SECRECY NEWS – KEEPING SECRETS FROM CONGRESS

When government information is classified or otherwise withheld from
release, the possibility of government accountability to the public is
undermined.  But when the executive branch withholds crucial information
from Congress, that may pose an even more fundamental challenge to
democratic governance.

"The administration has refused to share Presidential Policy Directive 11
(PPD 11) with the Congress," said Sen. Richard Lugar last year at a hearing
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which has just been published. 
PPD 11 is the Obama Administration document that set the terms of reference
for the Nuclear Posture Review Implementation Study, which will dictate the
future size and configuration of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Sen. Lugar voiced a polite objection to this unilateral act of Obama
Administration secrecy:  "I simply would say that our country is strongest
and our diplomacy is most effective when nuclear policy is made by
deliberate decisions in which both the legislative and executive branches
fully participate."

        http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2012_hr/implement.html

The withholding of presidential directives from Congress is not a new
practice.  A 1992 investigation by the General Accounting Office found that
Congress had not been routinely notified of the preparation or issuance of
national security directives and that none of the relevant congressional
committees "are regularly receiving copies" of such directives.

It is known that presidential directives can be used to establish national
policy, to direct the implementation of policy, and to authorize the
commitment of government resources. But without access to detailed
information about the directives, GAO reported in 1992, "it is impossible
to satisfactorily determine how many NSDs [national security directives]
issued make and implement U.S. policy and what those policies are."

On the other hand, unlike many executive orders, presidential directives
"do not appear to be issued under statutory authority conferred by Congress
and thus do not have the force and effect of law," GAO said. Certainly such
directives cannot limit congressional authority or power to legislate.

        http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/gao-nsiad-92-72.pdf

Yesterday eleven Senators wrote to President Obama to ask him to direct
the release to Congress "the secret legal opinions outlining your authority
to authorize the killing of Americans in the course of counterterrorism
operations."

"It is vitally important... for Congress and the American public to have a
full understanding of how the executive branch interprets the limits and
boundaries of this authority, so that Congress and the public can decide
whether this authority has been properly defined, and whether the
President's power to deliberately kill American citizens is subject to
appropriate limitations and safeguards," the Senators wrote.

        http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2013_cr/olc-lethal.pdf

Later in the day, Mike Isikoff of NBC News obtained a confidential
Department of Justice White Paper entitled "Lawfulness of a Lethal
Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who Is a Senior Operational
Leader of Al-Qa'ida or An Associated Force."

        http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/doj-lethal.pdf

NBC said the document had been "provided to members of the Senate
Intelligence and Judiciary committees in June by administration officials
on the condition that it be kept confidential and not discussed publicly." 
This non-disclosure condition, now abrogated, is difficult to understand on
national security grounds, but easier to comprehend as an attempt to manage
or evade public controversy.

At any rate, the government's legal argument, such as it is, is now on the
public record.  The most important task before Congress is not to plead for
release of additional, underlying source documents, but to respond as a
legislative body to the Administration's now-public assertion of its
position.  To do nothing is to endorse it.

AN INTELLIGENCE HISTORY OF THE 1973 ARAB-ISRAELI WAR

The Central Intelligence Agency has published a series of essays on
intelligence and the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, to coincide with a symposium on
the subject held last week at the Nixon Presidential Library.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collection-publications/

The publication itself ("President Nixon and the Role of Intelligence in
the 1973 Arab-Israeli War") is a welcome addition to the literature.  But
it also "includes some embarrassing errors," wrote Amir Oren in the Israeli
paper Ha'aretz on February 3 ("CIA report on Yom Kippur War: Israel had
nuclear arsenal"). 

"For example," Oren wrote, "in the photograph labeled 'An Egyptian soldier
holding up a portrait of President Sadat,' the soldier in question and the
two soldiers flanking him are clearly Israelis, as evidenced by the 'IDF'
stamped visibly on their shirts."

"The editors of the new study also err in attributing two things to
lessons from the Six-Day War: the faulty prevailing conception among
Israeli Military Intelligence 'that Israel would have at least 48 hours'
warning before an invasion' and that Sadat wouldn't start a war before
acquiring fighter planes. Furthermore, it seems they also confused war
analyst Maj. Gen. (ret.) Chaim Herzog with one of his sons, Brig. Gen.
(ret.) Mike Herzog," he added.

If these discrepancies are cause for embarrassment, then it is the kind of
embarrassment that should be willingly endured. To put it another way,
exposing such work to external review and criticism is an unsurpassed way
of identifying and correcting errors.

A REPORT ON CIA DETENTION AND RENDITION PROGRAMS

In the absence of an official public account of post-9/11 U.S.
counterterrorism programs, Americans (and others) must rely on unofficial
accounts.

"Globalizing Torture" is a new report from the Open Society Justice
Initiative, authored by Amrit Singh.  It is said to provide "the most
comprehensive account yet assembled of the human rights abuses associated
with CIA secret detention and extraordinary rendition operations. It
details for the first time what was done to the 136 known victims, and
lists the 54 foreign governments that participated in these operations. It
shows that responsibility for the abuses lies not only with the United
States but with dozens of foreign governments that were complicit."

        http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/

It was reported in "Report Says 54 Countries Helped CIA After 9/11" by
Scott Shane, New York Times, February 4.

THE JOINT LIGHT TACTICAL VEHICLE, AND MORE FROM CRS

New and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service that have
not been made readily available to the public include the following.

Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV): Background and Issues for Congress,
February 4, 2013:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RS22942.pdf

U.S.-India Security Relations: Strategic Issues, January 24, 2013:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R42948.pdf

Multilateral Development Banks: U.S. Contributions FY2000-FY2013, February
1, 2013:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS20792.pdf

IMF Reforms: Issues for Congress, February 1, 2013:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42844.pdf

Medicare, Medicaid, and Other Health Provisions in the American Taxpayer
Relief Act of 2012, January 31, 2013:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42944.pdf

Hemp as an Agricultural Commodity, December 18, 2012:

        http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32725.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@fas.org
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twitter: @saftergood