YET ANOTHER STATE SECRETS CASE

YET ANOTHER STATE SECRETS CASE

The Bush Administration has invoked the state secrets privilege in at
least one other pending lawsuit in addition to the Maher Arar and
Sibel Edmonds cases noted in Secrecy News yesterday.

In 2003, the Central Intelligence Agency claimed the state secrets
privilege in moving for dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Jeffrey
Sterling, a former CIA officer who alleged that he was the victim of
racial discrimination by the Agency. That case, Sterling v. Tenet,
remains on appeal today.

In a December 2004 brief by Sterling's attorney, Mark S. Zaid, the
appropriate use of the state secrets privilege was one of the
questions placed before the court. A copy of the brief (56 pages,
2.1 MB PDF file) is here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/sterling1204.pdf

Last week, several public interest groups and 9/11 family
organizations filed an amicus brief in support of FBI whistleblower
Sibel Edmonds. That brief, prepared by Michael Kirkpatrick of
Public Citizen and David Vladeck of Georgetown University, is here:

http://www.citizen.org/documents/edmondsamicus.pdf

STRATEGIC SUPPORT TEAMS AND VITAL ARCHER

The Pentagon held a background briefing this week to describe the
military intelligence units known as Strategic Support Teams that
have been providing intelligence collection support and other
intelligence services to the military.

The briefing was prompted by, and substantially confirmed, a January
23 Washington Post story by Barton Gellman that first reported the
existence of the Strategic Support Branch, a component of the
Defense Intelligence Agency. See the January 24 Pentagon briefing
transcript here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/01/dod012405.html

Meanwhile, more official documents on defense and intelligence
continue to migrate from author William M. Arkin's capacious filing
cabinet on to the web in support of his new book Code Names.

The latest revelation is a PowerPoint slide that elliptically
describes a 2005 U.S. military exercise known as VITAL ARCHER,
involving special operations and homeland defense. See "Vital
Archer 05" linked from this page:

http://www.codenames.org/documents.html

US SMALL ARMS SHIPMENTS DATABASE

A database of small arms and light weapons transferred by the United
States to countries around the world between 1990 and 2000 is now
available online.

The U.S. Small Arms Shipments Database, based on documentation
obtained from the State Department under the Freedom of Information
Act and compiled by Matthew Schroeder of the Federation of American
Scientists, may be found here:

http://fas.org/asmp/profiles/smallarmship_db.htm

DOE CIVIL PENALTIES FOR CLASSIFIED INFO DISCLOSURES

The Department of Energy will impose stiff new civil penalties on
contractors who violate regulations on the safeguarding of
classified information, DOE announced today.

The new policy "provides that any person who has entered into a
contract or agreement with the Department of Energy... and who
violates (or whose employee violates) any applicable rule...
relating to the security or safeguarding of Restricted Data or other
classified information, shall be subject to a civil penalty not to
exceed $100,000 for each violation."

Up to now, criminal penalties could be imposed on those who knowingly
disclosed certain types of classified nuclear weapons information,
and civil penalties could be imposed on those who disclosed
unclassified controlled nuclear information (UCNI). But civil
penalties for failing to safeguard other classified information
(whether RD or NSI) have not been available. Now they are.

See "Procedural Rules for the Assessment of Civil Penalties for
Classified Information Security Violations" from today's Federal
Register:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/01/fr012605.html

US ARMY NUCLEAR AND CHEMICAL AGENCY

The United States Army Nuclear and Chemical Agency is responsible for
providing "nuclear and chemical technical expertise" to the Army,
other US Government agencies and to NATO.

The USANCA, with which we had not previously been acquainted, was
described in a newly updated Army regulation this week.

See AR 10-16, United States Army Nuclear and Chemical Agency, 25
January 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/ar10-16.pdf

EVEN MORE CRS PRODUCTS

Perhaps it bears repeating that the Congressional Research Service
does not permit direct public access to its publications online.
CRS staffers are specifically prohibited from responding to
requests from the public for softcopy versions of their reports.

By light of the untamed fire of freedom, this policy appears fairly
ridiculous.

Fortunately, if we understood the President's inaugural address
correctly, "America will walk at the side" of those who defy such
arbitrary restrictions on freedom of access to information.

Anyway, here are some new CRS reports, hot off the virtual press.

"Security Threat Assessments for Hazmat Drivers," January 25, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32740.pdf

"Terrorist Nuclear Attacks on Seaports: Threat and Response," updated
January 24, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS21293.pdf

"U.S.-EU Cooperation Against Terrorism," January 19, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/man/crs/RS22030.pdf

THANKS TO THE OMIDYAR NETWORK

Secrecy News is grateful to acknowledge an extraordinary $15,000
donation from the Omidyar Network.

Led by Pierre Omidyar, founder of the online market eBay, the Omidyar
Network seeks out and supports innovative efforts "to make good
things happen."

"We appreciate your work in removing barriers to information
access," wrote Omidyar VP Douglas S. Solomon in a cover letter to
Secrecy News.

See a list of Omidyar Network "partners" including Secrecy News here:

http://www.omidyar.net/corp/partners.shtml

_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
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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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