Secrecy News -- 07/19/12

[Steven Aftergood]

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SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2012, Issue No. 71
July 19, 2012

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


**     PUNISHING LEAKS OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
**     MIDNIGHT RULEMAKING, AND MORE FROM CRS


PUNISHING LEAKS OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

The first new legislative initiative to combat leaks of classified
information is a bill called the Deterring Public Disclosure of Covert
Actions Act of 2012, which was introduced July 10 by Sen. Richard Burr
(R-NC).

	http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2012_cr/s3367.html

"This act will ensure that those who disclose or talk about covert actions
by the United States will no longer be eligible for Federal Government
security clearance. It is novel. It is very simple. If you talk about
covert actions you will have your clearance revoked and you will never get
another one," Sen. Burr said.

As justification for the measure, he cited "a series of articles published
in the media that have described and in some cases provided extensive
details about highly classified unilateral and joint intelligence
operations, including covert actions."

But this assumes certain facts that are not in evidence.  As Walter Pincus
wrote in the Washington Post today, there are numerous official and
unofficial sources of information about the Stuxnet covert action story,
for example, including private sector companies and foreign sources that do
not hold security clearances.  From that point of view, the Burr bill does
not seem well-suited to achieve its intended purpose.

But the most peculiar thing about the new legislation is that it appears
to validate the spurious notion of an "authorized leak."

Thus, the text of the bill would revoke the security clearance of persons
who publicly disclose or discuss classified details of covert actions --
unless they have "prior authorization from an original classification
authority."

This seems to mean that classified information about covert actions need
not be specifically declassified in order to be publicly released, but only
that its disclosure must be "authorized."

The question of imposing criminal penalties for disclosure of classified
information to the press was discussed lately by Morton H. Halperin, who
has been involved as a consultant or an expert witness for the defense in
many or most of the leak prosecutions from the Ellsberg case in the 1970s
to the present.

"Starting from the premise that more information must be made public and
that the government has the right to keep some information secret in the
name of national security, we need a public and congressional dialogue
about what set of measures would be most effective in meeting these two
equally important objectives. Reducing government secrecy must be a key
component of any such measures," he wrote in "Leaks and the Public Right to
Know," Huffington Post, July 16:

	http://www.huffingtonpost.com/morton-h-halperin/


MIDNIGHT RULEMAKING, AND MORE FROM CRS

New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that
Congress has declined to make publicly available online include these.

Midnight Rulemaking, July 18, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42612.pdf

An Analysis of the Distribution of Wealth Across Households, 1989-2010,
July 17, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33433.pdf

Oil Sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline: Background and Selected
Environmental Issues, July 16, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42611.pdf

Defense Surplus Equipment Disposal: Background Information, July 18, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS20549.pdf

Nigeria: Current Issues and U.S. Policy, July 18, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33964.pdf

The United Arab Emirates (UAE): Issues for U.S. Policy, July 17, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS21852.pdf

Timor-Leste: Political Dynamics, Development, and International
Involvement, July 3, 2012:

	http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42585.pdf


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

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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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