive
intelligence activities.
This "seems high," a former State Department official told Secrecy News.
"Nowhere near half of the Nixon-Ford volumes had HLP [covert action] issues
and it's hard to believe there were more covert actions going on during the
4 years of Carter than during the 8 Nixon-Ford years."
The largest single covert action at that time would have been in
Afghanistan, particularly following the Soviet intervention in 1979, said
intelligence historian John Prados. He said there was also widespread
intelligence involvement in "radio operations" around the globe, close
observation of Cyprus, some focus on the PLO, some activity in South Yemen,
and actions to counter the Cuban presence in various parts of Africa and
Latin America.
Though some of this material is public knowledge, that will not
necessarily expedite the task of publishing the FRUS series.
"The CIA... resolutely resists declassifying documents that entered the
public domain through irregular channels," the State Department Historical
Advisory Committee said.
"These documents are widely known to scholars, and thus CIA's policy
presents a special challenge for the HO [State Department Historian's
Office] to publish [FRUS] volumes that meet the [statutory] standard of a
'thorough, accurate, and reliable' documentary record of United States
foreign policy," the Committee report said.
CIA's self-perception of its disclosure practices is rather different and
altogether more flattering than the despairing view held by non-Agency
historians, FOIA requesters, and others who attempt to elicit information
from the Agency.
"CIA, unlike any other agency in the Intelligence Community, much less
Federal Government, makes discretionary releases of historically
significant documents available to the public, journalists, and
academicians in a purposefully organized manner," the CIA stated in a March
2012 report from the CIA Chief FOIA Officer.
http://www.foia.cia.gov/txt/Chief_FOIA_Officer_Report_2012.pdf
"CIA continues to inform record numbers of citizens, demonstrating our
commitment to the Open Government Initiative and its three goals of
transparency, participation, and collaboration," the CIA report said.
_______________________________________________
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/
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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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